On the January 29th episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast, he addressed some reader questions and an interesting hypothetical scenario. He considered the possibility that the Hawks would end up using Kristaps Porzingis’ expiring $30.73 million contract in some kind of deal before the deadline.
In this scenario, the emailer theorized that whatever team acquires KP would be doing so in a salary dump and would likely be willing to buy him out. In that case, assuming Porzingis cleared waivers, which he almost certainly would, as no team would claim that contract, he would then be free to sign with any team (other than the Hawks) for the rest of the season.