The Warriors have started withholding salary payments from Kristaps Porzingis, a sign the team believes he isn’t providing the services required under his contract, according to Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of ESPN.
That move comes with a built-in penalty. ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted that the fine for failure to render services is 1/91.6th of a player’s salary for every game missed. For Porzingis, that equals $218,341 per game, based on his $20MM salary for the 2026/27 season.
Golden State has been exploring trade possibilities for Porzingis since the start of the season, and that effort is still active. The big man has been ruled out indefinitely because of an undisclosed health issue, and he’s also said to be considering retirement. Even so, ESPN reports that withholding salary does not affect the Warriors’ ability to trade him, and the team currently has no plans to void his contract.
Slater reported last week that the Warriors had expected Porzingis to be around the team’s facilities more often during his recovery, spending time with teammates and the medical staff. At that point, Slater said the situation could “no longer be described as an excused absence” and noted that Porzingis’ injury designation had changed to “not with team.” The 31-year-old reportedly has not been at the Warriors’ facilities since early October.
Porzingis has dealt with major stretches of missed time over the last two seasons because of non-injury-related health issues. He also spoke last fall about a diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Neither Porzingis nor the Warriors has given specifics about the current issue keeping him off the floor, but Charania and Slater say it is serious enough that he is “leaning toward” ending his career.
There is still a path for Porzingis to challenge the withheld money. A player can work with the National Basketball Players Association to dispute that kind of decision, and the source article points to Ben Simmons as an example.
During the 2021/22 season, the Sixers withheld salary from Simmons, who missed time because of a holdout and a back injury, and he filed a grievance to try to recover nearly $20MM. The two sides later settled, allowing him to receive part of that money.
For now, though, Porzingis has not actively contested the missed payments, league sources told ESPN. Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that three sources believe the former fourth overall pick would have “strong interest” in a buyout arrangement that would let him keep some of his $20MM salary instead of fighting the fines game by game.
The contract situation gives Golden State some flexibility. Porzingis signed a two-year, $40MM extension with the Warriors over the summer and has a $20MM player option for 2027/28 that is only partially guaranteed for $3MM.
That effectively makes him a pseudo-expiring contract, which could help the Warriors move him before the February 11 trade deadline. Because he extended rather than signing as a free agent, he is already trade-eligible, so the team does not have to wait until December 15 to deal him.
Even with that flexibility, the market may not move quickly. Fischer wrote that most teams are hesitant to make major roster changes this early in the season, which could force Golden State to wait.
Ideally, the Warriors would like to complete a Porzingis trade by December 16, since that is the cutoff for acquiring a player who could later be re-aggregated in another deal before the deadline. Golden State used a similar approach in the 2024/25 season, landing Dennis Schröder for De’Anthony Melton on Dec. 15 and then folding Schröder’s salary into the Jimmy Butler deal less than two months later.
Fischer also reported that the Warriors are reluctant to take on a large multiyear contract that would cut into their 2027 cap room unless the player clearly improves their future. Milwaukee has been mentioned as one of the teams contacted about a possible Porzingis deal, but Golden State’s interest in Myles Turner is described as limited. Turner is owed $83.6MM over three years, and Fischer said the Warriors would want a sweetener from the Bucks to take on that contract.
One name Golden State has checked on, according to Fischer, is Chicago forward/center Jalen Smith, who is on an expiring $9.4MM deal. But the Bulls, sitting at 1-6 under the NBA’s new lottery rules, have an incentive to stay competitive and avoid finishing in the bottom three, so it remains unclear how willing they would be to sell early in the season.
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