A new team has entered the Kristaps Porzingis conversation

It feels like we are indeed entering the final days and weeks of Kristaps Porzingis as a member of the Boston Celtics.

Acquired in 2023 in a move that always done with the idea of maximizing a win-now window (which the Celtics did with a title in 2024), the bill has come due and has made Porzingis and his contract the talk of the rumor mill.

And now we have a new team in the mix, with the Phoenix Suns doing their 'background work' on the Boston big man, according to Jake Fischer.

“I’ve also heard that Phoenix has done some background work on Kristaps Porzingis with Boston known to be exploring its trade options up and down the roster," Fischer wrote earlier this week on Marc Stein's substack. "Sources say you can likewise add Phoenix to the list of teams that had been hoping to elbow its way into Myles Turner’s free agency this summer.”

Entering the final year of a two-year contract that comes with a cap hit of just under $31 million in 2025-26, the 7-foot-2 Porzingis has found himself joined by Jrue Holiday and Sam Hauser as the likeliest cap casualties of Boston's cost-cutting summer in the wake of Jayson Tatum's torn Achilles. So in a way, nothing about another team joining the mix for 'KP' is shocking or even new.

But given Fischer's intel on Porzingis as well as Myles Turner, it's clear that the Suns are in the market for some frontcourt help, which makes Porzingis a potential buy-low kind of option given the Celtics' aforementioned tax issues. The Suns are also looking to accommodate Kevin Durant's desire for a trade, and with Bradley Beal and Devin Booker still in town, a player like Porzingis may help lessen the blow that comes with trading a player like Durant, adding to the intrigue of a potential Boston-Phoenix trade centered around Porzingis.

But! And this is a big ol' but... the Suns are also facing their own set of second apron penalties, adding to the mess that is a potential Porzingis trade.

The Suns could dip under that with a Durant trade, and they could make some additional moves to clear some additional salaries off their books, but given the status of both teams, it's downright impossible for the sides to make a Porzingis-centered trade until all of that dust settles elsewhere.

That may not jive with the Celtics' desires, ultimately, as you would imagine the C's do not want to spend their entire offseason waiting around for other teams to handle non-Celtics business before configuring their 2025-26 roster.

Utah, Brooklyn, Golden State, and even the Lakers have been among the other teams linked as possible landing spots for the Latvian-born Porzingis depending on what it is that is both going out and coming in in the trade.

It's also entirely possible that the Celtics want to keep Porzingis in the fold for next season, especially given how thin they are in the frontcourt, and with his value at a Celtics tenure low following a mysterious illness that decimated Porzingis at the end of the regular season and through the playoffs.

That's an idea that's gained some momentum in recent weeks, with Chris Mannix recently throwing it out there that the Celtics may not be completely sold on ditching Porzingis and moving on after just two seasons in Boston.

“I’ve also heard, ‘We’re going to nibble around the fringes,’” Mannix said during an appearance on the KOC Show earlier this month. “If you want Holiday, you can have him. Porzingis, I think is available, but they’d like to get Porzingis back long-term at a lower price point on his next deal.”

Porzingis is coming off a 2024-25 season where he shot 48.3 percent (and a career-best 41.2 percent from three-point range), and averaged 19.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in 42 games for the C's.