Porziņģis is out indefinitely, and most of his salary last season paid for games he missed
The Golden State Warriors announced Wednesday that Kristaps Porziņģis will remain out indefinitely with a "health-related matter," though he will stay around the team. The release said an update "including the potential resumption of practice, playing status or timeline, will be provided when available and appropriate."
The regular-season opener is a week away, against the Lakers in Los Angeles. Porziņģis has missed training camp and the first five preseason games, and on Tuesday he met at the practice facility with general manager Mike Dunleavy and Dr. Rick Celebrini; the team said "the specific contents of that meeting will remain private."
Porziņģis spoke for himself on social media soon after the update. "Honestly, I'm getting better and better," he wrote, describing "some health stuff that you can't exactly pinpoint, on top of injuries throughout my career." Neither he nor the team has disclosed what the issue is.
That history is the frame for the money. Golden State acquired him from Atlanta last season in a trade that sent Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to the Hawks, Yahoo Sports reported, and illness had sidelined him with the Hawks too; Yahoo and Bleacher Report differ on how many games he played after the trade.
Per WAGE, his $30.7M salary in 2025-26 ranked 55th of the 435 rated players, and his production, a season total, ranked 209th.
He played 32 of his team's 82 games last season, which means about $18.7M of that salary went to games he did not play.
Per WAGE, his WAGE Score fell to 13 last season, in the Sunk Cost tier, from 55 in 2024-25. I read that fall as a story about availability rather than about how he played when he played.
The averages point the same way: when he did play for the Warriors, he averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks, according to Bleacher Report, which called him in theory a logical fit beside Draymond Green. The production per night was there; the nights were not.
What the reporting cannot yet say is what this season's money asks: his 2026-27 salary and the years left on his contract are not in the reporting, and there is no diagnosis and no timeline.
Bleacher Report noted that Jimmy Butler is also out to start the season as he recovers from a torn ACL, which leaves the Warriors shorthanded. For now, the big man Golden State took on in the Kuminga-Hield trade is a player whose availability no one can yet schedule.