Warriors Sign Gary Payton II To 10-Day Deal

5:40pm: Golden State has officially signed Payton, the club confirmed in a press release.


10:45am: The Warriors are signing free agent guard Gary Payton II to a 10-day contract, according to Marcus Thompson and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).

Payton, the son of former SuperSonics guard – and Hall-of-Famer – Gary Payton, hasn’t played in the NBA yet this season, but had a strong showing in the G League with the Raptors 905. The 28-year-old averaged 10.8 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 2.5 SPG on 55.5% shooting in 13 games and earned a spot on the NBAGL All-Defensive team, despite a somewhat limited role (21.8 MPG).

Payton, who has appeared in a total of 61 NBA regular season games for three teams, spent part of the 2019/20 season with the Wizards, averaging 3.9 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 29 contests (14.9 MPG). He’ll earn $118,983 on his new 10-day contract, while the Warriors will take a cap hit of $110,998. The franchise will also see its year-end tax bill increase as a result of the signing.

The Warriors dipped down below the league’s required minimum of 14 players on standard contracts at the trade deadline. Because the NBA only allows teams to remain below that minimum for up to two weeks at a time, Golden State had to add another player to its roster by today.

Payton is expected to be available for the Warriors at practice on Thursday and for Friday’s game vs. Washington, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link), who says the guard had been undergoing COVID-19 tests in anticipation of the deal.

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