The Golden State Warriors need to trade Kristaps Porzingis—there's no way around that fact.
Even if Porzingis hadn't essentially announced his retirement on social media, this team can't afford to have a player that's inactive taking up that large a chunk of their finances for the duration of this season. In one sense, their recent winning streak has calmed the urgency somewhat—this team isn't in immediate need of another rotation player, especially with Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody returning around mid-season.
On the other hand, though, this team has shown it has enough to compete in a playoff setting if the front office can make the right moves before the end of the season. Even with his unavailability, Porzingis' contract is still their prime asset in that regard. Because his deal essentially functions as an expiring one, with only $3 million guaranteed on it second year, the Warriors could theoretically use it either to add a solid rotational player now or to build a package for a star-level salary closer to the trade deadline.
Both of those scenarios prevent complications though. Very few teams are looking to move off of truly helpful players at this point in the season, especially given the new Draft Lottery rules that are designed to penalize tanking. But if Golden State waits until the deadline and the right move doesn't pop up, will they be willing to toss in extra draft capital to make something with Porzingis work? His trade value certainly isn't going up in the interim.
As of now, then, this gives the Warriors a logical deadline to make their move on the Porzingis contract—Dec. 16, which is the last date that a player acquired can then be traded again at the deadline.
The Warriors need to keep their optionality open—even when it comes to moving the Kristaps Porzingis contract
It would be foolish to spring at the first opportunity that arises involving Porzingis' deal. Although his trade value won't be going up, it certainly won't be falling either—the Warriors will need to attach at least a couple second-round picks to get off his contract in a one-for-one move no matter when it happens.
But with the way things have unfolded in the Porzingis scenario, no team looking to remain competitive this season will be willing to take on his deal, and that puts an immediate limit on the trade partners Golden State could engage with. If there were a team with a strong, starting-caliber center available at this point in the season (looking at you, New Orleans Pelicans), then that would be a no-brainer deal to pull off. The same goes, to an extent, for a strong, perimeter-shooting wing.
But again, the Warriors' options to acquire those types of players are limited at this point in the season. Their best option may be to simply strike a deal for a helpful rotation player, no matter the position, in order to maintain their best optionality at the deadline. We've seen this before—when they acquired Dennis Schröder using De'Anthony Melton's contract in 2024-25 before leveraging it in the Butler trade ahead of the deadline.
Say, for example, Golden State is able to swap Porzingis' contract for Grayson Allen's before Dec.16. Allen isn't necessarily the best fit in the Warriors' rotation currently given the plethora of guards they have, but he is a career 40% 3-point shooter. With some solid minutes in Golden State between the trade and the deadline on Feb. 11, Allen at least has a chance to elevate his trade value, giving the Warriors the option of packaging his deal with one of their other tradeable assets to bring back a high-value star.
There are, of course, some complications here. Allen has a fully guaranteed player option this offseason, and the Warriors have signaled hesitancy to take on money beyond this year in a potential Porzingis trade.
But unless there's a dream trade scenario that suddenly pops on the market over the next month, perhaps simply dealing Porzingis' contract for a solid rotation player could be Golden State's best bet—making their current (soft) deadline for a deal Dec. 16.
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