Gui Santos has been given more ball-handling responsibility for the Warriors of late, and it has sparked a new excitement in him, Nick Avila writes for NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Yeah, I’m loving it because not that I don’t like the other part,” Santos said. “I love to just be on the NBA floor, but when you’re on the NBA floor and you’ve got a little bit more freedom to find teammates and either go to the basket and do all that, that gives you so much more joy to play. So, I really love it, the momentum.”
The newly-extended forward has raised his assist numbers to 4.6 per game over his last five, and his playstyle has been infectious among his teammates. However, he knows that his role will change again once Stephen Curry returns.
After receiving his three-year extension, Santos hopes to be an inspiration for other Brazilian players looking to make it in the NBA, Dalton Johnson writes for NBC Sports.
“I’m the only one here, so I’m the biggest example when you look at basketball and the NBA being the biggest level you can get to. Everybody is looking at me as an example,” Santos said. “For me, it’s just trying to be a great guy and show that the work ethic is the most important thing. That’s what got me here in this position.”
Head coach Steve Kerr praised Santos following the announcement of the deal.
“He’s been such an important player for us, but also just an incredible development story. Second-round pick and spent his entire first year in Santa Cruz,” Kerr said. “He’s become one of our most important players. We’re all so thrilled for him. He’s excited, it’s a great day.”
Curry reiterated that sentiment, according to NBC Sports’ Eden Collier.
“He was so happy to just be on an NBA team at one point,” Curry said. “And now to being a big part of our rotation, really developing and becoming an impactful player on both ends of the floor and being rewarded with that type of security — coming where he came from, it’s a big deal, it’s a big celebration today for him.”
We have more from the Warriors:
After it was announced today that Curry will miss at least the next five games with his lingering knee injury, it might be safest to shut the star point guard down until the play-in tournament, Johnson writes. He notes that given how difficult it would be to bridge the 4.5-game difference between the Warriors and sixth-seed Lakers, as well as how difficult it would be for a team to jump the Warriors and knock them out of the tournament completely, caution should be the name of the game when it comes to bringing Curry back. “It’s just something that you don’t want to have lingering because it can get worse,” Curry said when asked about the injury.
When Al Horford left the Celtics for the Warriors this off-season, it was with the idea that he was leaving a team in a gap-year for one that could compete in the playoffs. So far, the opposite has been true in terms of the two teams’ relative success levels, and Horford’s integration with the team has required a bit of a learning curve, Gary Washburn writes for the Boston Globe. “I think that the difference is in different places you look for different things,” Horford said. “So in Boston, we ran a lot of pick and rolls, and then some isolations, and then we got to moving the ball. And here with the Warriors, we try to get the ball to Draymond, or get the ball in the post, and then play more in the perimeter, play splits and cut to the basket and things like that. And then when Steph is on the court, obviously all that ties in together. So there’s some pick and roll, but then there’s a lot of off-the-ball movement.”
Kerr was honest and reflective when it came to the Warriors’ chances of making the playoffs outright and skipping the play-in tournament, NBC Sports’ Joaquin Ruiz writes. “It’s a lot to make up with 22 games left,” Kerr said. “We don’t even talk about it. It’s not anything that is worth discussing because we just have to try to go out and win and see what happens.“
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