The Golden State Warriors have until the night of Super Bowl Sunday to make a final decision on the pending trade for Gary Payton II, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. As fallout from their learned extent of Payton's injury continues, whether or not the Warriors will go through with bringing him back still remains to be seen.
“The Golden State Warriors have until 9:30 PM ET on Sunday to make decision on Gary Payton II’s physical and the fate of a four-team trade with Blazers, Hawks and Pistons. Franchise may indeed push into tomorrow to evaluate Payton's abdominal injury and make choice,” Wojnarowski reported on Saturday.
The Warriors agreed on Thursday to a four-team trade with the Portland Trail Blazers, Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks that effectively sent James Wiseman to the Motor City in exchange for Payton.
On Friday, The Athletic reported the deal was at risk of being nullified due to Payton failing his physical with Golden State, team trainers forecasting he could be sidelined for two-to-three months while making a full recovery from September surgery for a core muscle injury. Payton was reportedly encouraged by Portland's medical staff to play through pain, even taking shots of Toradol to manage his discomfort upon returning to the floor in early January—an explosive tidbit his agent denied on the record Saturday night.
Golden State has yet to comment publicly on the trade, nor the discovered severity of Payton's injury. Blazers general manager Joe Cronin held a post-trade-deadline presser on Friday afternoon, insisting the team “would not have brought [Payton] back if we thought he wasn’t healthy or if we thought he was at risk.”
However, the Warriors reportedly believe Portland held back relevant information about Payton's injury during trade discussions, according to Wojnarowski.
“Golden State believes important information on Payton’s abdominal injury was withheld prior to Thursday deadline deal involving James Wiseman, Saddiq Bey and several draft picks. Warriors expect Payton to miss a significant part of the remaining regular season, per sources.”
Though potentially missing Payton for the remainder of the regular season or into the early portion of the playoffs would be a tough pull for Golden State to swallow, more challenging might be rescinding the trade entirely.
Do the Warriors really want to manage the unavoidably fraught dynamic of welcoming Wiseman back to the fold? League rules prevent them from altering parameters of the trade, too. Payton is the team's only potential impact addition as the stretch run of the season dawns, and there's no denying Golden State needs a rotational upgrade just for the hope of competing in a reloaded Western Conference.
It's telling of the Warriors' frustration the trade is still in limbo. Still, expect Payton to become an official member of the Warriors by the end of the Super Bowl.
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