https://youtu.be/qcfMC9PpYzA
Raise your hand if you thought that Cameron Payne’s NBA career was over after the second of his two ten-day contracts with the Cavs expired in January 2019.
I expect to see a lot of raised hands out there. I’m certainly sitting here raising mine. Payne was alright in his stint with the Cavs two years ago, but nobody picked him up after that, and the rest of his career had been sufficiently mediocre that there seemed to be no reason for teams to continue using roster spots on him. Certainly, players better than him have inexplicably washed out of the NBA. With Payne, it wouldn’t have been so inexplicable.
Then we all know what happened. The Suns snuck into the Bubble, added Payne to the roster during that mini free-agency period, won all eight games partially on the back of Payne’s unexpectedly strong play, and they still failed to make the actual playoffs. It was disappointing from a team perspective, but it was a boon for Payne’s continued viability as a fixture on NBA rosters. Obviously, he’s still not a lock to have a long or productive NBA career, but his chances are way better than they were a couple years back. Plus, he gets to hang out with Chris Paul every day and osmose some of his wisdom. That’s an opportunity that many young point guards would give up their left nut for.
By the way, that video of Payne on the Bulls swaggily hitting seven three pointers and talking an escalating amount of trash after each one, despite the fact that his three-ball at the time was basically nonexistent, is still one of my favorite videos ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtEB0BImLUw