SAN FRANCISCO – Expectations for the Warriors entering the 2026-27 NBA season are as low as they’ve been in years. That’s the way Gary Payton II likes it, too. “It’s funny,” Payton said Sunday to NBC Sports Bay Area on the ninth floor of Chase Center. “It kind of gives, in a sense, a ‘22 feeling. We’re not expected to do anything, but we still got a pretty good veteran core, and we got some talented young guys.
“The goal this year, the motto for me, is stay healthy and have fun.”
Nobody saw a championship parade coming down Market Street going into the 2021-22 NBA season. They saw a Warriors team that didn’t have Kevin Durant anymore, still was without Klay Thompson recovering from an Achilles injury, questionable youth and a group of veteran castoffs. Payton sees the similarities five years later.
The Warriors’ last championship team was coming off a 39-win season that fell short of the playoffs. This season’s group is coming off a year of 37 wins and no date with the playoffs.
Steph Curry’s co-star, Jimmy Butler, is rehabbing from injury...