The Golden State Warriors announced that Gary Payton II has been cleared to practice in a limited capacity on Thursday, December 21, indicating that his return is imminent.
“The re-evaluation indicated that he is making good progress and, as a result, he has been cleared to begin participating in various parts of team practice. He will be re-evaluated again early next week,” the Warriors shared in a medical bulletin.
Payton II has missed the Warriors’ last nine games after sustaining a strained right calf on a November 28 loss at Sacramento. The Warriors are 5-4 without the defensive specialist.
The 31-year-old Payton II was averaging 5.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals off the bench before the injury. More than his on-court production, they value his defense and his seamless fit playing next to Stephen Curry on pick-and-roll, providing him hard screen to create space.
Payton II will be returning to a different Warriors team.
Who Will Be the Odd Man Out?
In his absence, rookie Brandin Podziemski and third-year guard Moses Moody earned their spur in Steve Kerr’s rotation.
Since Payton II went down, Moody seized the opportunity. The 21-year-old Moody averaged 9.9 points and 3.6 rebounds over his last nine games.
Podziemski leaped from the end of the bench to the starting unit, playing next to Curry. Clearly, Kerr has a lot of faith in Podziemski, the first rookie to ever earn meaningful playing time under his watch.
The 19th overall pick of this year’s draft put up 10.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists in his past nine games before going out with a lower strain back against the Boston Celtics.
There is no update yet on Podziemski’s status moving forward. But if he’s healthy, he will likely stay in Kerr’s rotation, leaving Moody as the odd man out once again when Payton II returns.
Warriors Rookie Shares Encouraging Message
Podziemski posted an encouraging message on X after his scary injury.
“I’ll be back dubnation!!! Wish I was out there tonight!!! My brothas picked me up!!! Big dub!!!! See you Friday!” Podziemski wrote on Twitter/X.
I’ll be back dubnation!!! Wish I was out there tonight!!! My brothas picked me up!!! Big dub!!!! See you Friday!
The 20-year-old rookie averaged 14.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 steals in his last two starts before the injury.
Stephen Curry Pushes Back on Breaking up Dynasty Core
After dropping 33 points, including the sensational dagger 3 to beat the league’s top team, Boston Celtics, Curry pushed back on the narrative that the Warriors should break up their dynasty core.
“It’s been like that for years now,” Curry said to end his postgame presser. “Even before we won the ’22 championship. They always find something to nitpick and that’s because there are expectations for us to win.”
The talks grew louder after a series of blown leads, their stars struggling, and then came Draymond Green‘s indefinite suspension.
“So you kind of take that in stride,” Curry said, “and for me, my approach is to dumb it down to what I said when we were in [Los Angeles] is just trying to figure out how to win a game at a time and give yourself some momentum, some confidence and some energy to get to a point… where you show as a team to be a serious threat to win a playoff series.”
The Warriors have won their last three games to improve to 13-14, one game behind the 10th-seed Phoenix Suns in the West.
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Warriors Share Major Update on Gary Payton II’s Injury