The Portland Trail Blazers might be in for a hefty fine and could lose their picks over Gary Payton II’s trade mess.
Payton II was part of a trade that included the Atlanta Hawks and the Detroit Pistons, who acquired Saddiq Bey and James Wiseman as part of a four-team agreement. He now returned to the Warriors, where he won a championship but faces the possibility of losing him if the deal falls apart after he failed his physical test.
Recent developments suggest that the franchise could be disciplined. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi:
The NBA could punish Portland with a fine and loss of draft picks if an investigation were to discover “a failure to disclose relevant information” on Payton’s abdominal injury that required offseason surgery and had him miss the first 35 games of the season.
He also added that the Warriors felt they should have been intimated that the guard was using Toradol to alleviate pain. The report also said the rest of the players involved in the deals have passed physicals and have joined new teams.
Blazers GM Joe Cronin Quashes Reports Of The Team Making Gary Payton II Play Through Injury
Payton II suffered a core injury that saw him miss a chunk of games for the Blazers. He finally made his debut for the team on January 2.
In the turn of events that occurred recently, he was cleared to play Wednesday, and he finished 9 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal. This was followed by his trading back to the Warriors.
After reports of the Blazers making Payton II play through his injury surfaced, GM Joe Cronin told Blazers Reporter Sean Highkin Cronin:
“Player safety is super-important to us. We were playing [GP2], he was cleared, and we were super-confident he was healthy. We wouldn’t be playing him if he wasn’t healthy. 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.”
The Warriors are under a 9:30 P.M. ET deadline come Sunday to make the final call. The news does come as a blow to both the player and the Warriors, who could use him to bolster their perimeter defense.
On the contract front, Payton II has two years and $18 million left, and only time will tell how it pans out for the versatile guard.
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