Golden State should not meet the New Orleans Pelicans’ asking price for Trey Murphy III, because the price starts with Moses Moody rather than a draft pick. Kristaps Porziņģis’s $19,512,195 buys exactly $19,512,195 in return, Murphy earns $27,000,000, and Moody’s $12,500,000 is the only other Warriors contract that closes the $7,487,805 gap on its own.
Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints confirmed Friday that Golden State has talked with the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans about Porziņģis, who announced the same day that he is stepping away from basketball. Joey Akeley of Warriors on SI read the call as a return to New Orleans’ standing price for Herb Jones or Murphy — three first-round picks, with Porziņģis as the money-matcher — and wrote that the Warriors should meet it. The picks are the second problem.
Kristaps Porziņģis Alone Is $7,487,805 Short of Trey Murphy III
Basketball-Reference puts Golden State’s payroll at $219,763,627, or $10,748,627 above the $209,015,000 first apron, and that position selects the rule: a team at or above the apron may take back 100 percent of what it sends out, dollar for dollar, with no cushion, per Over The Apron. Porziņģis’s salary is the whole ceiling, and Murphy sits $7,487,805 past it.
Aggregating is allowed, since that restriction binds only teams over the second apron and the Warriors are $1,922,373 under the $221,686,000 line they are hard-capped at for signing De’Anthony Melton with the taxpayer mid-level exception, per Hoops Rumors. At $196,558,353 New Orleans sits below the apron, where $27,000,000 going out absorbs $36,095,709 — enough for the return. Unlike Milwaukee, where the only legal return for Porziņģis is a guard, the obstacle here is on Golden State’s side of the ledger.
Al Horford Misses by $665,805, and Cannot Be Moved Until December 15
The obvious second salary fails twice. Horford’s $6,822,000 added to Porziņģis lands at $26,334,195, still $665,805 on the wrong side of Murphy’s number. And Hoops Rumors lists seven Warriors who cannot be traded until Dec. 15 — Bassey, Green, Horford, Melton, Niang, Payton and Brandon Williams — removing every mid-size contract but Moody’s.
Without Moses Moody, the Deal Costs Brandin Podziemski
Clearing $27,000,000 without Moody means sending three out for one, and the cheapest version legal today is Porziņģis, Brandin Podziemski and Will Richard: $27,342,571 out, $342,571 unused. Podziemski is Golden State’s starting guard at 33.3 minutes and 15.9 points a game, on an extension running through 2031-32 at $90,644,976 guaranteed. That is not a filler contract.
Moody Has a Better Use Than Four Years of a Wing
Murphy is guaranteed $87,000,000 through 2028-29 — $27,000,000 now, then $29,000,000 and $31,000,000, none of it an option Golden State could decline. Porziņģis’s 2027-28 money is a player option with $3,000,000 guaranteed, per Hoops Rumors, and Jake Fischer reported the Warriors are not keen to take back money running past this summer. The deal converts the expiring slot into the obligation it exists to avoid.
Side Eye Sports has argued for sending Moody to Chicago for Jalen Smith’s expiring contract, which fills the position Golden State is short at and ends in June. Moody cannot do both jobs. Where the Lakers’ Murphy problem is draft capital rather than the cap, the Warriors’ is the reverse.
Two things are not knowable. Whether New Orleans would sell at any price is the Pelicans’ business, and no outlet has reported what Golden State has offered or whether it would part with Moody. Basketball-Reference’s injury table also carried Murphy as day-to-day with a patellar issue on Nov. 5, probable for the next game.
The arithmetic is knowable. Murphy costs Porziņģis plus Moody plus three first-round picks, and Akeley’s recommendation to meet the asking price understates it by a player. Keep the $19,512,195, and spend it on a center.
Contract figures, payroll totals and injury designations via Basketball-Reference; cap, apron and trade-eligibility figures via Hoops Rumors; salary-matching rules via Over The Apron. All figures as of November 7, 2026.
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