The Golden State Warriors won their fourth NBA championship in eight years this past season.
Often times when a team wins a title, the front office opts to run it back with the existing roster largely intact. Veterans get overpriced new deals. Role players are paid a bit too much, leading to eventual trades when their contracts are on the verge of expiration. It’s a tried and true practice.
The Warriors don’t appear to want to go that route, though.
Golden State has been losing key guys left and right – including defensive stalwart Gary Payton II.
Payton just signed a three-year, $28M contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.
This past week, Draymond Green addressed Payton’s departure and how he truly feels about it.
“No. 1, I want to say congratulations to Gary Payton II — GP2,” he said. “Well deserved, man. At 29 years old, a guy that has continued to grind and grind and grind. I was looking at GP’s Wikipedia a few days ago and just looking at the teams he’s been on … and never quit.
“Extremely happy for him. Not happy to see him go, but always happy to see guys get their money … so to see GP get what he’s due, I thought that was absolutely amazing, I’m happy for GP. Congrats champ.”
Payton is not the only guy Golden State already lost this summer.
The Los Angeles Lakers stole away Juan Toscano-Anderson on a one-year, $1.9M deal. (He and his girlfriend seem to be enjoying L.A. a lot already.) Otto Porter Jr. got two years and $12.3M from the Toronto Raptors. He was also quite open about why he opted to leave the Warriors.
Green has been very honest about which departing player he will ultimately miss the most.
The champs are inevitably going to look very different come 2022-23.
Will that negatively impact their odds at repeating next season?
Time will tell.
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