Gary Payton II, who signed a three-year contract with the Trail Blazers in July, won’t be available for the start of the regular season next week, the team announced today in a press release.
Payton, who underwent core muscle surgery this summer, will be reevaluated in two weeks, according to the Blazers. That means, even if he’s ready to return at that point, he’ll miss Portland’s first five games of the season.
When the Blazers first announced Payton’s procedure in September, they indicated that they expected him to be ready for opening night. That won’t happen, but the team said in today’s statement that Payton “continues to progress well” in his rehab, so it doesn’t sound like he has experienced any setbacks.
It’s possible Payton’s absence will open the door for rookie Shaedon Sharpe to play regular minutes to start the season. Wings Nassir Little and Justise Winslow should also see an uptick in playing time.
In addition to their injury update on Payton, the Blazers also put out a press release announcing that center Olivier Sarr, who was converted to a two-way deal earlier today, has been diagnosed with a right wrist sprain after undergoing an MRI. He’ll be reevaluated in one week, at which point the team should have a clearer idea of when he’ll be able to return.
Blazers are a bottom 3 team in the west …
No, I don’t see it. Only if something catastrophic happens. Dame is too good and this is the best team they’ve put around him. Grant is a huge upgrade over any defensive forward they’ve had in the Lillard era, Hart is a glue guy so it all type, Simons is a younger version of CJ. If Nurkic can stay on the court (admittedly that’s a big if) this team can be very dangerous.
On top of that it’s not like the Spurs, Jazz or Rockets will be trying win basketball games
Are we talking about the same Jerami Grant and defense????? He played some defense in Denver. Whole reason why he left Denver, a title contender, is that he wanted a big role offensively. He then signed with Detroit to get buckets on a bad team.
Portland might be the worst defensive team in the NBA. Did you not see Portland play their entire team against Golden State without Steph, Draymond, Klay, Looney and Jordan Poole dropped 131 points on them.
Simons? Anfernee?? Yes, he is talented. However, he must play ON the ball. He thrived when Lillard was hurt last year, and he was on the ball. Now that Lillard is back, and he is OFF the ball. Kid can’t make a shot.
They should have traded Lillard for picks and young assets and did a rebuild with Simons.
Portland is just a bunch of dudes thrown together on a roster. Every year Portland makes random signings to make it look like they are building around Lillard, and every year they are bad. Lillard, and his No Defense, is a big part of the problem.
This is a perfect role for Grant. He won’t be the sole focus of opposing teams defensive game plans anymore so his efficiency should return to normal and he’s big enough to at least body up forwards like Kawhi.
Oh no! The Blazers gave up 131 in a preseason game???!!!
Simons was was very good when Lillard was hurt, he was also good enough playing with Dame that the Blazers kept him around. He shot .405 from deep on 7.5 attempts per game. That will only get better with Dame drawing the majority of the attention and he can be the lead ball handler when Dame rests.
Dame is a horrible defender, I’ll give you that but that’s what Josh Hart is for.
“Every year they are bad.”
I’ll excuse your takes though because you must be a new NBA fan, last season was the first time that the Blazers missed the playoffs in 8 seasons including a run to the WCF so they couldn’t have been that bad.
Bottom 4-6 I could see. Bottom 3, no. But the former would still be embarrassing for a team which chose to undergo a medicore retooling for no logical reason.
Billups has no idea what he’s doing over there, not that he has the best fitting pieces to work with. Iso offense and bad defense (GPII will help, but I don’t think he will be enough to save them). Unless that changes, I don’t see this team making noise on talent alone. They need the pieces to really mesh together to have a chance.
Love watching Dame, the Blazers have great fans & a nice arena, but their management has exhibited very little competence or candor for around 3 decades now…