The Golden State Warriors have settled their center spot for the next two seasons. Kristaps Porzingis has agreed to a two-year, $40 million deal to remain in Golden State through 2027-28, with a player option in the second season, according to ESPN, which cited agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management.
The timing complicates the bolder swing Golden State has been lining up. The Warriors have been chasing a blockbuster to acquire Anthony Davis via trade and sign LeBron James in free agency, according to Yahoo’s Kevin O’Connor and ESPN’s Shams Charania. That bid to build one last contender around their aging core leans on the same limited cap space that re-signing Porzingis now eats into.
The money is the first pinch point. Even before any Davis trade, bringing back Porzingis leaves Golden State operating around $20 million below the first-apron hard cap, the ceiling it cannot exceed if it signs James with the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, with several roster spots still to fill. Absorbing Davis’s salary on top of that, in a deal that would likely send out Jimmy Butler and draft capital, only tightens an already snug budget.
Davis has long preferred to play alongside another big rather than as a lone center, but stacking him next to Porzingis, Draymond Green, and the recently re-signed Al Horford would leave Golden State heavy up front. It raises the question of whether the Warriors still need a Davis trade at all now that their center spot is spoken for.
None of this necessarily ends the Davis chase, which the Warriors have partly framed as a way to entice James, and Golden State could still shed money to make it work. For now, though, the Porzingis deal muddies what looked a day ago like an all-in push to build a final contender around Stephen Curry.
