National Basketball Association

How Cameron Payne went from out of the NBA to key Suns performer in a year

Updated Jul. 29, 2021 9:42 p.m. ET

By Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer

Cameron Payne was incredibly nervous entering the NBA bubble.

After being selected with the 14th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder, his career had slipped through his fingertips like grains of sand.

On the last day of June 2020, he signed with the Phoenix Suns – already his fifth NBA team – and he knew this could be his last chance to turn his career around.

"I just wanted to be good every day because my contract wasn't guaranteed," Payne recently told FOX Sports. "I always had that in my mind because I'm like, ‘Man, this is my opportunity.’ So I was really super-stressed on myself, super hard on myself, trying to just be perfect every game because I wanted to stay and stick in the league."

Payne knew firsthand just how ephemeral things could be. He had watched his lifelong dream of playing in the NBA fade, disappearing like the sun slipping beyond the horizon line.

The slide started early and turned into a snowball.

After Payne struggled with multiple injuries, the Thunder dealt him to the Chicago Bulls in 2017. An anonymous Bulls source went on to tell the Chicago Sun-Times: "We knew the second practice that he couldn’t play at [an NBA] level."

The Bulls waived Payne in January 2019. He then signed two 10-day contracts with the Cleveland Cavaliers, before getting released by the Toronto Raptors ahead of the 2019-2020 season.

Payne was out of the league. He signed with the Shanxi Loongs of the Chinese League and played two games before joining The Texas Legends of the G-League.

He had plummeted from being a first-round pick into irrelevance – until the unexpected happened.

Monty Williams, who had coached Payne as an assistant for the Thunder in 2015-2016, decided to give him a second chance. The Suns offered Payne a two-year deal to join them in the NBA bubble.

The pressure was overwhelming for Payne, who knew this was his one chance to turn things around.

Williams zeroed in on that and refused to let him get in his own way. He pulled Payne aside and helped calm his nerves.

"He was just like, 'Hey man, be yourself,'" Payne told FOX Sports. "'I know you've been through a lot, but all that, it's a totally different ball game. Be yourself.' It seems like it's nothing. But it did so much for me. Like, 'OK, he's actually watching me, He's actually watching what I'm doing.'"

Williams had tried to guide Payne as a rookie, but his words didn't penetrate. Payne acknowledged he was too confident back then. Hubris got in his way. But this time around, he was a sponge, absorbing everything his coach told him.

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"We had pretty tough talks in OKC when he was a developing young player and he was a bit amiss in how he approached the game," Williams said. "I had to have some really tough talks with him, and we would refer back to that. He appreciated it. So I think that helped him come here and embrace what we were doing."

Payne turned his lifeline into a golden opportunity.

In the NBA bubble, he averaged 10.9 points on 48.5% shooting in 22.9 minutes a game off the bench, including making 51.7% of his attempts from beyond the arc. He helped the Suns go 8-0 during that time and nearly make the playoffs.

Phoenix picked up his option and Payne has since blossomed into an important piece for the Suns, who are two wins away from winning their first NBA championship in franchise history. The Suns have a 2-1 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals, with Game 4 set for Wednesday night.

It's been an incredible redemption story for the 26-year-old Payne, one that even he can hardly believe. Sitting in front of an NBA Finals backdrop, he recently acknowledged that he struggles to reconcile the ups and downs of the past year and a half.

"To be honest, when I first signed [with the Suns], I just wanted to be able to get some time in the bubble and try to make someone's roster," he said.

Now Payne has made a name for himself on the biggest of stages, after continually shining throughout the playoffs.

When Chris Paul suffered a shoulder injury in Game 1 of the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers, Payne averaged 15.7 points on 49.9% shooting over the next four games, helping the Suns beat the defending champions in six games.

And when Paul had to miss the first two games of the Western Conference Finals against the LA Clippers after testing positive for COVID-19, Payne had a career-high 29 points in Game 2 of that series on 12-for-24 shooting, to go along with nine assists and not a single turnover.

"Cam Payne – he'll kill you. He'll go after it," teammate Devin Booker said. "He's not scared of the moment. He's not scared to go make a play."

Ever since Payne got a second shot, he's made sure to run with every opportunity.

Throughout the postseason, Payne has shown up two hours before each practice to work out with Paul, who has given him a master class in how to get locked in.

"Before we started the playoffs, C texted me and was like, 'You're going to work out with me every day in the playoffs,'" Payne said in June. "So, I've been lifting with C every morning and we talk about the matchups, we talk about things we're going to do tonight in the game, things we're going to do next series, things that happened last game."

It has deeply paid off for him.

Just a short time ago, before the Suns reached out to him, Payne had returned to his hometown of Memphis with his tail between his legs.

He constantly had to field questions about what was next for him, a mortifying experience for someone who once thought his life was set.

Now, every time things get hard, he replays those interactions.

"Little things like that [are] always in the back of my head when I'm working out because I never want to be back at the bottom, going to China and stuff like that," he said. "It's just built me a little different coming in on this next go-round."

Now Payne is at the top.

His mother was at Game 6 of the conference finals, watching the Suns advance to the championship round for the first time since 1993. Seeing her joy in that moment reminded him of just how far he had come.

"It's unbelievable. Almost like dreams – like a dream-come-true type of thing," Payne said.

In a little over a year, he's gone from being out of the league to its pinnacle, a whirlwind that has left him deeply appreciative.

Reflecting on his journey, even he's a bit stunned.

"It's a crazy roller coaster this thing here," he said. "Life's crazy."

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She has previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.