Why Grizzlies Should Consider Kristaps Porziņģis Trade With Warriors

The Memphis Grizzlies’ hot start has made them hard to predict. They could be buyers or sellers at this year’s trade deadline. If they are selling, they should call the Golden State Warriors about Kristaps Porziņģis.

That will seem counterintuitive to some fans. Porziņģis announced Nov. 6 that he is stepping away from basketball to prioritize his health. It is not an official retirement, and the Warriors can still use his $20 million salary in a trade before February’s deadline, ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported. Golden State has been withholding payments on that salary but has no plan to void the contract, per Slater.

Yet, any deal revolving around Porziņģis won’t be about Porziņģis so much as it’s about the assets that will be attached to his contract. The Warriors would likely have to add some draft capital to get a deal done.

And that’s exactly where the Grizzlies come in.

If there is a Porziņģis-to-Memphis deal made, it will inevitably involve Jerami Grant.

His contract is similar to Porziņģis’ in that both run through next season. Grant has a player option for 2027-28 that he’s likely to accept, and then his deal expires. Porziņģis’ two-year, $40 million contract has only $3 million guaranteed next season, according to Slater. The major difference is that Grant makes $34.2 million this season to Porziņģis’ $20.0 million.

There are a couple of ways around that. The Grizzlies could ask the Warriors to include Moses Moody in the trade. Moody makes $12.5 million this season and has not played yet while recovering from a torn left patellar tendon, but he’d bring the salaries within $1.7 million of each other and qualify as the cost the Warriors were paying to flip Porziņģis for a productive player.

Alternatively, the Warriors could tack Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton onto the deal, along with, say, a couple of second-round picks. Horford makes $6.8 million and Melton $6.1 million this season, and neither can be traded until Dec. 15 after re-signing this summer, per Spotrac.

Those deals both make sense on paper. Either one would still have to fit the salary-matching rules and Golden State’s apron position. In July, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron noted that using the bi-annual exception on Melton would hard-cap the Warriors at the first apron.

Provided that Memphis even wants to part with Grant.

As of now, the Grizzlies are 7-3. They’ve been among the better teams in the NBA early in 2026-27.

Grant has been a modest but not inconsequential part of their success. He’s averaging 10.4 points while shooting 44.7% from 3-point range. Grant isn’t the defender that he used to be, but he remains useful on that end of the floor.

So, Memphis should monitor the situation. If they’re still a winning team at the deadline, they don’t need some second-round draft capital at the cost of Porziņģis’ dead money.

That said, if they start sliding, there would be no shame in taking a step back. This team has been ahead of expectations in 2026-27. The Grizzlies are supposed to be rebuilding, so if that’s how they end up looking at the deadline, it’s nothing to be concerned about. They should consider taking on Porziņģis’ contract along with some assets if the Warriors are open to a deal and the Grizzlies aren’t focused on winning games.

But at this point, who could predict where they’ll be by then?