NBA: The Young Glove is here to stay.
After bouncing around the league for a few years, Gary Payton II is continuing his Hall of Fame father's legacy in Golden State.
In today’s column I’m going to ignore Steph Curry’s career-worst 4 for 21 outing against the Suns last night in favor of talking about the birthday boy, Gary Payton II, who turns 29 today.
Oakland legend Gary Payton (the first) was an elite force in the NBA for almost two decades, and is one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game.
Selected with the second pick in the 1990 NBA Draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, Payton is the Sonics/Thunder all-time leader in games (999), minutes (36,858), field goals (7,292) and attempts (15,562), assists (7,384), and steals (2,107). As a reminder, this is the same franchise that had 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook for 11 seasons, and Payton is still the best point guard in franchise history.
In 12 and a half seasons with Seattle (‘91-’03), Payton—plus Nate McMillan (through ‘98) and Shawn Kemp (through ‘97)—took the Sonics to the playoffs ten times before he was traded to the Bucks in 2003 for the younger Ray Allen. Over 10 seasons from ‘93-94 through ‘02-03, Payton made nine All-Star teams, nine All-NBA teams, and nine All-Defensive teams. The lone exception was the lockout-shortened ‘98-99 season where the All-Star game was cancelled, so he was really nine for nine.
Known as The Glove, Payton was one of the top defenders in the league in his prime. He led the NBA in steals in 1996 on his way to winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award—to date he is the only point guard to ever win the award. That season he took the Sonics to the Finals, where they fell to Michael Jordan and the Bulls in six games. Even though Seattle lost the series, when Payton was finally made Jordan’s primary defender for the final three games he was able to limit MJ to 36.7% shooting—almost 10% worse than the 46% mark he averaged over the first three contests.
On this day in 1992, when Payton was in his third season in the league, his son Gary Payton II was born.
Gary the second has not had the same breezy entry to professional life as his father. Since graduating from his dad’s alma mater, Oregon State, GP2 has played more games in the D/G-League (128) than he has in the NBA (91).
Payton II has played with nine different teams across the two leagues, starting with the Rockets’ Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the ‘16-17 season before getting a chance to play six games with the Bucks in April of 2017. He played 12 games with Milwaukee the following season before being traded to the Lakers, where he played another 11 games. He found his most consistent playing time the following two years with the Wizards, including a career-high 29 games and 17 starts in the ‘19-20 season.
In the G-League, Payton made two All-Defensive teams, led the league in steals twice, and won the ‘20-21 Defensive Player of the Year Award. After the G-League season ended, GP2 joined the Warriors for ten games, where he showed flashes of his defensive potential. Even though it was an incredibly small sample size (and for the most part he was up against other bench players), Golden State’s opponents had a 48.8% effective field goal percentage with him on the floor compared to 52.2% without him.
This year, Gary II has been invaluable to Steve Kerr. Not counting his 10 total seconds against the Lakers and Clippers to open the season, Payton has played in 18 of the Warriors’ 21 games, averaging 14.1 minutes per game—and he’s played 15 or more minutes in 13 of those appearances.
So far, GP2 has played 282 minutes, which is already the second-most he’s ever played in a season. And he’s been electric in each and every one of them. Even when he’s on the bench, he’s engaged, running across the baseline to help guys up and waving his towel as hard as anyone else when the guys on the court make a great play.
Payton isn’t the kind of player who takes possessions off—he defends all 92 feet, and has repeatedly forced star point guards to give up the ball rather than bring it up the floor with him hounding them. According to Dunks & Threes, GP2 is fifth in the NBA in estimated +/- at plus 6.2, largely because he leads the entire association in defensive +/- at plus 5.4 in his time on the court.
He may not have inherited his dad’s penchant for trash talk, but he has the same intensity that made his father such a potent on-ball defender. Payton leads the league in steal percentage, and when he’s on the court the Warriors are limiting their opponents to just 46% effective shooting, better than what he showed in his time last year. Opponent offensive ratings go from 104.2 when he’s sitting (which would still be second in the league) to just 92.8 points per hundred possessions when he’s on the floor—that’s almost a 12-point margin just from his defensive efforts.
Payton spoke with The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson recently about his defensive mentality. GP2 has been this way his whole life, especially after getting to be up close as his dad and the Sonics locked guys up in the 90s. And he wants opposing ball handlers to fear him just as much as guys feared his dad back in the day. Thompson got some great quotes from Payton about how he approaches his assignments:
“The league already made it where guys don’t like to be touched,” he said. “So I’m just gon’ touch ’em. It’s that simple. As you can see … a lot of guys don’t like to be touched.”
“Nobody touches them. Nobody’s in their face,” he continued. “They let them do what they want to do. I’m not about to let you sit here and size me up, get in your package. No. I’m not about to let you do that. You gon’ go one way. If not, you gon’ get up off that ball. And it’s gon’ be hard for you to get it back. By the time you get it back, you gon’ be tired and you gon’ settle. Let’s go.”
Given his intensity, it’s no surprise that Payton leads the league in deflections per 36 minutes with 6.1—for context, Bulls guard Alex Caruso is tied for fourth at 4.6 per 36. He’s also second on the Warriors in deflections with 48, which puts him ahead of both Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins, who have each played more than twice as many minutes as Payton. He’s also third in the league in loose balls recovered per 36 minutes, another sign of just how hard he hustles on both ends of the floor.
And he’s not a zero on offense either. Payton has been incredibly efficient, shooting 67% overall—82% on twos and 36% on threes—and his offensive +/- puts him in the 74th percentile. Even though he’s just 6’ 3” he is tied with Rudy Gobert for the third best effective field goal percentage (73%) in the league, and is the only non-big in the top 10. That’s because he’s making 85% of his shots at the rim, easily the best in the league.
Plus, he’s in the 85th percentile for offensive rebounding percentage, which helps give the Warriors crucial extra chances. When he’s playing, Golden State’s effective field goal percentage goes from 55.3% to 58.8%, and their offensive rating goes from 110.6 to 120.7 per hundred possessions in his minutes. That’s a 20-point swing when you combine his offensive and defensive contributions, so even though he’s only played in 28% of all Warriors minutes he’s still been able to make a serious impact on the game.
Regardless of whether Payton has logged as many minutes as the guys he’s leading in all those offensive and defensive stats, all this is incredibly impressive for a guy who had only played 71 total games before the start of this season.
That’s pretty fantastic for a franchise getting ready to welcome back five time All-Star Klay Thompson, who made his first All-Defensive in 2019, the last time he laced up. If the Warriors can move Jordan Poole—who is in the 90th percentile for offensive plus-minus—out of the starting lineup and pair him with Payton, they should be able to feast on opposing reserves and keep the Dubs afloat when Steph is getting his much-needed rest. When you have Draymond, Payton, Klay, and Andre Iguodala all working together, it’s easy to envision the Warriors maintaining their top-ranked defense even as their schedule gets harder.
Steve Kerr is going to have to make some decisions about how he fills his backcourt when Thompson returns, but The Mitten has demonstrated just how valuable he can be.