Warriors withholding payments on Kristaps Porzingis' $20M salary amid absence

Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis (7) warms up before a NBA play-in tournament game against the Phoenix Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Ariz., Friday, April 17, 2026. (Stephen Lam/S.F. Chronicle) Kristaps Porzingis' Warriors checks, for the time being, will not reach his account.Golden State is withholding payments to Porzingis on his $20 million salary amid his ongoing, indefinite absence from the organization, a league source confirmed to the Chronicle on Tuesday morning. ESPN first reported the news on Porzingis, who has yet to play or practice for the Warriors this season amid what the team has termed a "health-related matter."The NBA's collective-bargaining agreement stipulates that a player's salary can be reduced in accordance with missed games for a failure to "render the services" required by the contract, and no reasonable excuse. Porzingis' overall $20 million salary for 2026-27, though, will still count against the Warriors' cap room.The 31-year-old Porzingis has been away from the Warriors' facility since Oct. 13, when he made an appearance to meet with general manager Mike Dunleavy and vice president of player health and performance Rick Celebrini. A day later, the Warriors released a statement saying Porzingis would still be out indefinitely but would be around the team. "I'm working with doctors and experts to figure out how to be fully back to good health asap," Porzingis tweeted the same day. "Honestly, I'm getting better and better. I just have to stay patient, and I believe I'll be feeling great again soon."Porzingis, though, never made it back to the Warriors' facility. A week later, Golden State released another statement saying the organization didn't anticipate Porzingis "being around the team in the immediate future."There is league precedent, certainly, for such a situation withholding game checks – precedent that suggests that Porzingis's chapter in Golden State has reached a point of no return. In the 2021-22 season, after Philadelphia's Ben Simmons refused to report to training camp or suit up at all for the 76ers, the organization withheld nearly $20 million in salary. Simmons eventually filed a grievance, and the two sides settled. Philadelphia eventually dealt Simmons to Brooklyn, after Nets star James Harden then requested a trade. The Warriors, almost certainly, will now look to move Porzingis in a salary-match swap, as he's guaranteed just $3 million of his $20 million salary next season on a two-year contract – a near-expiring deal that could eventually prove an asset to a team trying to clear its books of a longer-term contract.SubscribeThere’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Warriors withholding payments on Kristaps Porzingis' $20M salary amid absence.