Category: Sports News

Gary Payton II still holds plenty of value, even if Warriors role decreases originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

It was three years ago, after the Warriors’ improbable 2022 NBA championship run, that they were faced with a dilemma of having to part ways with one of two revered role players among coaches, teammates and the fan base.

When the Portland Trail Blazers offered Gary Payton II a three-year contract worth $28 million that offseason, he couldn’t turn down a contract the Warriors couldn’t match, despite his hope to stay with the franchise that first believed in him and changed his career. His departure also opened the door for Kevon Looney to stay in Golden State on a three-year, $22.5 million contract. 

Three years later, Looney is the one on the move and Payton is the one walking back through the doors of Chase Center.

Looney and the New Orleans Pelicans agreed to a two-year, $16 million contract a few hours after the opening of NBA free agency on June 30, a number that the Warriors never were going to come close to. Indications going into free agency also suggested Payton’s time with the Warriors likely was coming to an end. But he always wanted to remain a Warrior, and after waiting three months, that became a reality Sunday.

Payton has committed to sign a deal with the Warriors, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Sunday evening, citing sources.

And even if Payton’s role continues to drop, he still holds value to the Warriors for a handful of reasons. 

He played 62 regular-season games last year, his most since that 2021-22 championship season, but Payton’s 15 minutes per game were his lowest ever as a Warrior. By now, it’s well known how unique of a player Payton is. At 6-foot-2, Steve Kerr uses him as a power forward in the dunker spot on offense and a point guard on defense who can go up against multiple positions and players of varying sizes and skill sets. 

There isn’t a player on the roster Kerr trusts more to disrupt a top scorer on the ball. Payton will pick you up full-court and make you work for every inch. It’s in his blood. 

The Western Conference is full of stars that make Kerr confident in plucking Payton from the bench and unleashing his tenacity to throw them off rhythm and flip the game in the Warriors’ favor. The list includes the likes of Anthony Edwards, James Harden, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Ja Morant and many more. But Payton last season wasn’t quite as effective as the past. 

He finished the season with a 110.1 defensive rating, which was the same number as Buddy Hield, a 3-point specialist whose pluses aren’t associated with that side of the ball. Payton’s defensive win shares were among the worst on the team. But he also ranked fifth in the NBA in deflections per 75 possessions, and was the fourth-best wing stopper by D-LEBRON last season. 

Some stats will be in his favor, others won’t. Some games will call for Payton’s duties, others won’t. Plenty of Payton’s services are based on matchups, and there will be nights where he undoubtedly is a game-changer. 

There also is the fact he’s another player on Rick Celebrini’s long list of injury concerns, needing to find the right concoction to keep his motor running at the right times. That includes making sure Payton doesn’t keep popping up on the injury report with an illness, too. 

But aside from his stingy defense and poster dunks, there’s another reason it was important to keep Payton in a Warriors jersey. Steph Curry is the reason. 

Curry always has vouched for Payton’s importance. He’s one of a few who perfectly understand how to play next to Curry, freeing him with a mixture of screens, movement and knowing where he’s going to wind up on the court. The two played 53 games together last season and produced a 5.2 net rating with a 117.8 offensive rating and 112.7 defensive rating. 

Those are essentially the same numbers Curry and Jimmy Butler had as a duo – slightly better, actually. Butler played 128 fewer minutes next to Curry than Payton and had a 5.0 net rating with a 117.5 offensive rating and 112.5 defensive rating. 

In an 82-game regular season, Payton could receive more DNPs than in the past and might see limited action at times. There also will be games where he’s absolutely invaluable. That’s how it goes. 

Payton’s personality is loved throughout the franchise and his impact is felt in the community. The Bay has become, and always will be, home to the son of an Oakland legend. Add in his play that’s uniquely him for a team and coach that best utilizes his ability and it’s easy to see why Payton still holds value in being on the Warriors’ roster.

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Gary Payton II, De'Anthony Melton reportedly committed to sign Warriors deals originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors appear on track to reunite with two familiar faces for the 2025-26 NBA season.

Both Gary Payton II and De’Anthony Melton have committed to sign contracts with Golden State, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Sunday, citing sources.

The Warriors also signed Will Richard to a four-year contract with two years fully guaranteed, Charania reported, citing his agents.

Payton II played five seasons with the Warriors across two different stints, first from the 2020-21 NBA season through the 2021-2022 campaign, before signing with the Portland Trail Blazers as a free agent in the summer of 2022 before he was traded back to Golden State at the trade deadline the very next season and has played with the Warriors ever since.

In 194 career games with the Warriors, Payton has averaged 6.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game on 59.2-percent shooting from the field and 35.3 percent from 3-point range.

Payton once again will provide the Warriors depth at the guard position behind superstar Steph Curry, Brandin Podziemski and Buddy Hield.

