Gui Santos’ decision to skip two upcoming World Cup qualifiers has already stirred debate in Brazil, but it also points Golden State toward an obvious next step: the Warriors need to treat him like a real rotation pillar when the season begins.
The 24-year-old forward, along with the Warriors, chose to put training camp ahead of the national team window, and that choice carries weight. If Golden State had any hand in steering Santos away from those games, then the payoff has to show up in October and beyond. Otherwise, the whole move starts to look empty.
That’s especially true because Santos wasn’t just filling space late last season. He turned into one of the team’s most dependable pieces during a brutal stretch for the Warriors, then kept playing heavy minutes when the games mattered most.
Over his final 31 regular-season games, he averaged more than 30 minutes per night. In Golden State’s two Play-In Tournament games against the L.A.
Clippers and Phoenix Suns, he logged 31 and 30 minutes.
That kind of usage can’t be brushed aside now. Even with 11th overall pick Yaxel Lendeborg entering the picture, Santos should still be in line for at least 25 minutes a night while Jimmy Butler is sidelined by injury. If his late-season surge was real, not a temporary spike, there’s no reason to bury him behind a deeper stack of veteran options.
And that’s where the Warriors have a real decision to make. Draymond Green, Al Horford and Gary Payton II are all part of the mix, but Santos’ rise should force someone else down the pecking order. Steve Kerr and Golden State can’t let a breakout stretch disappear just because the roster has familiar names attached to it.
Santos’ climb from fringe piece to legitimate offensive option was one of the few bright spots for an injury-hit Warriors team down the stretch. With Jimmy Butler out, Golden State needs creativity and energy wherever it can find it, and Santos already proved he can supply both.
Expecting him to repeat the exact line he posted over those final 31 games - 15.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals - might be asking a lot. But the Warriors should absolutely be able to count on something close.
If Santos ends up stuck at 12-15 minutes a night and can’t reproduce what he showed at the end of last season, then skipping those national team games will feel like a move with very little point.
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