The Warriors are out of the LeBron sweepstakes and the consolation prize is Kristaps Porzingis on a two-year, $40 million deal — which is one of the sadder sentences I’ve typed about a franchise with four championships and a claim to dynasty.
Shams confirmed the Porzingis extension. LeBron is all but certainly headed to Cleveland, per Windhorst and every reporter with a functioning phone — not official yet, but every arrow points the same direction. Golden State spent the better part of this offseason chasing James, watching the Anthony Davis trade collapse when Washington refused to budge, watching Draymond Green’s opt-out blow the whole thing open — and after all of that, the Warriors’ LeBron pursuit ends with: Porzingis.
https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/2071727115322507686
Steph Curry is 38 years old.
He has four rings. He never demanded a trade. Never threatened to leave. Never did the Player Empowerment thing where you manufacture drama to force a front office’s hand. He just showed up, shot the ball from distances that should be illegal, and won. He held up his end of the deal for fifteen years.
The org answered with a seven-foot Latvian who has been hurt more often than not and costs forty million dollars over two years.
Here’s what’s annoying, though: Porzingis isn’t nothing. He dropped 20 points when the Warriors beat the Clippers in the play-in — good spacing, good size, moved well off Curry. My mom had the game on in the background while she was making Sunday gravy and even she was like, “that tall one is pretty good.” And she’s right. Porzingis, in isolation, on a team that needs shooting and length, is fine. He’s a real player.
But fine isn’t the word you want attached to Steph Curry’s last window.
Not nothing is not enough. Curry at 38 still went for 35 in that Clippers game. He still makes defenses look stupid in ways that should not be physically possible for a man his age. He deserved a legitimate co-star. He deserved one more real run at it with someone who could take a game over when he couldn’t. Dame Lillard is back in Portland. Anthony Davis is staying in Washington. LeBron is going home to Cleveland.
The window isn’t closed yet — Curry’s knees apparently didn’t get the memo about his age — but it got a lot narrower today.
Porzingis and Curry. Two-year deal. Forty million dollars.
That’s what they’ve got.
