Gui Santos is in line to start for the Warriors when they meet the Lakers in preseason game five, a notable move in a lineup that still has plenty of questions attached to it.
Golden State enters Tuesday’s 7 p.m. PDT matchup at Los Angeles on NBA TV 1 with a 2-2 record, while the Lakers are 2-1. For the Warriors, the bigger story is what this preseason is revealing about the roster’s shape, especially with a few starting spots still up for grabs.
Stephen Curry and Draymond Green look locked into the mix, and Steve Kerr appears to be leaning toward a starting five of Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, Yaxel Lendeborg and Green against the Lakers. That alignment gives Santos a chance to slide into a bigger role, and it also keeps Golden State in the small-ball lane that has been part of the conversation all preseason.
Santos fits the kind of player the Warriors seem to be chasing. He can handle multiple jobs, cover multiple positions and help preserve the versatility Kerr wants from this group. The question is whether that flexibility turns into dependable minutes once the games start carrying real weight.
Porziņģis remains another major piece of the equation. He is making his first appearance at work, but his availability and overall performance level are still unresolved. Kerr was blunt when asked about what comes next:
"No, all that will be determined once we get him back here and have discussions and figure out where he is, all that stuff."
The Warriors have already been dealing with uncertainty around their biggest offseason addition, and that uncertainty bleeds into the rest of the rotation. If Al Horford is the default starter, the team still has to sort out the backup minutes behind him. If Porziņģis can’t go, the ripple effect is immediate.
That is part of why Green at center keeps coming up. It gives the Warriors a functional fallback, but it also highlights how much the team is leaning on a look that may age less gracefully as the league gets younger and faster.
Still, this is preseason, and the whole point is to see what can work. For Golden State, Tuesday’s lineup against Los Angeles is another chance to test whether the pieces can actually fit the way the team hopes. Curry and Green are in the final stretch of their careers, and the Warriors are still trying to find the right kind of supporting cast around them.
Santos is one of the most interesting pieces in that search. If he can grow into the role the Warriors seem ready to give him, he could become part of something useful. If not, he remains another name in a preseason full of possibilities.
Either way, the story is getting ready to start.
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Sonya has also recently addressed the rumors that have lingered around her past divorce, asking for privacy as old claims continue to resurface. For Steph and the Warriors, the on-court focus may always come first, but this was one of those personal milestones that matters just as much to the people inside the family circle. [Read more 🡒]