Warriors have until Sunday night to accept deal that would bring back Gary Payton II, who failed physical

Golden State Warriors on the line.

The team has until 9:30 pm ET Sunday to decide whether to accept a proposed four-team swap that would bring Gary Payton II back to the Bay Area and send James Wiseman, second overall pick in 2020, to Detroit. The deadline for the trade was Thursday afternoon, but the Warriors said on Friday that Payton was physically unable to, putting the entire deal in jeopardy. On Saturday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Warriors were given until Sunday evening to accept or reject the existing deal.

So let’s reload. The four-team trade that took place before the deadline also included forward Saddiq Bey to the Atlanta Hawks and forward Kevin Knox to the Portland Trail Blazers, as well as five future second-round picks.

Payton was scheduled to rejoin the Golden State Warriors, where he won the championship last season, but the Warriors’ medical checkup reportedly revealed a core muscle injury that would keep him out of action for up to three months.

Payton did not make his season debut for Portland until January 2 after undergoing abdominal surgery during the offseason. In December, Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said that Payton was also trying to overcome psychological obstacles to get on the court.

“Medically we did and he did the best he could” Billups said. “I always tell people many times that no one really understands, like when you have an injury, you have an operation, you have to overcome not only the physical component, but also the mental component. get hurt again, you don’t want to hurt yourself again and I think that’s what happens to G, he’s just trying to get over it.”

In 15 games since returning to the Blazers, the defensive specialist averaged 4.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 17 minutes per game. The Athletic reported that Payton continued to play through pain in Portland, where training staff injected him with Toradol to get him on the court, unbeknownst to Golden State.

On Saturday, Chris Haynes announced this. that Payton’s agent Aaron Goodwin said, “Despite what is reported, my client never took pictures of Toradol to be available for play during his time in Portland.” Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin also vehemently denied the report, stating that they would not have played Payton if he was unwell.

“Player safety is very important to us, it’s very important to the entire league,” Cronin said. via Bill Oram of The Oregonian. “We played with him, he played. He was justified. We were sure he was healthy when he played. trust that we did the right thing and you trust that our process was right. And these reports, I think… The process was right, so I’ll have to rely on that.”

Last season with the Warriors, Payton averaged 7.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. He was expected to contribute to the defense of the Warriors, who dropped from No. 2 in the NBA last season to No. 18 this season.

Wiseman was supposed to start a new life in Detroit, and Bey took a place in the rotation with Atlanta. There are many other moving parts that depend on whether the Warriors decide to make a deal.