Gary Payton II, a fan favorite beloved by his teammates, might have played his last game with the Warriors.
Payton will become an unrestricted free agent on Monday, and his return to Golden State is in serious jeopardy, multiple NBA sources told NBC Sports Bay Area on Friday and Saturday.
“It’s looking doubtful,” one source said Friday.
“Golden State still likes him, and there’s still a chance he’s back,” another source said of the Warriors. “But they have a lot of moving parts as they work through the Jonathan Kuminga situation, so Gary could land elsewhere next season.”
A key member of Golden State’s 2022 NBA championship team, Payton is coming off a season of inconsistency while battling several nagging injuries. The 6-foot-3 forward appeared in 62 games (11 starts), with per-36-minute averages of 15.5 points (on 57.4-percent shooting from the field, including 32.6 from distance), 7.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 steals.
Payton made $9.1 million in salary last season, the final year of a three-year $26.1 million contract he originally signed with the Portland Trail Blazers in July 2022. The Warriors reacquired him seven months later and he has since been a fixture in the rotation.
A superior athlete on a roster lacking athleticism, GP2 has been the team’s best point-of-attack defender. He routinely is assigned to such stars as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard and Phoenix’s Devin Booker. But availability has been an issue with Payton. He missed 20 games last season and 38 games in 2023-24.
If Payton is not re-signed, Golden State will prioritize adding an elite perimeter defender.
NBA free agency officially begins at 3 p.m. Monday, when teams can negotiate with those on the market. The direction the Warriors take with their rotational unrestricted free agents – Kevon Looney is the other — will be influenced by the outcome of Kuminga’s restricted free agency.
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