The Warriors should stop shopping Kristaps Porzingis and take the buyout

The Warriors are right to stop paying Kristaps Porzingis. They're wrong about what comes next. Golden State wants to turn his contract into a trade before Feb. 11, the market has already shown them what that trade looks like, and they should take the buyout and get on with a season that's going fine without him.

Start with the part I'll defend. ESPN's Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported Wednesday that the Warriors aren't making payments on his $20 million salary because he isn't rendering services. He hasn't been at the team's facilities since early October, and his status went from general illness to "not with team." That's the rule doing what it says. ESPN's Bobby Marks put the cost at $218,341 a game. And nobody's fighting it: ESPN says Porzingis isn't disputing the missed payments, and SNY's Ian Begley hears the players' union is following his lead. When the player and the union both let it ride, you don't get to call the team heartless.

The other thing should go without saying. He's dealing with a health issue neither side has described, and ESPN reports he's leaning toward ending his career. That part is his business. What the Warriors do with the contract is theirs, and that's where they're kidding themselves.

Their plan, per Jake Fischer of The Stein Line as relayed by Hoops Rumors, is to move him by Dec. 16 so whatever comes back can be flipped again before the deadline. Fischer also reports they don't want a big multiyear contract unless the player clearly helps their future. Milwaukee has come up, and Golden State's interest in Myles Turner, owed $83.6 million over three years, is limited unless the Bucks add a sweetener. They've asked Chicago about Jalen Smith's $9.4 million expiring deal, and the 1-6 Bulls have every reason under the new lottery rules to keep trying to win. So the sellers want to hand you bad money, and the team with the useful expiring piece doesn't want to sell.

Here's the best argument against me, and it's a good one. This front office has pulled this off before. In 2024-25 the Warriors took Dennis Schröder for De'Anthony Melton on Dec. 15 and folded his salary into the Jimmy Butler trade less than two months later. A near-expiring $20 million deal (his 2027-28 option is guaranteed for only $3 million) is real trade ballast. I get why they'd want to try it again.

That move worked because there was a Butler on the other end of it. This time there's a Turner contract they don't want and a Bulls team that isn't selling. Meanwhile, the roster they actually have is fine. They lost their first three games and have won five straight with Al Horford, Charles Bassey, Draymond Green and Graham Ike up front. This isn't a season that needs a trade to save it.

And the clean exit is sitting right there. Three sources told Fischer that Porzingis would have strong interest in a buyout that lets him keep part of the $20 million. The last time a team dug in over withheld pay, Ben Simmons filed a grievance against the Sixers in 2021-22 and the two sides settled anyway. Golden State can skip the fight and go straight to the settlement.

Settle the number, open the roster spot and stop spending December treating a contract nobody wants like an asset. If a trade that actually helps shows up before Dec. 16, I'll eat this column in front of you. I'm betting it doesn't.

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