Kristaps Porzingis Reveals What Could Make Him Leave Warriors in Offseason

Kristaps Porzingis is enjoying his time with the Golden State Warriors.

He's playing well—averaging 17.5 points—and he's already established a great rapport with director of sports medicine and performance Rick Celebrini.

It would seem like the Warriors are the big favorites to win the Porzingis sweepstakes if he tests free agency, but there is one thing that could stop them.

“Honestly, the team is great here," Porzingis told The Athletic's Nick Friedell. "I haven’t gotten a chance to play with Steph yet, but the team is great, the city is great, the organization is fantastic. The only thing is the time difference with Europe—it’s 10 hours, it’s too much. But everything else, I enjoy it here.”

Friedell wrote that Porzingis "was joking about the time difference," but it could be a bigger deal than Friedell is leading on. Porzingis has played in the Eastern Time Zone in four of his previous stops and the Central Time Zone in one.

The Warriors have no control over the time difference between California and some parts of Europe, including his birthplace Latvia, being 10 hours. All they can do is sell him on everything else.

Last Sales Pitch

It goes without saying that playing with Stephen Curry will be the Warriors' best—and likely last—sales pitch.

Curry is expected to return for Sunday's game against the Houston Rockets. Curry has missed the last 27 games with runner's knee, dating back to Jan. 30 before Porzingis was a Warrior.

Porzingis said it's not a guarantee that he and Curry will have great chemistry, but he said it's likely they will play well together.

“I think, with the experience that he has and, obviously, myself now at this point in my career, we will click," Porzingis said. “He draws so much attention that it’s gonna make everybody’s life easier. So I expect that. I expect that for myself and for the team. It’s just gonna ease things up. But I also have to learn how to play with him a little bit for sure. It takes time to get some good rhythm, but we definitely as a team, we look forward to it.”

Assuming they do "click," Porzingis will be more likely to stay with the Warriors.

Porzingis' Market and the Warriors' Need to Keep Him

I suspect Porzingis will not have a big free-agent market. Teams won't want to spend their mid-level exception on a player with mystery illnesses who has played in fewer than half of his teams' games since the start of the 2024-25 season.

With that said, the Warriors have almost no cap flexibility due in large part to the expensive contracts of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler. They have Porzingis' Bird rights, which allows them to sign him without using their mid-level exception. The MLE is $15.1 million for non-taxpaying teams.

ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel wrote this regarding Porzingis' free agency.

"Early talks surrounding Porzingis's projected contract point in the direction of a deal somewhere in the $18 million to $24 million per year range on a 1+1 type of contract involving a player option."

I'm guessing the Warriors could get him for less than $18 million if they want to play hardball in negotiations, but they don't want to risk losing him. An East Coast team with better contention chances might be able to get his signature with a smaller offer.

Of course a healthy Porzingis is easily worth between $18 million and $24 million, but if health weren't a factor, the Warriors would not have gotten him for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield.