Golden State should make this one, and the apron is not the obstacle. Andy Bailey’s package clears dollar-for-dollar salary matching with $3,869,683 to spare and still leaves the Warriors $5,792,056 under their second-apron hard cap. The obstacle is a date.
Bailey, writing at Bleacher Report on Nov. 2, proposed sending Draymond Green, Kristaps Porziņģis, Will Richard and a top-four protected 2032 first-round pick to Sacramento for Domantas Sabonis, calling Golden State a “near-ideal landing spot.” The need is real: center is the Warriors’ only genuinely unsettled starting spot, and the frontcourt thinned again with Gui Santos sitting out Monday, Nov. 2, with a knee injury.
The Money Clears, and Not Narrowly
Basketball-Reference puts Golden State’s payroll at $219,763,627, which is $10,748,627 above the $209,015,000 first apron — and that position, not the figure, selects the rule. A team at or above the first apron may take back 100 percent of what it sends out, dollar for dollar, with no cushion.
Green’s $27,678,571, Porziņģis’s $19,512,195 and Richard’s $2,150,917 come to $49,341,683, so that is the ceiling. Sabonis costs $45,472,000, leaving $3,869,683 unused. Combining three salaries is barred only for teams over the second apron, and Golden State sits $1,922,373 below it. The hard cap is a separate constraint and it holds too: Hoops Rumors has the Warriors capped at the second apron for signing De’Anthony Melton with the taxpayer mid-level exception, so the deal must finish under $221,686,000. It finishes at $215,893,944.
Dec. 15 Is the Only Hard Block
Hoops Rumors lists Green among the players who cannot be traded until Dec. 15. Bailey notes the date inside his package without treating it as an obstacle. It is the entire timeline: nothing else in the deal is restricted on either side.
Porziņģis’s $3 Million Is Next Season’s Number, Not the Contract
Bailey describes Porziņģis’s deal as guaranteed for only $3 million. That is a 2027-28 figure, not the contract. Basketball-Reference’s guarantee column carries this season’s $19,512,195 as guaranteed; the $20,487,805 that follows is a player option, and Joey Akeley of Sports Illustrated reported in July that only $3 million of that year is guaranteed before June 29, 2027.
Sacramento would be taking on $19.5 million now and a decision Porziņģis controls, not a two-year obligation, which makes the Kings’ half cheaper than Bailey’s own framing suggests. It also makes it stranger, because Porziņģis is not playing: Basketball-Reference’s injury table lists him out with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, per Shams Charania of ESPN.
What Golden State Would Be Buying
Sabonis has played all seven Kings games, averaging 15.0 points, 14.6 rebounds and 6.9 assists on 72.4 percent shooting. Sacramento lost the first six, then beat the Dallas Mavericks 115-100 on Nov. 2 to reach 1-6. Golden State’s center minutes, over the same stretch, went to Al Horford at 18.7 a night and to Green, who played 28.6 and scored 3.0.
That is the swap the case for spending Porziņģis’s salary on a starting center already argued for, at a smaller scale. This is that trade with Green attached, and Green at 3.0 points is not the reason to refuse it.
Make It, and Budget for Two Roster Spots
Three out, one in takes Golden State from 15 standard contracts to 13, under the 14-man regular-season minimum a team may sit below for no more than two weeks at a time, per Hoops Rumors. The $5,792,056 of hard-cap room covers two veteran minimums at the $2,449,421 the Warriors already pay several players, with $893,214 left. That is the real cost, and it is payable.
What is not knowable from here: no outlet has reported that Sacramento is listening, named a price, or confirmed Warriors interest, and Bailey’s package is his own construction. Porziņģis’s availability is unresolved. Sabonis’s averages above are as of Nov. 4, and both teams play many more games before Dec. 15 — reason to revisit the production case then, not to doubt the money now.
The Figures
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Out: Draymond Green | $27,678,571 |
| Out: Kristaps Porziņģis | $19,512,195 |
| Out: Will Richard | $2,150,917 |
| Total outgoing | $49,341,683 |
| In: Domantas Sabonis | $45,472,000 |
| Net salary change | −$3,869,683 |
| Team payroll before | $219,763,627 |
| Apron the team is capped at | Second ($221,686,000) |
| Above or below the first apron | Above, by $10,748,627 |
| Matching rule, and the ceiling it gives | At or above the first apron: 100% of outgoing, dollar for dollar → $49,341,683 |
| Room against the hard cap, after the deal | $5,792,056 |
| Earliest date it could happen | 2026-12-15 |
Sources: Andy Bailey, Bleacher Report, for the proposed package. Contract figures and payroll totals via Basketball-Reference; hard-cap status, trade-eligibility dates and roster limits via Hoops Rumors; cap, apron and salary-matching figures via Over The Apron; Sacramento’s results via ESPN. Contract and payroll figures as of Nov. 3, 2026; Sabonis’s season averages as of Nov. 4.
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