Golden State built its season around Kristaps Porziņģis at center, and it has now started shopping him. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Warriors are exploring trade routes for Porziņģis, who remains out indefinitely as he deals with a private health issue that has him seriously contemplating his future in basketball.
That makes starting center the most urgent hole on the roster, and one night into the season it’s already showing.
What Golden State has to trade is his contract. He is due $20 million this season, while only $3 million of his $20 million salary for 2027-28 is guaranteed. The catch is that Golden State is hard-capped at the second apron and has little room to absorb additional salary.
Gafford Fits the Cap, Turner Fits the Need
1. Daniel Gafford (Dallas). Stephen Noh of The Sporting News proposed sending Porziņģis back to Dallas, on the logic that a healthy Dereck Lively makes Gafford an expensive $17.2 million backup. He’s a lob threat and a rim protector, which is exactly what the Warriors were missing when Walker Kessler went 12-of-12 on them on opening night.
2. Myles Turner (Milwaukee). Turner is the obvious stylistic match, a stretch big who protects the rim. The Sporting News version sends Porziņģis and Al Horford to Milwaukee after Dec. 15, and a CBS Sports breakdown swaps in Moses Moody for salary matching. Both are ways to get the same player, so they count as one idea here.
3. Nic Claxton (Chicago). SI’s Inside the Warriors floated a deal that would essentially be Porziņģis for Claxton and a first, with Golden State attaching the pick.
Two other ideas are making the rounds, and neither belongs on the list. Heavy pitched Porziņģis and Jimmy Butler for Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray. That asks a Kings team to take on two hurt veterans, since Golden State is still managing Butler’s injury.
The same SI piece pushed Isaiah Stewart as a low-cost option, but at 6’8″ he doesn’t fix the size problem that Green and Horford already have.
Milwaukee Has Already Said No Once
Gafford is the cleanest deal on paper. He makes less than Porziņģis, so it works under the hard cap without adding another player. The Sporting News itself admits the Mavericks aren’t just going to give Gafford away, though, and Dallas has no reason to take on Porziņģis’s health questions without a sweetener.
Turner is the best player of the three, and he’s also the hardest to get. The only real reporting on any of these teams came from The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Nick Friedell: the Warriors contacted Milwaukee, but the Bucks aren’t believed to be interested in Porziņģis.
Turner’s cap hit of about $26.58 million is higher than Porziņģis’s salary, and several Warriors players are ineligible to be traded until at least Dec. 15. He also has three years and $83.55 million remaining on his contract, and taking that on more or less takes max-level cap space off the table for the Warriors next summer.
Claxton is the weakest of the three right now. His roughly $23.1 million salary means Golden State has to add money to Porziņģis to make it work, the deal costs a first-round pick, and he’s hurt. He will be re-evaluated in two weeks, K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network reports, after a hamstring injury that kept him out of the preseason.
Expect No Deal Before Dec. 15, Then a Run at Turner
The most likely outcome is that nothing happens for seven weeks. The Warriors can’t easily add salary to a Porziņģis deal until Dec. 15, when Horford becomes tradable. Meanwhile, Porziņģis’s own decision about his future could change his value overnight.
When Golden State does move, the prediction here is that it goes back to Milwaukee for Turner with draft picks attached. Milwaukee is the only team the Warriors have been reported calling, and the Bucks are rebuilding.
The reporting says only that Milwaukee wasn’t interested in Porziņģis. Whether the Bucks would move Turner at the right price is an open question, and that is the bet here. A Curry-era team that called them first is showing which center it wants, and picks are likely the price. If Milwaukee still won’t deal, Gafford is the fallback.
Source: Shams Charania of ESPN
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