Meanwhile, Melton, who has been rumored to return to Golden State all offseason, will pick up where he left off before suffering a season-ending ACL injury last year. Melton signed with Golden State last offseason but played in just six games before suffering the injury and later being traded to the Brooklyn Nets. In six games (two starts), Melton averaged 10.3 points on 40.7-percent shooting from the field and 37.1 percent from 3-point range, with 3.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals in 20.2 minutes.

In the two contests Melton started, he dramatically helped elevate the offense alongside Curry, averaging 16.5 points on 47.8 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from distance, with 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals in 26.5 minutes.

The Warriors were 4-2 with Melton in their lineup.

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On the eve of Clippers training camp, owner Steve Ballmer and the team are facing pressures over an NBA probe into allegations that the team circumvented the league salary cap when a sustainability firm paid star Kawhi Leonard $21 million.

Since purchasing the team a decade ago, Ballmer has been on a quest to bring the also-ran Clippers their first NBA title. The billionaire philanthropist has been alternately encouraged and frustrated with a team that has posted a winning record every season under his ownership, but has made early exits from the playoffs a habit. He also spearheaded the construction of the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly arena in sports — the $2-billion Intuit Dome that opened a year ago to rave reviews.

Now, a top-rated law firm hired by the NBA is trying to determine whether the team violated league rules by funneling extra money to Leonard through a separate company in which the Clippers' owner was an investor.  

Over the last few weeks, Ballmer has been pressed for details about his $50-million investment and 2%-3% ownership stake in the firm Aspiration Partners, and whether the Clippers knew that the now-defunct company paid millions to Leonard through an endorsement deal. Aspiration provided what the company described as "socially-conscious and sustainable banking services and investment products.”

The Clippers have issued statements forcefully denying wrongdoing and saying they welcome the probe. Leonard and his representatives have not responded to requests for comment.

Read more:Adam Silver says NBA needs clear evidence Clippers made secret deal before lowering boom on Ballmer

“There’s nothing fun about being highlighted in this way,” Ballmer said at a recent forum hosted by the Sports Business Journal. “It’s a whole lot more fun to be highlighted for building a great arena. But this too shall pass.”

A Clippers spokesman said Thursday that they aren’t scheduling any interviews for Ballmer “at the moment,” but Ballmer told the SBJ forum he “feels quite confident … that we abided [by] the rules. So, I welcome the investigation that the NBA is doing.” He stressed his investment in Aspiration came well before it made its deal with Leonard, and that he was not involved in that deal. 

The salary cap limits what teams can spend on player payroll to ensure parity and prevent the wealthiest teams from outspending smaller-market teams to acquire the best player. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called attempts to circumvent it a "cardinal sin."  

In this case, Leonard agreed to a $28-million contract for endorsement and marketing work for Aspiration, which went out of business in March. Players are allowed to have separate endorsement and other business deals. At issue in this case is whether the Clippers participated in arranging the side deal beyond simply introducing Aspiration executives to Leonard.

The most painful penalties the NBA could impose would be suspending Ballmer for a maximum of one year and docking the Clippers their first-round draft picks for up to five years. The team already is without a first-round pick in 2026 and 2028, having traded them away. Forfeiting the remaining picks through 2032 would make it harder for Ballmer to realize that championship dream.

The maximum fine the league can impose is $7.5 million, a pittance relative to Ballmer’s estimated net worth of $171 billion. Leonard’s performance has fallen short of expectations, so even the league voiding the last two years of his contract would have limited sting, and save the franchise the $100 million owed to the 34-year-old forward.

Proving that the Clippers violated the salary cap could be difficult, as NBA commissioner Adam Silver made clear at a meeting of team owners. Much is riding on the outcome of the investigation.

Ballmer, 69, has forged a strong relationship with Silver, who became commissioner the same year Ballmer bought the Clippers. The 2026 NBA All-Star Game is scheduled to take place at the Intuit Dome in February, and Ballmer chairs the league’s audit committee on the Board of Governors.

Ballmer’s philanthropy is well-established. He and his wife, Connie, have given away billions through their Ballmer Group to improve the economic mobility of children and families in disadvantaged communities. (The Ballmer Group is one of the foundations sponsoring the Los Angeles Times’ early childhood education initiative.)

Ballmer turned his attention to the Clippers in 2014, buying the team from disgraced owner Donald Sterling, who was forced to sell for making racist comments.

The price tag of $2 billion, nearly four times what anyone had previously paid for an NBA team, was considered ludicrous at the time. The value of the franchise has nearly tripled to an estimated $5.5 billion.

Read more:Clippers considered naming dome after bankrupt firm at center of Kawhi Leonard allegations

Bankruptcy documents show that Aspiration paid Leonard $21 million — and still owes him $7 million — after agreeing to a $28-million contract for endorsement and marketing work at the company. The Boston Sports Journal reported that Leonard was also promised a $20-million ownership stake in Aspiration.

