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Kendra AndrewsESPN
SAN FRANCISCO — Significant concerns over Gary Payton II’s physical exam with Golden State have put Thursday’s four-team trade involving the Warriors, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trail Blazers in jeopardy, sources confirmed to ESPN.
The Warriors have until Saturday to go through with the deal or cancel the entire trade. No amendments to the deal can be made due to the passing of Thursday’s trade deadline.
The trade had the Warriors sending center James Wiseman to the Pistons for Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox, the Hawks sending five second-round picks to the Warriors for Bey and then the Warriors sending Knox and those second-round picks to Portland for Payton.
The concerns are tied to the abdominal surgery Payton had over the summer, which kept him out of the Trail Blazers’ first 35 games of the season. He first returned to action in early January and most recently played 22 minutes against the Warriors on Wednesday.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin said at a news conference Friday that Payton had been cleared to play and the team was “confident” he was healthy.
“Player safety is super important to us, it’s a super important thing around the league,” Cronin said. “We were playing him, he was playing, and he had been cleared and we were confident that he was healthy when he was playing. We would not have brought him back if we thought he wasn’t healthy or if he was at risk. So you trust that we did the right thing and trust that our process was correct.”
Payton, 30, has played in 17 games so far this season, averaging 4.1 points in 17 minutes per game. He has two years left on his deal after this season.
The Athletic first reported the trade being in jeopardy.