Gui Santos was one of the few clear bright spots for the Golden State Warriors down the stretch last season, but that strong finish may not be enough to keep him in the starting five once camp opens.
Santos started 28 of the team’s final 31 games, a run that gave Golden State real reasons to feel good about the 24-year-old Brazilian forward. Still, the Warriors’ quiet summer has changed the conversation. With the franchise coming up empty in its pursuit of LeBron James and missing out on bigger swings for Jaylen Brown and Anthony Davis because the asking price was too steep, the spotlight has shifted to their newest addition, Yaxel Lendeborg.
That lack of a headline-grabbing offseason move leaves Lendeborg as the team’s most intriguing new piece, and maybe its most important one too. The 23-year-old’s summer league form has already fueled the idea that the 11th overall pick could win a starting job on merit alone. Even beyond that, Golden State has every reason to give him a long look as it tries to feature the player who feels like the fresh face of the roster.
That creates real pressure for Santos. What looked like an opportunity to cement his place may instead turn into a battle to hold off Lendeborg, whose presence could reshape the rotation before the season even begins.
Steve Kerr has already floated the possibility of starting Lendeborg, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis together, a sign that Santos may be entering training camp with a steep climb ahead of him. There is a case for Santos and Lendeborg to start side by side, but that would likely force Draymond Green to the bench, and Kerr’s trust in the veteran forward makes that look unlikely.
Golden State has done this before. Kerr and the Warriors have a track record of moving a prized lottery pick into the starting lineup, including when former second overall pick James Wiseman got the nod on opening night against the Brooklyn Nets in 2020 despite missing all of preseason because of Covid-19 protocols.
In Other News...
Warriors Fans Will Hate Where This Latest Spurs Hype Went
Charles Barkley already has the basketball world talking again, this time with a comparison that will land hard in the Bay Area. After praising Spurs guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, Barkley floated the idea that San Antonios young backcourt could grow into something reminiscent of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, a bar so high it practically comes with a warning label. The Spurs do have reasons to dream, with Victor Wembanyama anchoring a promising core and a pair of talented guards giving the franchise a new kind of upside.
For Warriors fans, the bigger issue is how casually those comparisons get made before anything has been earned. Curry and Thompson helped define an era, and matching even a slice of that success is a long way off for any young pair, no matter how much talent they show early. San Antonio also has its own roster questions to sort through as this core develops, and until those pieces settle, the new Steph and Klay talk feels more like a provocation than a prediction. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Just Lost The Lakers Threat They Feared Most
LeBron James is no longer part of the Lakers regular-season picture, and for Golden State that changes the equation in a way that is hard to ignore. The Warriors had spent years dealing with a matchup problem unlike most others, because James consistently seemed to raise his level when these teams crossed paths and gave Golden State a very specific kind of trouble on both ends of the floor.
The Lakers have already shifted their attention toward Luka Doncic in the wake of James departure, but the immediate effect for the Warriors is simpler: one fewer proven problem to game-plan around. Even if Los Angeles still has enough talent to matter, the absence of James removes the player who has so often made that rivalry feel heavier, more physical and a little more personal for Golden State. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have Avoided A Ben Simmons Role Problem
Ben Simmons latest stop came with a familiar wrinkle, as Sacramento officially signed him and listed him as a 6-foot-10 guard, keeping the conversation around his best NBA role alive. Rich Paul has suggested Simmons could be used more like a center in pick-and-roll looks, but the Kings current roster does not appear built to make that experiment easy, which makes the fit feel a little awkward before the season even gets going.
For the Warriors, the intrigue had looked a bit different. Golden State had shown interest in Simmons and could have tried to use him as a backup point guard or a versatile forward, the kind of Swiss Army piece that sometimes finds a lane in their system. Even then, he would have had to win a preseason roster spot over Brandon Williams, so the path was never going to be automatic, and the latest Sacramento move suggests the Warriors may have sidestepped a role puzzle before it reached their own locker room. [Read more 🡒]