Kristaps Porziņģis and the Warriors are in a strange spot, but this is not shaping up to be a full Ben Simmons rerun just yet.
Golden State is not paying Porziņģis because he is away from the team and not “rendering his services,” according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. That part sounds a lot like the Philadelphia 76ers withholding Simmons’ salary when he did not report to training camp before the 2021-22 season. But there is an important difference: Porziņģis has not asked for a trade, and it is also believed that he is strongly contemplating retirement.
The Warriors gave Porziņģis a two-year, $40 million extension over the offseason, and the expectation was that he would be a major part of his first full season in San Francisco. Instead, he missed training camp and the entire preseason, with his health issues initially believed to be the main reason.
Before the regular season began, Golden State said Porziņģis would be away from the team indefinitely. Since then, the Warriors have shifted his status from out with an illness to out of the team, and Charania reported that they started looking into trade possibilities. Still, unlike Simmons, Porziņģis never made a trade request.
Sam Amick and Nick Friedell of The Athletic reported that Porziņģis and the NBPA have “no current plans to challenge the Warriors’ decision not to pay him.” That is a key break from the Simmons situation, when he filed a grievance to try to recover part of the $20 million Philadelphia withheld.
Simmons’ exit from Philadelphia got ugly. He was dealing with mental health issues and felt the 76ers did not give him the support he needed. He stopped attending team activities, and the team responded by withholding his pay.
Golden State is already in a standoff of its own, but Porziņģis is not pushing the issue the way Simmons did. He has dealt with health problems for the past couple of years, including during his time in Boston, and that was initially thought to be the main explanation for his early-season absence. Even so, the Warriors clearly do not believe his absence is justified.
For now, the team is trying to find a trade solution, though the timing is tricky. It is still the start of the season, and teams are not eager to make that kind of move yet.
Philadelphia eventually resolved its Simmons mess by trading him to the Nets right before the 2022 deadline, after he had not played in a game that season. He did not debut in Brooklyn until the following season. Golden State could end up waiting weeks before finding a similar exit route with Porziņģis.
The Warriors may still avoid the kind of total breakdown that defined Simmons and the 76ers. But if this drags on much longer, the situation can get a lot uglier.
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