Making Sense of Gary Payton II's Status and Recovery Timeline

The Blazers' top free-agent signing is getting closer but has yet to make his season debut.

TUALATIN, Ore. — It is still not known when Gary Payton II will make his Trail Blazers debut, but it's closer than ever.

A little over two weeks ago, the team released its last official update on Payton's progress in his recovery from a core muscle surgery he underwent in July. They said that day, on Nov. 18, that Payton was experiencing "intermittent soreness" in his workouts and would be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Since then, Payton's return has been soft-launched, in a way. He was mic'd up in the NBA TV broadcast of last Wednesday's loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles, and then again by the Blazers' TV broadcast for Sunday's win at home over the Pacers.

Here's the latest update, courtesy of Damian Lillard after Wednesday's practice:

"He practiced today. He did everything with us today."

The entire saga of Payton, who signed a three-year, $26 million deal with the Blazers in July and has yet to appear in a game, is a strange subplot of what's been a mostly feel-good season. It's also a reminder that NBA injuries and recoveries are not linear and are often unpredictable even in the best of circumstances. All we can do is piece together the updates and find out what we can behind the scenes.

Payton first underwent the procedure in July, less than a month after the Blazers made him their top free-agent signing coming off playing an integral role in the Warriors' title run. For reasons unknown, the team did not announce the surgery until Sept. 16, a little less than two weeks before training camp. Those of you who are subscribers may have accidentally gotten the scoop six weeks earlier from Nassir Little, who let slip in an interview with me in early August that Payton had had the surgery, in talking about his own recovery process from the same procedure that shut Lillard down for most of last season. It didn't register with me at the time, but it made sense later, when the Blazers announced it.

In that initial release in mid-September, the team said he'd miss training camp and the preseason but indicated he'd be ready for the start of the regular season. Both Payton and general manager Joe Cronin said the same during their Sept. 26 media day press conferences.

On Oct. 13, about a week before the start of the season, the Blazers released another update saying Payton was continuing to progress in his recovery and would be re-evaluated in two weeks. Then, on Nov. 1, they ruled him out for the six-game road trip that stretched from Nov. 4 in Phoenix to Nov. 12 in Dallas. Their next update was the Nov. 18 one, which was the last official press release about it.

It's never ideal when a player who was initially supposed to be available for the start of the regular season has yet to play in a game as the calendar stretches into December. My understanding based on talking to people in the organization is that Payton has not had any setbacks in his recovery, nor have any other injuries popped up. The issue has been that when he's ramped up activity in a scrimmage or a workout, he's experienced soreness afterwards. When he's cleared to play is a matter of when both he and the Blazers' medical staff feel comfortable with that level of soreness.

"He's been better with that," head coach Chauncey Billups said at practice on Wednesday. "But he's still sore. But I think some of that is probably pretty normal, to get some of that. But he's better than he was, when we last talked about it. He's pushed through some of that stuff."

Just like with the organization's conservative approach to Lillard's two separate absences for a right calf strain, they felt comfortable to hold Payton out and not rush him back because they started the season stronger than anticipated. When you're 10-4 and play a 4-2 road trip without Payton, there's no need to force a return before he's comfortable.

After the tailspin of the last two weeks, the Blazers look to have righted the ship somewhat with two straight wins against Utah and Indiana. The latter game featured Lillard's return to the lineup after a seven-game absence. Lillard said Wednesday that his calf feels completely fine and he doesn't anticipate having issues with it going forward.

After an injury-riddled stretch in November, the Blazers appear to be past the worst of their bad health and schedule. Now, with three games remaining at home (Thursday against Denver and Saturday and Monday against Minnesota) before heading out on a six-game road trip that will take them through two days before Christmas, Payton's season debut finally appears imminent.

"We'll see," Billups said. "But he's closer than he's ever been if he's practicing."