A lot of fans weren’t thrilled when Brad Stevens traded away Kristaps Porzingis, seemingly for salary relief. But as it turns out, Stevens and the Celtics were completely ahead of the curve, realizing that KP’s days as a consistent impact player in the NBA were long over by that point.
In hindsight, they did a great job of unloading his contract without taking on any other bad salary or hemorrhaging assets. Because since being traded, things have gone completely off the rails. It was already getting ugly in his second season in Boston, which ended with a disastrous playoff showing, as he dealt with a mystery illness.
He wasn’t able to figure things out or stay on the court with the Hawks last season either, and was traded at the deadline to the Warriors for Jonathan Kuminga in a “your problem for my problem” kind of deal.
Porzingis likely on the verge of retirement from basketball
Needless to say, it didn’t pay dividends for the Warriors, as they got just 15 appearances out of the Latvian big man. But Golden State is a desperate team, trying to salvage the end of Steph Curry’s career, and the theoretical fit of Porzingis was promising, so with few alternative options, they decided to bring him back on a two-year, $40 million deal.
That deal seemed questionable in the moment, and seems downright crazy now, as his health has completely deteriorated. It started off with Porzingis not being at training camp, and the Warriors saying they had no update other than that he was dealing with another mystery illness with no timetable for a return.
We’re now weeks into the season, and there has still been no sign of KP or any update about his return to play. On Wednesday, things took another ugly turn in this saga as Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of ESPN reported that the Warriors are not paying Porzingis his salary, deeming that he is not rendering services.
Warriors desperately trying to trade Porzingis' contract
They are continuing to try to trade his contract to a team that wants cap relief, as the deal is essentially expiring with the idea that his career is all but over and he’ll be retiring from basketball very soon, almost certainly never playing another game.
Perhaps there will be a team that badly wants to offload some money and will send an expensive player to the Warriors, but that would be a massive stroke of luck for Golden State and would likely require them to absorb some other bad money or send out some serious draft picks.
Regardless, it’s safe to say the Porzingis acquisition has been a complete and utter disaster for the Warriors, and Stevens and the Celtics are beyond vindicated for getting out of the KP business when they did. It’s a sad ending to a great career that never quite reached its full potential and was cut short by constant health issues. At least he’ll always have the 2023-24 season and a championship in Boston.
Having said that, even the current version of Porzingis may still be an upgrade over what Boston is getting from Mitchell Robinson. Alas.
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