Golden State Warriors Injury Report (Jan. 24): Are Chris Paul and Gary Payton II close to a return?

The Golden State Warriors return to action after an extended break that was forced by the death of beloved assistant coach Dejan Milojevic. The 46-year-old Serbian suffered a heart attack at a team dinner on Jan. 16 in Salt Lake City and died the next day. Golden State’s next two games against the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks were postponed as the team dealt with the unexpected loss.

When the Warriors return to action Wednesday, they will be without two of their key contributors, Chris Paul and Gary Payton II. While the duo have progressed in their rehab, they are weeks away from making a return. Golden State announced Monday that Payton will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reported on Jan. 10 that Paul was to be re-evaluated in three weeks time, which means it's still a week away. Being re-evaluated doesn’t mean that Chris Paul would be back playing basketball. He will regroup with the squad and gradually get into contact practices. At best, Paul might return just before the All-Star weekend, which starts Feb. 16.

Beside Paul and Payton, the Golden State Warriors will also be without Moses Moody. They announced on Monday that he will re-evaluated in a week as he recovers from a calf injury. Rookie guard Brandin Podziemski is listed as questionable with an illness.

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What happened to Golden State Warriors’ Chris Paul and Gary Payton II?

Chris Paul suffered a fractured left hand in a narrow 113-109 win against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 5.

He underwent surgery the following week and was expected to miss four to six weeks. Paul played 32 games before his injury, averaging 8.9 points, 7.2 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals.

Gary Payton cannot seem to catch a break from the injury bug this season. After missing 13 games because of a calf injury, Payton returned on Dec. 30 against the Dallas Mavericks. After just nine minutes on the floor, he exited with a hamstring strain.

Payton has played just 16 games this season, averaging 5.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.1 steals.

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Golden State Warriors express grief over Dejan Milojevic’s death

The Golden State Warriors returned to the practice floor Monday after an extended break caused by Dejan Milojevic’s death. Golden State coach Steve Kerr was visibly moved by the tragedy as he spoke to reporters:

“It’s a pretty terrible thing to witness. Everybody on our team, everybody in our organization is traumatized. Part of life is you experience loss. Everyone is going to experience loss at some point in their life. But it doesn’t often happen in front of you.

“It doesn’t often happen to someone with kids and it doesn’t happen often where it’s someone who is so beloved worldwide. So everything that’s happened over the last five days has been just jarring, just incredibly emotional, powerful, and more than anything heartbreaking.”

Kevon Looney worked closely with Milojevic, as the late assistant coach trained Golden State Warriors centers. Looney said:

“It’s been tough. Just trying to be around my family and teammates as much as possible, just remembering him, telling stories about him, things like that.

"Not trying to run away from it, but trying to embrace it and talk about him and what I’m going through with people close to me.”