Porzingis Is Already Hurt, and Camp Just Started

Kristaps Porzingis is sidelined before Golden State has played a single preseason minute, which is not the way the Warriors drew this up. The front office signed him to a two-year, $40 million deal this summer specifically to solve the center problem — rim protection, floor spacing, a credible presence in the paint alongside Curry and Green. That plan is now on hold before it has had a chance to breathe.

The grounding here is thin: there is no diagnosis or timetable in what I have, so I am not going to speculate on severity. What I can say is that Porzingis has a well-documented history of significant injuries — the torn ACL in New York, the stress fracture in Boston — and that history is part of why his arrival carried an asterisk even when the signing was announced. Golden State knew the risk profile. They signed him anyway because the need at center was real, and the alternatives were thinner.

Al Horford is here on a two-year deal, and he can hold the position in a pinch. But Horford is a depth and leadership piece at this stage of his career, not a starter being asked to anchor a retooled rotation from day one. If Porzingis misses meaningful time, that gap does not have a clean answer on this roster.

The Warriors got the Curry extension done, which was the right first step. But this team has been bitten by injury repeatedly — Curry played only 49 games last season, Butler tore his ACL in January and his return timeline is still open — and now the offseason's biggest addition is already in street clothes. Camp just started. It is early. But it is also a familiar feeling around here.