The Warriors are withholding salary payments to big man Kristaps Porzingis, contending that he’s not rendering the services required by his player contract, sources tell Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link).

The fine for failure to render services is equivalent to 1/91.6th of the player’s salary for each game he misses, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. In Porzingis’ case, that works out to $218,341 per game, which is 1/91.6th of his $20MM salary for the 2026/27 season.

Reporting at the start of the season indicated that Golden State was pursuing potential trade avenues for Porzingis, who has been ruled out indefinitely due to an undisclosed health issue and is said to be contemplating the possibility of retirement. The Warriors’ efforts on the trade market are ongoing, Charania and Slater report, noting that withholding a portion of the big man’s salary doesn’t impact the front office’s ability to move him.

Slater suggested last week that the Warriors had expected Porzingis to be around the team more frequently despite his health problems, stating that the situation could “no longer be described as an excused absence.” The 31-year-old reportedly hasn’t been at the club’s facilities since early October. Slater also wrote at the time that Golden State had internally discussed the possibility of deeming Porzingis’ absence a failure to render his services.

Porzingis has missed significant chunks of the past two years due to non-injury-related health issues and spoke last fall about being diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Neither he nor the Warriors have offered any specifics on the ailment currently preventing him from suiting up for the team, but it’s serious enough that Charania and Slater say he’s “leaning toward” ending his playing career.

Although a team has the right to withhold a player’s salary for a failure to render services, the player can work with the National Basketball Players Association to fight that decision. For example, when the Sixers took a similar path with Ben Simmons during the 2021/22 season, which he missed due to a holdout and a back injury, he filed a grievance in an effort to recoup nearly $20MM in withheld salary. The two sides later reached a settlement agreement that allowed him to receive a portion of that money.

More to come…