There is no record of anything Leonard did on behalf of Aspiration. Several former employees told the Athletic that Leonard’s deal was a “no-show” arrangement in which Leonard wouldn’t have to do any endorsement work.

Former Aspiration chief operating officer and chief legal officer Mike Shuckerow told ESPN that he was one of three company executives who signed a statement that read, “The [Aspiration] team expressed concerns at the time regarding the high cost of the arrangement [with Leonard] and its lack of alignment with Aspiration’s brand and business strategy. While subsequent marketing efforts were undertaken, they were ultimately discontinued and should not be interpreted as support for the deal itself.”

However, former Aspiration CEO Andrei Cherny wrote on X that Leonard’s contract “contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform. And the contract clearly said that if Leonard did not meet those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract.”

Aspiration’s initial funding included a $50-million investment in December 2021 from Ballmer, which he has acknowledged. The Clippers also agreed to a 23-year, $300-million sponsorship deal with Aspiration, but turned down its $1-billion offer for naming rights to the new arena. Intuit, the creator of QuickBooks, TurboTax and other widely used applications, paid $550 million.

In December 2022, Clippers minority owner and vice chairman Dennis J. Wong — who was Ballmer’s roommate at Harvard in the 1970s — invested $1.99 million in the company nine days before Leonard received a $1.75-million quarterly payment from Aspiration, according to documents obtained by the Athletic. The Clippers declined to comment about Wong’s investment.

Read more:Steve Ballmer: NBA owner in search of a miracle

In March 2023, Ballmer invested another $10 million, according to the Athletic. The investment contributed to a last-ditch fundraising round by Aspiration at a time it was nearly out of cash.

The NBA investigation is now trying to establish whether the Clippers knowingly broke a league rule to slip more money to a player they were already paying the maximum allowed under the salary cap, which makes this situation different than what the league envisioned as motivation for a team to circumvent the salary cap.

Language in the NBA collective bargaining agreement describes skirting the cap as instances where a team pays a player a lower than market salary and makes up for it by paying him some other way in secret. That way the team would have more money under the cap to pay other players.

The Clippers situation differs because money Leonard made from Aspiration was in addition to the maximum salary he could be paid under salary cap rules and not a way to create cap space for teammates.

Ballmer acknowledged to ESPN that he introduced Leonard to Aspiration executives, but not until after the team had agreed to a contract extension with Leonard and the $330-million sponsorship deal with Aspiration.

“We were done with Kawhi, we were done with Aspiration,” Ballmer said. “The deals were all locked and loaded. Then, they did request to be introduced to Kawhi, and under the rules, we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can’t be involved.”

Read more:Questions over Kawhi Leonard payments put focus on NBA salary cap

Ballmer was adamant that he knew nothing of the details of the endorsement agreement, that in fact teams are required to stay out of negotiations between players and companies they endorse.

Michael McCann, a sports law expert and a visiting professor at Harvard, said the investigation will center on whether the investments into Aspiration by Ballmer were a quid pro quo for the firm to turn around and give Leonard millions.

Silver has indicated the investigation must demonstrate that the Clippers knew of or participated in Leonard’s deal.

Some experts believe Ballmer is entering the probe with a strong image and could maintain it depending on the outcome of the investigation. “The fact that he’s done a great job, that he’s captivated fans and sponsors, is likely to be in his favor as this goes forward,” said David Carter, a professor of sports business at USC and principal of the Sports Business Group.

Silver said the NBA will revisit its investment and endorsement rules as a result of the allegations involving the Clippers, Ballmer and Leonard

Around the league there is a belief that if the NBA does find wrongdoing, Silver will have to act.

“The only thing I hear consistently around the league is that they want the league to come down really hard to deter other teams from [circumventing the salary cap],” said an NBA executive who requested anonymity to speak freely. “Because if there is no big penalty, other teams are going to start doing that, and then competitive advantage is just going to be, the imbalance is going to be out of control.”

Leonard joined the Clippers in July 2019 on a three-year, $103-million contract after leading the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title. The 6-foot-7 forward from Moreno Valley signed a four-year, $176.3-million extension in 2021, when Aspiration made its sponsorship deal with the Clippers and Ballmer became a minority owner in the company.

After signing a three-year, $153-million extension a year ago, Leonard will have been paid or is under contract for $375 million in career salary.

The NBA looked into allegations that the Clippers paid Leonard or his representative and uncle, Dennis Robertson, a side deal when he first joined the team in 2019. No wrongdoing was found, although the Toronto Star recently reported that Robertson made demands of the Raptors during unsuccessful negotiations in 2019. The Raptors rejected the $10-million demand and Leonard signed with the Clippers, the newspaper said.

Neither Robertson nor Leonard’s agent responded to emails or texts asking for comment on the endorsement arrangement with Aspiration and the allegation reported in the Star regarding Robertson.

Times staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this story.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.