{"id":539496,"date":"2026-01-16T00:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/539496\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:37:20","slug":"latest-kristaps-porzingis-update-shows-celtics-made-right-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/539496\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Kristaps Porzingis Update Shows Celtics Made Right Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the Atlanta Hawks traded for Kristaps Porzingis in the offseason, they were hoping for a productive season from a guy who recently won an NBA Finals ring with the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/teams\/nba\/boston-celtics\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Porzingis (and the Hawks), 2025-26 has brought more illness troubles for KP, and he might find himself getting traded in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN\u2019s Bobby Marks identified Porzingis this week as the Hawks\u2019 \u201cplayer to watch\u201d ahead of the February 5 trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrae Young\u00a0was originally on the watch list\u00a0before he was sent\u00a0to Washington for\u00a0CJ McCollum\u00a0and\u00a0Corey Kispert,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47600410\/nba-trade-deadline-2026-morant-kuminga-sabonis-all-30-teams-player-watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marks wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe Young trade now allows Atlanta to move off Porzingis\u2019 expiring $30.7 million contract and gain flexibility to take back salary in future years \u2014 for example,\u00a0Anthony Davis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut with Davis out for an extended period of time\u00a0with a left hand injury, holding on to Porzingis for the remainder of the season is the more viable option,\u201d Marks continued. \u201cPorzingis has missed 14 games\u00a0due to illness\u00a0but has been effective on the hardwood, providing Atlanta with much-needed size in the frontcourt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Even though Marks sort of backed off his take that KP will get moved, it\u2019s still clear that Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens traded Porzingis at the right time. <\/p>\n<p>Would one more season of KP have been nice, especially given Boston\u2019s shallow frontcourt situation? Sure, but having Porzingis doesn\u2019t really mean anything unless he\u2019s available. And with Stevens under pressure to cut costs this past summer, moving off of KP\u2019s $30.7 million cap hit was inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>Porzingis will hit free agency after the season and might not find himself with a ton of suitors. Some have speculated that this could lead to a <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/07\/celtics-could-reunite-with-all-star-center-in-2026-after-gap-year\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">return to Boston<\/a> on a cheap contract, but the ship has probably sailed for good on that front.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Atlanta Hawks traded for Kristaps Porzingis in the offseason, they were hoping for a productive season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,677,871,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-539496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-hawks","13":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115901985296843260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}