Although the Warriors were unable to defeat the Nuggets today, some players performed remarkably, such as Butler's performance among the starters was very good, and Payton Jr.'s performance in the bench lineup was also extremely outstanding. Payton Jr. came off the bench today and scored 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Not only was it a great performance today, but he has been very good in recent times. The shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line is also very high.

Payton Jr.'s contract will expire completely this offseason, and he will become a free agent, and in recent times, Payton Jr. obviously wants to ask the management for his performance on the court, and the Warriors may have to renew Payton Jr.'s contract this offseason, otherwise many teams in the free market may compete for him. And the Warriors' lack of Payton Jr. has a serious impact at the moment, and Payton Jr. is a player who must stay with the team.

We can see how important Payton Jr. is to this Warriors team by his performance on the court. With or without him, the team's dynamism on the defensive end is completely different, including Payton Jr., who can also score a lot under the basket, he is equivalent to a raider for the Warriors, and his role cannot be replaced by many players. So this offseason, the Warriors should complete a contract extension with Payton Jr.

Curry once said that Payton Jr. defended him very well, and even bluntly said that Payton Jr. may be the best player he has ever faced in his career to defend him. can get such an evaluation from Curry, which shows how strong Payton Jr.'s defensive ability is. Payton Jr. is the type of player who is very good at defending the core of the opposing guard. For example, there are a lot of top guards in the West, and if a team hoards a player like Payton Jr., they will be prepared, and when it comes to the playoffs, they can let Payton Jr. mark the core guard on the opposite side. Just like the championship process of the Warriors in 2022, Payton Jr. will mark the core players on the opposite side every round, and the effect is very outstanding. So Payton Jr. is no less important than Curry, Green, Butler, he is the kind of player whose stats don't make a difference.