With the Golden State Warriors having now won seven straight games, it's not easy to nitpick faults in this team.
After all, Stephen Curry is still playing at a superstar level. Yaxel Lendeborg has emerged as a real secondary offensive option. And above all, the small-ball lineup Golden State has introduced to account for Kristaps Porzingis' absence has actually been viable.
Those are all major developments, especially for a team that currently has close to $90 million on the sidelines and likely will until around mid-season.
But this team is still just one major injury away from a backslide, and in the meantime, it's going to need to lean on its depth as much as possible, figuring out as many different looks and offensive options as it can find through these early portions of the season. Gui Santos should have a part to play in that.
But Santos has played in just three of the Warriors' last six games, and he only played 11 minutes in the overtime victory over the Orlando Magic on Saturday. And when he has played, since his tendinitis issue came up, he's looked higly ineffective—averaging just three points on 40% shooting from the field over his last three appearances.
It's not an immediately disastrous issue, and it's one the Warriors have obviously found a way to work around during their winning streak. But if this rotation is going to reach its fullest form, Golden State is going to need Santos back in top shape as soon as possible.
Gui Santos is still a key piece for this Warriors rotation no matter how the rest of the season unfolds
Again, Golden State has found a way to make things work without Santos in the lineup. Both Georges Niang and Will Richard have gotten starts in his place, and with Lendeborg performing at this level, the urgency for Santos to match the production he found late last season has been eased dramatically.
But it's still hard to forget the glimpse we got of Santos as a true offensive contributor at the end of 2025-26. Over his final 29 games, when he stepped into the starting lineup in the absences of Butler, Moody, and Stephen Curry, he averaged 15.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and four assists while knocking down 34.3% of his attempts from beyond the arc. He was rapidly gaining confidence as an interior scorer, and his footwork in the paint even against larger defenders looked impeccable.
That role isn't necessarily there for him in this version of Golden State's starting lineup. Instead, he's going to need hit his 3-pointers more consistently and ease off of the on-ball opportunities when he's paired with Lendeborg—which should be the plan for the foreseeable future once he returns. He'll also likely be moved to the bench unit when Butler and Moody are back in the fold, easing the urgency on him performing at that same level offensively even further.
But there will come a time this season where the Warriors are going to need Santos to produce. That could come while he's in the starting lineup, in the form of a small smattering of games that Curry is forced to miss. Or it could come while he's with the bench unit, and poor perimeter shooting from Niang or Horford forces Santos to create some of his own opportunities on the interior to keep the non-Curry minutes viable.
Insofar as tendinitis can be a persistent issue, recurring over the length of a season, his injury remains a concern moving forward. But there also needs to be some enhanced play out of Santos when he returns to full strength—at least if the Warriors are going to maximize the current complexion of this rotation.
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