The fate of the four-team trade that sent James Wiseman to Detroit and brought Gary Payton II to Golden State remains in jeopardy of falling apart.
Payton failed his physical with the Warriors on Friday, and the team has until Sunday at 6:30 PT to decide whether or not to execute the trade. A calm Super Bowl Sunday, it won’t be.
The 30-year-old guard would have been a major boost for the Warriors’ playoff push, but even if the deal gets consummated, he may not be able to contribute at all.
“Obviously this whole thing has been strange,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Saturday night’s game. “It is what it is. There’s not a whole lot to do or say. Just waiting it out and we’ll see how it plays out.”
Kerr spoke with reporters at the podium of the Chase Center’s interview room, steps away from the locker room where Payton has a locker.
Payton’s failed physical exam — the second major medical hiccup in Bay Area sports this winter — hinges on the guard’s abdomen. He got surgery on his core this offseason and missed the first 35 games of the year rehabbing it, even though Portland expected him to be ready for the start of the season.
Payton has averaged 17 minutes in 15 games played this season, but he hasn’t been as effective as he was for Golden State. Per multiple reports, Payton has required Toradol shots to alleviate pain and play.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Warriors have told the league office that they believe Portland withheld relevant medical information before agreeing to the trade. If that’s true, the NBA could penalize the Blazers with fines and loss of draft picks.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin told reporters on Friday that Portland was confident in Payton’s health.
“Player safety is super important to us, it’s a super important thing around the league,” Cronin said. “We were playing him, he was playing, and he had been cleared and we were confident that he was healthy when he was playing. We would not have brought him back if we thought he wasn’t healthy or if he was at risk. So you trust that we did the right thing and trust that our process was correct.”
Golden State, however, reviewed his medicals and think Payton could miss two to three months, The Athletic reported. Based on that timeline, Payton would be sidelined until the playoffs and possibly the entire rest of the season.
Payton, according to The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson, prefers Golden State’s medical staff to Portland’s. He signed a three-year, $26 million deal with Portland last offseason, riding a storybook season with Golden State to a pay day.
Where do the Warriors go from here? Because the deadline has already passed, the trade can’t be amended or changed. That puts Golden State in a precarious position.
If they decide to finalize the trade, they’ll have gone through the deadline without adding a player who can help them finish the season strong. If they renege on the deal, they’ll return James Wiseman. Not only would that be awkward for the young center, the team and the fanbase, it would add Wiseman’s salary back to the books when they clearly valued the savings sending him out would provide.
Nuking the four-team deal would send Saddiq Bey back to Detroit, Wiseman back to Golden State, five second rounders and Kevin Knox back to Atlanta and Payton back to Portland.
Either route the Warriors take has risks. At 28-27 with three more games until the All-Star break, they can’t afford to misfire.
