With the passing of the NBA All-Star break, the Warriors enter the second half of the season with its new trade acquisition Kristaps Porziņģis, and fresh renditions of the team’s lineup rotations sparking the emergence of new contributors.
ESPN senior insider Shams Charania reported on Feb. 4 that the Warriors would trade forward Jonathan Kuminga and guard Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for center Kristaps Porziņģis.
“(Kumiga) is a really good young guy,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said at a press conference the day after the trade. “It’s obviously been a rocky road for him and for us and you know it hasn’t always been the right fit.”
Kerr also called Buddy Hield an extremely bright locker room presence and “one of the best teammates” he coached.
“We’re looking at a guy who really fits what we need,” Kerr said about Porziņģis. “Size, space, shooting, rim protection … we’ve never really had a player quite like him.”
Joining the Warriors, Porziņģis would reunite with former Boston Celtics teammate Al Horford, who he won a championship with in 2024.
Porziņģis contributed to the Celtics’s 3-point dynasty that season, averaging a league best in 3-pointers made while being second in 3-point efficiency.
It will be interesting to see what Kerr decides to do regarding these two, and if he could take inspiration from that championship team.
We would get a small glimpse of Porzingis’ fit on the team at the Feb. 19 Warriors-Celtics meeting. Porziņģis would come off the bench with a minutes restriction as this was his first NBA game in over a month.
Starting off slow in the second quarter, Porziņģis would commit two turnovers in this span while grabbing his only rebound of the game. In the fourth quarter, though, he would flip a switch, scoring 7 points in just five minutes, highlighted by a 31-foot bomb to cap off this hot stretch.
Unfortunately, the biggest fear in this trade would come to light in the days following this performance as Porziņģis’ postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) worsened before the team’s next contest, a condition rarely found among male athletes. This disease would ail him with chronic lightheadedness, nausea, and increased heart rate. While not life-threatening, the disease is enough to interfere and flare with any physical activity. This combined with his recurring achilles tendonitis requiring load management, Kristaps’ health would be the leading narrative surrounding him, leaving questions around his availability in general.
“Hopefully the minutes go up, but it’s all really kind of day to day,” would be Kerr’s words following their Friday night game versus the Nuggets. “The hope is and the plan is for the minutes to go up, we just can’t map that out exactly.”
On a brighter note, the absence of Stephen Curry for the rest of February and the sidelining of Jimmy Butler for the rest of the season would open up opportunities for two of the team’s role players to step up.
In the place of Butler, Forward Gui Santos has officially broken out, averaging career highs in all stats during the month of February and late January. What he brings to the table is supreme effort and energy averaging a career high 15.7 points per game while also receiving the most minutes he’s had in his career. Not only is Gui playing his best basketball, with the team’s rotations being spread out, even 2022 Champion Gary Payton II has become an increasingly important player. He was a crucial piece to the Warriors big win over the Nuggets last Saturday.
With these expectations in place, the Warriors have a clearer path to another playoff appearance this season. With the team currently eighth in the Western Conference, this next stretch of games not featuring Stephen Curry will be crucial in ensuring a higher seeding. We can only hope that the trademark “Strength in Numbers” ideology of the franchise will help carry the Dubs to the finish line.
