Gary Payton II
Golden State Warriors

Player Facts

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 190lbs.

Wingspan: 6'8"

Date of Birth: Dec. 1, 1992
College Experience: Oregon State (2 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 7
Positional Size: 5
Positional Wingspan: 7
Paint Scoring: 8
Midrange Scoring: 3
Three-Point Scoring: 6
Dribbling: 6
Passing: 7
Perimeter Defense: 10
Interior Defense: 5
Rebounding: 7

Embed from Getty Images

JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Functioning as C

> Corner Threes

> Fitting Into the System

> At-Rim Pop

> Helpful Extra-Passing

> Exceptional On-Ball Defender

> PoA Pressurizer

> Aware Off-Ball Defense

> Lack of Guard Skills

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of NF Highlights (YouTube),

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

GP II is one of the fiercest point-of-attack defenders in the Association. The son of NBA legend Gary Payton, "The Mitten" shares the gift of having phenomenal hands. He's worked hard to become helpful on offense too, shaking the title of strictly a one-way player.

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Functioning as C

Payton has a unique skillset given his size. He finds himself playing the role of a screening functional big in many half-court sets. 2022-2023 saw him finish in the top-ten among guards with an even 1 screen assist per-36 minutes. However, like Marcus Smart or Alex Caruso, he complements this with at least some guard-like skills.

Corner Threes

One of those perimeter abilities is his much-improved standstill shooting. Admittedly, his release can be slow, and he's mostly just a threat from the deep corners. However, he has turned into someone who should be respected out there.

Spacing for star guards like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, and Anfernee Simons, GP II has nailed a number of corner triples off their penetration. 2021-2022 saw him hit the same number of these side-pocket threes as Devonte' Graham and Franz Wagner. His clip here was just under 40% (55% on lower volume in 2022-2023).

Fitting Into the System

Playing in Golden State's heavy motion offense has meant that Gary has to do a lot more than just hit spot-up threes. Luckily, he has the intuitive feel to fit right in. He screens, moves around with the play, cuts, crashes the offensive boards, and more.

He brings his elite athleticism with him as a cutter. You can tell that he is someone who was not necessarily a natural shooter growing up, hyper-aware of creases to cut through to make himself useful. Luckily, his shooting has caught up to make him a more holistic off-ball threat.

2021-2022 was a fascinating offensive season for Gary. He finished up the season right in the thick of the game's better bigs in terms of points off cuts. What is more, he was one of the most efficient – 96th percentile as a scorer here. Upon his injury-truncated return to Golden State in 2022-2023, he placed in the 94th percentile for his cutting.

At-Rim Pop

He is also a guy to place in the dunker spot. Payton has big-time, quick-twitch bounce. He is that rare non-big who gets a bunch of dunks in the half-court offense.

2021-2022 saw him again live amongst centers with his at-rim efficiency. The former Beaver was an insane 140/174 in the restricted area – good for 80.5%. He adds some further skill by having a solid push-shot game.

The southpaw will also get some of these juicy inside looks by making the corner-to-key crash. Gary is empowered to crash here because he has the hustle and foot speed to get back on defense regardless. The 64th percentile is where he landed for putback scoring productivity in 2021-2022.

Gary also gets to show off that bounce in imbalanced floor situations. He finished in the 75th percentile as a fast break scorer in his 71-game 2021-2022 season. He is a guard who can get up there and catch lobs.

Helpful Extra-Passing

GP II continues his big-man tendencies at just 6'3" by being a legitimate screening option in ball screen actions. With the Warriors, he can be that short roll playmaker after defenses invariably blitz Steph.

The Oregon State product can score here but he's more often a node in the offensive machine that is the Dubs' system (did similar things back in Portland as Dame's screener). He clearly possesses strong court-mapping skills – making quick passing decisions on these 4-on-3s.

The Mitten has some strong connective passing chops in general. His main chances to show this off are on his dives or when the ball gets sprayed out to him. Gary's play on both sides of the ball is a representation of hustle, heart, and unselfishness.

Exceptional On-Ball Defender

GP is built like a Fred VanVleet type, but the difference is his athletic traits are elite across the board. His lateral quickness, agility, recovery speed, bounce, and hip mobility are all top-tier. These tools, plus his tenacity and will, make the brainy Payton a world-class perimeter defender. GP II uses some unique footwork to stay in front of his man at all costs.

Gary is amazing on-the-ball against all sorts of player types. He spends most of his time checking the top opposing guard(s), but can even hold his own in spurts against much taller men. GP II spent around 70% of his time on guards in 2021-2022 and they shot under 40% from the field.

He is an on-ball steals machine with that combo of pressure and his quick, accurate, strong hands – dribble near him at your own peril. Something he does well is beat his man to their spot, stopping them in their tracks, then having his arms down low to poke away the dribble. A plus 6'8" wingspan aids his energetic efforts here.

As mentioned though, he can go up a positional rung and check bigger dudes. His dense 195-pound frame and willingness to dig in and get physical are the chief reasons why. 2021-2022 had him in the 81st percentile for overall post-up defense.

PoA Pressurizer

He continues to be a menace at the opening point of most sets. When a screen comes, he has the footwork and wherewithal to dodge the pick. Whatever happens, he hustles back into the play to make himself useful.

The principles listed above can be applied to his work guarding weave actions and off-ball screening actions as well. 2021-2022 had him in the 89th percentile defending P&R ball-handlers. He was a comparably stingy 92nd percentile for isolation defense that campaign.

Aware Off-Ball Defense

Help defense is yet another strong suit for the smart guard. He provides back-line help with prompt rotations. Also, he plays passing lanes to ignite fat break opportunities – 5.4 steals per/36 in 2020-2021 then 2.8 the next year. He's among the perennial deflection leaders too.

He also makes great closeouts after the ball has been swung. GP quickly looks to cut off his man if they catch-and-go. He'll even get some steals from weird angles here after his man believes they have beaten him.

WEAKNESSES

Lack of Guard Skills

Gary mainly just has offensive holes. Sure, he could foul less on defense or be a bigger difference-maker at-the-rim. However, these are either simply a fair cost of his ball-hawking or, for the latter, due to a lack of size.

GP II is the height of a point guard but does not have many point guard skills. He is part of a nascent archetype of smalls whose offensive skillset looks closer to a big's (see: Bruce Brown). He can be commended for finding his niche to fill – but it would be nice if he had some more on-ball creation to him.

Payton II is not going to initiate many pick-and-rolls or take many DHO's. He is far more often on the other end of that formula as the play-finisher. He also has a crazy low foul-drawing rate – as he rarely gets downhill by himself.

GP II lacks a midrange game or an isolation game at large. His on-ball juice is just lacking, with a below-average handle for his position. He could unlock his straight-line explosiveness in an applicable in-game way by tightening up that handle.

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Players Appearing Here – Check Out Their Profiles
bacon
Beacon Bacon

GP II grinded in the G-League and bounced around multiple organizations before finally establishing himself firmly as an NBA rotation player in his late 20s