Takeaways from Warriors' Loss to Pistons: Porzingis Trade Proving a Mistake

The Golden State Warriors (33-37) got blown out on Friday, losing 115-101 to the Detroit Pistons (51-19) at Little Caesars Arena.

Jalen Duren had a game-high 23 points, and Daniss Jenkins added 22 for the Pistons, who had no issues playing without Cade Cunningham.

Brandin Podziemski had a team-high 15 points for the Dubs, who were playing without Stephen Curry (knee), Al Horford (calf), Moses Moody (wrist) Seth Curry (adductor) and Quinten Post (foot)

Here are two takeaways from Friday's game

Porzingis Trade Proving to Be a Mistake

Kristaps Porzingis left the game in the first half with lower back soreness. He did not return.

Before Porzingis had illness issues, he was somewhat injury-prone. He missed the 2018-19 season with an ACL injury, and played fewer than 60 games in 2017-18, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Since having battles with illnesses, he's had even more trouble staying on the court. He played just 42 games last year, and this season he's at 24 games with 12 games to go.

The Warriors traded for him anyway, and they are getting an unsurprising result.

Since joining the Warriors, Porzingis has played in just seven of 18 games, and it's likely this back injury will at least keep him out of Saturday's game.

So even if you are like me and believed it was time to move on from Jonathan Kuminga, trading for Porzingis was a mistake. And if you believed they should've kept Kuminga, you're probably furious.

Kuminga has played just six games with the Hawks due to injury, and one could argue he's injury-prone. But Porzingis' lack of availability issues are on another level.

As I've written several times, the Warriors should have packaged Kuminga with first-round picks to make a significant upgrade without major healthy questions. They had months to find the right deal, as they should have been preparing to trade Kuminga the moment he signed his contract in the offseason.

The Warriors will have a difficult decision in the offseason. They need more talent in general, so they should have interest in keeping Porzingis for that reason alone. But they can't afford to overpay a guy who might play fewer than half the team's games.

In essence, the decision to trade for Porzingis could cost the Warriors next season as well as this one.

Draymond Looks Worn Down and Overpaid

On some level, I don't want to be too critical of any Golden State player's performance on Friday. The Warriors were already undermanned, and the Porzingis injury was the straw that broke the camel's back.

So it's fair to say Draymond Green has an excuse for his poor performance. But it was a poor performance nonetheless.

In 22 minutes, Green had zero points, six assists and four turnovers. A couple of those turnovers were pretty ghastly.

Green is making $25.9 million this season. That's a lot of money for a player who has often proved totally ineffective when Stephen Curry has been absent.

A player making that type of money should have a big positive impact on almost every game regardless of how injured the rest of the roster is.

My guess is Green is dealing with back issues, and he's playing through them because the Warriors are so beat up. If true, that's admirable.

But the bottom line is the Dubs need more from Green.