Golden State Warriors: 3 Players who have earned a spot in the rotation

1. Gary Payton

One of my favorite things to do this season is routinely check in on Gary Payton’s Net Rating and Plus/Minus.

What started out as an interesting little trend of GP2 making an impact on an incredibly small sample size has turned into something that is hard to ignore. Payton makes the Warriors a better team and even the return of Klay Thompson should not push him out of the lineup.

Sure, minutes will be a bit tight in the backcourt with the Splash Brothers leading the charge and Jordan Poole taking on a Sixth Man role, but Payton is too valuable to ignore at this point.

Payton has a Net Rating of 15.5. The only player to appear in 30+ games with a higher Net? Stephen Curry.

Moving to plus/minus, Payton is an absurd plus 158 in his 524 minutes of playing time this season. This is good for 22nd best in the entire NBA.

He’s a smart cutter who has rocketed to the hoop for easy layups and dunks all year long. All the while, he is hammering down on the defensive end to give this league-leading defense a boost on the perimeter.

There is no way around it, Payton is here to stay.