League news / Published 2026-11-05

The Warriors stopped paying Porzingis, and both sides are not fighting about it

The Golden State Warriors are not delivering semimonthly payments to veteran center Kristaps Porzingis on his $20 million salary, league sources told ESPN, ruling that the currently absent center is not rendering his services. That is a contract mechanism, not a fine imposed by the league.

(See the reader poll and source context below).

Golden State is withholding semimonthly payments on a $20 million salary, arguing the absent center is not rendering his services, while his camp is not disputing the money.

An editorial illustration of a dark wooden table at night with a blank contract sheet and an empty circular seal, a closed folder at the left and one orange basketball at the right, long shadows and paper grain. No people, text, numbers or logos.
Conceptual editorial illustration, not a photograph of any player, team or document.

What do the sources establish?

Recorded source context. No verified social reaction quotes or aggregate vote results are supplied.
Platform / SourceCore Stance / QuoteEngagement MetricTimestamp
Sources: Warriors not making payments to PorzingisReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded
Warriors Withholding Payments To Kristaps PorzingisReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded

THE SHORT VERSION

  • The Golden State Warriors are not delivering semimonthly payments to Kristaps Porzingis on his $20 million salary, league sources told ESPN.
  • The fine for failure to render services works out to $218,341 per game missed, according to ESPN front-office analyst Bobby Marks.
  • Porzingis is not disputing the withheld money, and the Warriors have no current plans to void his contract.

What the Warriors withheld

The Golden State Warriors are not delivering semimonthly payments to veteran center Kristaps Porzingis on his $20 million salary, league sources told ESPN, ruling that the currently absent center is not rendering his services.

That is a contract mechanism, not a fine imposed by the league. A team that decides a player is not performing the services his deal requires can stop paying him, and the amount is calculated against games missed.

What makes this case unusual is the other side of it. Porzingis is not actively disputing the lack of payments, and the players’ association has no plan to dispute either, league sources said.

So the dispute that usually follows a withholding has not happened. The money is being withheld, the player is not fighting it, and the front office is still trying to trade the contract.

The number per game

The fine for failure to render services is equivalent to 1/91.6th of the player’s salary for each game he misses, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

In Porzingis’s case, that works out to $218,341 per game, which is 1/91.6th of his $20 million salary for the 2026/27 season. The divisor is the number of games a season is paid across, not the 82 on the schedule.

Multiply that across a month and the withheld amount becomes a meaningful number for both sides. For the Warriors it is savings on a player who is not available. For Porzingis it is income he has chosen not to contest.

The accounting matters because it shapes the incentive. A player who wanted to fight would file a grievance and put the club’s medical findings at issue, which neither side appears to want.

How the standoff began

After battling an elongated health issue the past two seasons, Porzingis signed a two-year, $40 million extension with the Warriors this summer, with only $3 million guaranteed in the second season.

On the eve of training camp he called general manager Mike Dunleavy and stepped away from the team. The Warriors gave him space at first but expected him back at the facility, around his teammates and the medical staff, as part of his recovery.

A meeting with Dunleavy and Rick Celebrini, the team’s lead medical decision-maker, in early October produced a statement that he would be around. It did not last. He left, has not returned, and the team changed his status from a general illness listing to “not with team.”

The 31-year-old has not been at the Warriors’ facilities since early October, and the absence is no longer described as excused. In his absence the team has won five consecutive games after opening the season 0-3, which has made the roster question easier to defer.

The trade market

General manager Mike Dunleavy and the front office are still actively pursuing trade avenues using Porzingis’s contract, even as the 31-year-old leans toward ending his NBA career.

For rival teams, absorbing a near-expiring salary can either let them move a longer-term contract out to save money, plus clear a roster spot through a buyout, or theoretically net a draft asset depending on what the Warriors attach.

The Warriors have no current plans to void the contract, team sources said, keeping trade flexibility up to the February 11 deadline. Because he extended rather than signed as a free agent, he is trade-eligible now and the club does not have to wait until December 15.

There is a precedent for the approach. Last season the Miami Heat withheld payments for Terry Rozier while he was under federal investigation in a gambling scandal, and spent the months before the deadline exploring trades with his contract.

The buyout possibility

Three sources told Jake Fischer of The Stein Line that they believe Porzingis would have strong interest in a buyout that lets him retain a portion of his $20 million salary rather than fighting the game-by-game deductions.

That would end the standoff cleanly for both sides: the player keeps some money and his exit, the team clears the roster spot and stops the ledger from running.

The contract structure makes it plausible. He holds a $20 million player option for 2027/28 that is only partially guaranteed for $3 million, which is why the deal is treated in the market as a pseudo-expiring contract.

The other big men who went down this autumn, from Chet Holmgren’s long absence to the wider early-season injury wave, have shown how quickly a rotation can be reshaped, and Golden State has been reshaping its own without him.

What happens by February

Fischer reports the Warriors would ideally finalise a Porzingis trade by December 16, the deadline to acquire a player whose contract can later be re-aggregated in a separate deal before the February 11 deadline.

Golden State has done this before. In the 2024/25 season it acquired Dennis Schröder for De’Anthony Melton on December 15 and then aggregated Schröder’s salary into the Jimmy Butler blockbuster less than two months later.

The club is reluctant to take on a sizable multiyear contract that eats into 2027 cap room unless it lands a player who clearly improves its future. Milwaukee is among the teams reported to have been contacted about a Porzingis trade, but Golden State’s interest in Myles Turner, who is owed $83.6 million over three years, is described as limited without a sweetener.

That is the shape of the next six weeks: a team holding a contract nobody is fighting over, waiting for a market that usually does not open until December. The Warriors have been uneven on the floor in the meantime, which only adds to the pressure to convert the salary into something usable.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Sources: Warriors not making payments to Porzingis
  2. Warriors Withholding Payments To Kristaps Porzingis
Keep the thread.

Follow NBA to find related stories on your next visit.

THE WEEKLY EDIT

The week, made clear.

Stories worth understanding, brought together in one weekly edition.

Share this page

Instagram, TikTok & other apps

Copy the page link, then paste it where your chosen app supports links. You choose whether to send or publish.