Warriors’ Kristaps Porzingis trade slammed by Kendrick Perkins – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

After weeks of speculation that the Warriors had a real chance at acquiring Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thursday’s NBA trade deadline came and went — and Golden State wound up on the other side of it with veteran big man Kristaps Porzingis.

The Warriors sent forward Jonathan Kuminga and guard Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Porzingis on Wednesday night, and ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins found the move somewhat baffling after all the Antetokounmpo talk.

“I forgot [Porzingis] still played basketball to be honest with you,” Perkins said on “SportsCenter” after Shams Charania broke news of the trade. “I’m serious — I haven’t heard his name until tonight. It does absolutely nothing for me.

“I mean, when you talk about what we’ve been discussing over the last two weeks — we’ve been talking about pairing Steph [Curry] with Giannis. Now all of a sudden, it’s just Kristaps Porzingis? That don’t move the needle for me, and it damn sure don’t move the needle for the Warriors.”

Like many, Perkins envisioned the Warriors making a win-now deadline move that would take advantage of Curry’s remaining years and allow Golden State to compete for another NBA championship as an actual playoff team, rather than by way of the play-in tournament.

But with the Bucks reportedly refusing to budge on an Antetokounmpo deal despite a valiant effort by the Warriors — and other teams — general manager Mike Dunleavy had to pivot and instead brought in Porzingis, who has missed 100 missed games over the least three seasons due to injuries and illness.

There is a chance that the Warriors attempt to pursue Antetokounmpo again this offseason. They still have all of their future first-round picks after Thursday’s deadline — and the two moves they did make, which included trading Trayce Jackson-Davis to the Toronto Raptors for a 2026 second-round pick, saved them some cash.

That’s how Perkins made some sense of the trade for Porzingis, while also making the case that the deal is great for Kuminga, who demanded a move out of Golden State last month.

“This is just a move, probably, to free up money and free up cap space to make a bigger move this offseason,” Perkins continued. “But the bigger winner in this picture is Jonathan Kuminga to the Hawks. They might just have the most athletic team in the NBA … He is going to thrive under [Hawks coach] Quin Snyder. He is going to thrive playing alongside Jalen Johnson, who’s becoming one of the bright young stars in this game.”

It remains to be seen who will emerge the winner of Thursday’s trade, but one thing was certain: The Warriors and Kuminga needed to part ways, and this was the way Dunleavy decided to do it.

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