Warriors not paying Porzingis is now the starkest sign yet that Kristaps Porzingis’s time in Golden State may be nearing its end. The Golden State Warriors are not delivering payments on Porzingis’s $20 million salary for the 2026-27 season, ruling that the 31-year-old center is not rendering services while he remains away from the team with a health issue, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania and Anthony Slater, reporting on Wednesday, November 4.
Porzingis has not played this season and has not been with the team since telling the front office about a health issue the day before training camp. The Warriors have said he is out indefinitely. ESPN reported that Porzingis is leaning toward ending his NBA career, and that he has not disputed the withheld payments — a detail that, in ESPN’s reporting, points toward a player who may not plan to return.
The decision does not close off a trade. Golden State is permitted to move Porzingis’s contract at any point before the February 11 trade deadline, even while it is withholding payments, and ESPN reported that the Warriors will continue to exhaust trade avenues. Golden State is not currently planning to void the remainder of his contract, according to the reporting.
Warriors not paying Porzingis: how the salary decision works
The financial mechanism is straightforward, even if the situation around it is not. ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted that failure to render services costs a player 1/91.6 of his salary for each game missed. On a $20 million salary, that works out to $218,341 per game. Porzingis’s salary still counts against Golden State’s salary cap and tax apron, so withholding the checks does not free up spending room for the Warriors. It is a contract consequence of his absence, not a cap maneuver.
That distinction matters for any team that might trade for him. Because Porzingis signed a contract extension rather than signing as a free agent, he is trade-eligible now, without waiting until mid-December. An acquiring team could absorb his near-expiring deal, move a larger unwanted salary out in the process, and then work toward a buyout that clears a roster spot. That is the logic ESPN laid out for why a deal could still make sense for another club even though Porzingis is not playing.
How Porzingis reached this point with Golden State
The timeline is short, and it has moved fast. The Atlanta Hawks traded Porzingis to Golden State on February 5, 2026, for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield. He played only 15 games for the Warriors and 32 games overall in the 2025-26 season. Golden State still signed him to a two-year, $40 million extension in June, a deal that guaranteed $20 million for this season but only $3 million of the $20 million player option for 2027-28 — a structure that effectively makes his contract an expiring deal for trade purposes.
Then, the day before training camp, Porzingis told general manager Mike Dunleavy he was stepping away. The team said he would be around as he recovered, but he has not been with the team since, and the specifics of the illness keeping him out have not been clarified by the team. Earlier ESPN reporting described recurring symptoms of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition Porzingis has spoken about before, but neither he nor the Warriors have offered specifics about the ailment currently keeping him out. That uncertainty is part of why Wednesday’s report landed so heavily: it turned an indefinite absence into a formal contract dispute, even one Porzingis is not contesting.
Trade exploration is not new. ESPN first reported on October 21 that Golden State was exploring trade routes for Porzingis. More recently, The Athletic reported, via the San Francisco Standard, that the Warriors contacted the Milwaukee Bucks about a potential deal, with Myles Turner, Kel’el Ware and Jericho Sims mentioned as possible targets. That contact is reported, not confirmed by either team, and no report has suggested a deal is close. It is best read as an early inquiry from a team trying to solve a problem, not as a trade in progress.
Analysis: what this means for the Warriors, and what comes next
For Golden State, Wednesday’s news clarifies the team’s position without resolving Porzingis’s future. The Warriors have started the season winning without him, which removes any urgency to rush him back or to accept a bad trade simply to move on. At the same time, withholding pay is a step teams do not take lightly: it signals, in practical terms, that the organization has moved on mentally even while Porzingis remains on the roster.
For Porzingis, the picture is harder and more human than the contract math. In 12 NBA seasons, he has averaged 19.5 points and 7.6 rebounds across the Knicks, Mavericks, Wizards, Celtics, Hawks and Warriors, and he was a champion with Boston. A career that once looked like it would be defined by a rare combination of size and shooting has instead been interrupted again and again by health problems. If he does retire, as ESPN’s reporting suggests he is leaning toward, it will close a career that delivered far less than its early promise — through no fault that any reporting has attributed to effort or commitment.
What to watch next: whether any team turns an inquiry into a real offer before February 11, whether a buyout follows any such deal, and whether Porzingis himself says anything publicly about his future. Until one of those things happens, the facts are narrow but clear: he is not playing, he is not being paid, he can still be traded, and Golden State is not planning to void his deal. The rest — including any specific destination — remains reported speculation, not a done deal.
For more NBA coverage, see our preview of the 76ers’ visit to the Pistons (https://ussportsmedia.com/76ers-vs-pistons-preview/), our report on the Pacers playing just six players against the Hawks (https://ussportsmedia.com/pacers-play-six-players-hawks-loss/), and our report on the Pelicans’ overtime win over the Grizzlies (https://ussportsmedia.com/pelicans-beat-grizzlies-135-134/).
Sources: ESPN via NBC Sports Bay Area; USA Today; Hoops Rumors.
