For a few electric hours on Monday, it looked like the Golden State Warriors were on the verge of putting together one of the all-time lineups in NBA history.
Draymond Green declined his $27.7 million player option Monday morning. Expectations were that he would re-sign later at a lower annual rate, opening up financial flexibility for the Warriors to pursue free agent LeBron James on a $15 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, while also exploring a potential trade for Anthony Davis.
But only hours later, Golden State went in another direction entirely. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Warriors agreed to a two-year, $40 million contract with Kristaps Porzingis that includes a player option for the 2027-28 season.
Soon after, ESPN’s salary cap expert Bobby Marks pointed out that, in committing that money to Porzingis, Golden State can no longer offer James the full $15 million midlevel exception that was being viewed as the only realistic path forward to bring him to the Bay Area.
Porzingis arrived in Golden State at the trade deadline in a deal that sent Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks. Despite appearing in just 15 games, he averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game, shooting 31.1% from 3-point range.
Porzingis is an elite floor spacer for a 7-footer and a legitimate rim protector, the perfect piece to slot next to Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Green. But he’s still not LeBron James.
This doesn’t necessarily end every scenario for the Warriors to land James, though. He could theoretically accept an even smaller contract, or Golden State could explore a potential sign-and-trade deal. But those options are starting to look increasingly unrealistic, especially for someone who just declined a player option where he would have made over $50 million.
Aside from the Warriors, James has also been strongly linked to a possible return to Cleveland and Miami, assuming he and the Lakers don’t reach an agreement.