Otto Porter Jr. undergoes season-ending surgery

The Golden State Warriors drew a fair amount of criticism this offseason for letting Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II, two key contributors in their run to a 2022 NBA Finals victory, leave. But with the benefit of hindsight, the Warriors don’t look nearly as bad.

On Tuesday, Porter’s new team, the Toronto Raptors, announced that the veteran wing would be undergoing season-ending surgery on his foot.

Porter, playing in his 10th NBA season after being the third overall pick in 2013, has been struggling with injuries all year. He missed the first seven games of the season, and hasn’t played since November 14. In all, he played just eight games with the Raptors. He’s on a two-year deal with the Raptors, so we’ll surely see him back in Toronto next year ... his contract for 2023-24 has a player option for $6.3 million, and it seems a given that he’ll exercise it after a lost year.

A few thousand miles away, things haven’t been much smoother for Payton. Injuries and injury setbacks kept him out of the lineup for the first few months of the season, and he didn’t make his Portland Trail Blazers debut until January 2. He’s been inactive for all three of the Blazers games since then.

Obviously we wish the best for both wonderful former Warriors. Hopefully GPII is back on the court in no time, and hopefully Porter returns next year with a vengeance. But for now, you have to think the Dubs have little regret about how the offseason unfolded.