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Kristaps Porzingis #7 of the Golden State Warriors

Anyone who has followed the career of Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis in recent year knows exactly how this goes. Porzingis struggled to get and stay on the floor throughout his 2025-26 campaign, dealing with a calf issue while he was in Atlanta and in his initial days after he was traded to the Dubs, and then an illness and a knee issue thereafter. In all, Porzingis earned $30 million last season and played in 32 games, 15 with the Warriors.

The previous year, it was 42 games while in Boston. And that was down from 57 the year before that. You get the picture: Porzingis is not going to give you 60 games, and if you can get 40, consider yourself lucky.

Despite all that, again, recent history shows us there will be a team that thinks it can be the one that gets the most of Porzingis, at long last–that he will mysteriously stay healthy for them, or that their training staff will work magic. As we head into NBA free agency, the Warriors are faced with the question: Do they think Porzingis can stay healthy for them, and how much are they willing to risk on that?

2 Years, $35 Million for Kristaps Porzingis?

This is relevant now because, on Saturday night, the Knicks finished off the Spurs in the NBA finals in Game 5, which is good news for the Knicks but also good news for the rest of the NBA. That’s because the Warriors can now talk with Porzingis about the parameters of a contract to stay in Golden State–teams can work on a new deal for their own free-agent players once the Finals end.

The Warriors front office has been clear that they want Porzingis back. The team traded away Jonathan Kuminga for him last February, and they don’t want to lose the only return piece that they have on hand from that deal. But the Warriors are likely to only go a reason able bit above the midlevel exception for Porzingis.

On our free-agent big board, we’ve got Porzingis going for two years, $35 million. It’s hard to imagine Golden State going much higher than that. But the problem is, again, there is always a team willing to gamble on Porzingis. If someone pushes an offer for Porzingis to something more like two years and $48 million … do the Warriors want to play in that sandbox?

Warriors Would Face Backlash

It is a fine line. There would be backlash about the way Kuminga was handled if the Warriors let Porzingis walk. And there would be even more backlash if the team paid out a big contract to the  rarely available guy they traded for him.

Moreover, it was clear last season that Porzingis’ absences frustrated coach Steve Kerr. The Warriors were missing Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody for much of the second half, and the frustration from that was compounded by what appeared to be a mostly healthy Porzingis sitting out while the Warriors fielded a team made up of mostly G Leaguers.

But the hope is that Porzingis likes the Warriors enough to accept a reasonable deal and run it back next year. The sides can begin working on that now. The problem is that Porzingis might get a significantly better offer elsewhere.