Gary Payton II tallied his season high against the New Orleans Pelicans: 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field, to go along with 11 boards in a winning double-double effort. It’s no secret that Payton isn’t a beacon of self-creation ability; his value as an offensive player relies heavily on one or two main advantage creators who perform the heavy lifting in terms of creating gaps through which the likes of Payton can slip through and finish possessions.
In Payton’s case, he slipped through gaps both in the figurative and literal sense. With one of the Golden State Warriors’ advantage creators sidelined with a quadriceps contusion, they were left with only Jimmy Butler as the sole offensive engine through which everyone else was given good looks. Butler’s value in that regard is often misunderstood, mostly through the lens of the contract that the Warriors gave him immediately upon acquiring him last season prior to the trade deadline. Simply put: the higher the contract is, the more Butler should be scoring, especially with Curry’ temporary absence.
While there is a need for Butler to score when the moment calls for it, his raw scoring ability isn’t the sole indicator of his value. With defenses bent on selling out toward him in an effort to force other Warriors players not named Jimmy Butler to score and make decisions, it is extremely paramount that Butler not only makes sure to get the ball to open teammates — it is also crucial that those teammates establish rhythm and flow that will allow them to finish looks created by the advantages that Butler creates.
The issue of rhythm and flow isn’t Butler’s problem; he has been doing his job capably, as is expected of someone who profiles as a secondary advantage creator with Curry around and a primary advantage creator with Curry absent. The real issue lies with everyone else, who have had problems taking advantage of the advantages being generated.
Which is why, when Payton realizes that — as someone who defenses will be more than happy to leave alone on the perimeter to sell out on a Butler isolation drive or post-up — he doesn’t have to stay still in order to inflict damage, it makes Butler’s efforts to tilt the defense toward his favor a worthwhile endeavor. For example: A simple side ball-screen allows Butler to work in isolation with a cleared side. Once he makes his move and touches the painted area, take note of how many eyes and bodies are tilted his way:
In what has become a common configuration in an offense centered around Butler — either four shooters spread out on the weak side, or three shooters spread out with one non-shooter parked in the dunker spot — Butler’s drive draws two bodies, with an additional three pairs of eyes attached to his attempt to bullrush the rim. Unbeknownst to them, Payton is creeping along the baseline, relocating from one dunker spot to the other and making himself available for Butler to find:
Payton’s awareness and willingness to become a target of Butler’s driving exploits stood out in a game where the Warriors mightily struggled to create offensive flow, against a team that is far from being elite in the NBA pecking order. When a team such as the Pelicans know to sell out against the only real offensive threat just by his mere presence alone, it would behoove the other Warriors players to make themselves a threat, an undertaking that Payton made sure to take to heart.
Note how Payton immediately relocates to the dunker spot once Butler establishes his intent to create off of another cleared-side isolation. With help from a flash cut by Jonathan Kuminga — making himself the middleman and release valve in the process — Butler’s attempt to create something out of almost nothing isn’t in vain:
It’s a lesson that other Warriors players should be intent on internalizing; it’s clear that Payton, for all his shortcomings as an offensive player, has more than internalized it. Even when parked in the slot area instead of the dunker spot, Payton has the wherewithal to realize that the defense is counting on him to catch and shoot a pass sprayed toward his way. What the defense doesn’t expect is for him to take advantage of the space given him through a well-timed slot cut (with a bit of help from a Moses Moody screen):
This intentionality goes well beyond Butler isolation setups. Whenever Butler acts as a screener, his ability to quickly slip the screen and act as a roll-man decision maker is another viable form of advantage creation:
And while the possession below can be blamed on a Pelicans defense that isn’t up to par in terms of quality, it doesn’t subtract from Butler’s ability to draw attention and Payton’s excellent cutting ability off of what looks to be a faux-split-action possession (incredibly, one that does not involve Curry or any shooter at all, but rather, involves two non-shooting threats in Payton and Draymond Green):
Payton’s willingness to cut should be infectious and is a clear remedy to a growing problem that has been infecting the Warriors’ offense. They have the highest three-point-attempt rate in the league at 46.6%; however, they have only been able to convert 36.3% of their threes, ranking a middling 15th, per Cleaning The Glass (which takes garbage time out of the equation in their computation of stats). The open shots are being created — but they simply have not been converting such shots at a high-enough rate:
Which is why Quinten Post — one of Butler and Curry’s teammates that have struggled to hit shots from the outside — chooses to pantomime Payton on this possession below, another cleared-side isolation from Butler:
The example Payton set for the rest of his teammates should be the standard until something changes on the shooting front: either looks start to be converted at the rate they should be going in, or reinforcements in the form of recently signed Seth Curry and the soon-to-return De’Anthony Melton bolster the shooting talent of the roster. Before then, Payton — who, on a small sample size, is generating 1.50 points per cut this season, per Synergy tracking — is someone to be emulated. In turn, it will help somewhat alleviate the problem of not having Curry for a little while longer, and will help Butler do his job capably.
(To end on a high and somewhat optimistic note: in 306 non-low-leverage minutes of Butler on the floor without Curry, the Warriors have outscored opponents by [7.1 points per 100 possessions](https://databallr.com/wowy/GSW/2026/2026/regular/high/wowy/202710/201939), a positive point differential that has historically been darn-near impossible to achieve whenever Curry hasn’t been on the floor, per Databallr.)
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