What Porzingis' Contract Extension Means for Warriors' LeBron-AD Pursuit

On Monday, Kristaps Porzingis agreed to a two-year, $40 million extension with the Golden State Warriors, per ESPN's Shams Charania.

The second season has a player option.

I don't know his exact 2026-27 salary, but for now I will assume it's the lowest it can be, which is $19 million.

I'll update this article when I know the exact salary.

How Porzingis' Extension Impacts LeBron-AD Pursuit

It's been widely reported that the Warriors are planning to trade Jimmy Butler for Anthony Davis so they can convince LeBron James to join them on the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($15 million).

By extending Porzingis, the Warriors have much less wiggle room to make that happen.

Here is what the cap sheet would look like with James and Davis:

Stephen Curry: $62.6 million
Anthony Davis: $58.5 million
Kristaps Porzingis: $19 million
LeBron James: $15 million
Moses Moody: $12.5 million
Al Horford: $6.8 million
Yaxel Lendeborg: $6.1 million
Brandin Podziemski: $5.7 million
Gui Santos: $4.6 million
Will Richard: $2.2 million

The combined salaries of these 10 players is about $193 million. Once the Warriors give James the non-taxpayer mid-level, they will be hard-capped at the $209 million first apron.

They'd have about $16 million to spend on four players, with one of those needing to be Draymond Green.

Green declined his $27.7 million player option Monday, presumably to take a pay cut to help the Warriors.

But it would be stunning if he did that so he can take a pay cut to a salary under $10 million.

That's what he'd have to do to execute this plan without the Warriors dumping any other player.

Porzingis Contract Makes the LeBron-AD Pursuit Less Likely, But It's Still Possible

If the Warriors were convinced they were getting James and Davis, they would have been justified waiting to sign Porzingis to see how much they could afford to give him OR simply letting him walk in free agency.

But giving him this contract now doesn't mean they can't make the LeBron-AD pursuit work.

NBA salary cap analyst Yossi Gozlan gave a Warriors cap projection on X, and in it he had the Warriors dumping Moses Moody's contract into a rival team's cap space.

If the Warriors do that, they can pay Draymond Green $19 million in 2026-27 and fill out the rest of the roster with veteran minimums.

Would a team be interested in taking on Moody's contract with him out for most of the 2026-27 season? It's hard to say considering he's just 24 years old and under contract in 2027-28 for a bargain rate of $13.4 million. They might look it at it as a buy-low opportunity.

But it's just one more variable that makes pulling off this plan even harder.

Add us as a preferred source on Google