{"id":132155,"date":"2025-06-28T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/132155\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T18:42:10","slug":"gary-payton-ii-warriors-could-part-ways-in-free-agency-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/132155\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Payton II, Warriors could part ways in free agency \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area &#038; California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paytoga02.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gary Payton II<\/a>, a fan favorite beloved by his teammates, might have played his last game with the Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>Payton will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsbayarea.com\/nba\/golden-state-warriors\/gary-payton-ii-kevon-looney-free-agency\/1850442\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">become an unrestricted free agent<\/a> on Monday, and his return to Golden State is in serious jeopardy, multiple NBA sources told NBC Sports Bay Area on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s looking doubtful,\u201d one source said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGolden State still likes him, and there\u2019s still a chance he\u2019s back,\u201d another source said of the Warriors. \u201cBut they have a lot of moving parts as they work through the Jonathan Kuminga situation, so Gary could land elsewhere next season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A key member of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsbayarea.com\/nba\/golden-state-warriors\/gary-payton-ii-tattoos-meaning\/1844325\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Golden State\u2019s 2022 NBA championship team<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>A superior athlete on a roster lacking athleticism, GP2 has been the team\u2019s best point-of-attack defender. He routinely is assigned to such stars as Minnesota\u2019s Anthony Edwards, Milwaukee\u2019s Damian Lillard and Phoenix\u2019s Devin Booker. But availability has been an issue with Payton. He missed 20 games last season and 38 games in 2023-24.<\/p>\n<p>If Payton is not re-signed, Golden State will prioritize adding an elite perimeter defender.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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 \u2013 Kevon Looney is the other &#8212; will be influenced by the outcome of Kuminga\u2019s restricted free agency.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dubs-talk-a-golden-state-warriors-podcast.simplecast.com\/episodes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary Payton II, a fan favorite beloved by his teammates, might have played his last game with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,1347,479,164,4025,4024,1208,6,3269,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-132155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-gary-payton-ii","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-mike-dunleavy","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-free-agency","17":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114762464992642239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}