Warriors training camp takeaways: Starting five competition underway in Hawaii originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAIE, Hawaii – While the second day of Warriors training camp on the campus of BYU-Hawaii was a bit lighter than the first, the team again went through controlled 5-on-5. Wednesday’s emphasis was a lot of work in transition.
“We were a very poor transition team last year,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “One of our main focal points at camp is to try to clean up our transition, be more efficient. Gave away too many points last year, and we’re working hard on that.”
The Warriors allowed the eighth-most points in transition per game last season (24.7).
Bringing in veteran coach Frank Vogel to run the Warriors’ defense already is being felt by all, with a major focus on being a better team in transition. Vogel, 53, has 21 years of coaching experience in the NBA – 12 as a head coach and nine as an assistant. He ran the Dallas Mavericks’ defense last season after a one-year stint as the Phoenix Suns’ head coach.
“We’re using some of his transition defensive drills, some of his rebounding drills,” Kerr said. “We’ve been watching tape of Dallas’ training camp from last year. The drill work that Frank did with them, and Frank said, ‘No more Dallas tape after the game.’ Those guys don’t like watching another team, so now we have enough tape for ourselves to watch our own camp tape.
“But Frank’s awesome. He’s a great, great coach, and he’s doing a really good job getting these guys organized, giving them kind of the expectations for how we’re going to defend, our terminology – I’m very confident.”
Here are three takeaways from the second day of Warriors training camp, which featured comments from Kerr and De’Anthony Melton.
Gui Santos’ Next Steps
The best story last season, on the Warriors and perhaps throughout the NBA, was Golden State forward Gui Santos. Taken with the No. 55 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Santos spent his entire first season in Santa Cruz playing for the Warriors’ G League affiliate. Santos transformed his body and his game, slowly earning more opportunities.
He played in 23 NBA games the next season, and 56 in 2024-25, watching his minutes per game go from 8.3 to 13.6. Last season was Santos’ breakout, knocking down the door and playing 68 games with 30 starts while averaging 20.5 points per game.
“Gui’s great,” Kerr said. “Just from Day 1, the energy that he brought, coachability, wanting to get better, being in the gym all the time, soaking up the knowledge that he needed, and then building up the reps in Santa Cruz. Playing there for at least a couple years – two, three years – night after night, playing heavy minutes … now he’s worked his way up where he’s going to be again one of our most important players. He’s a guy everybody would love to coach. Just how hard he plays, and the knowledge and the awareness of how to play.”
Santos averaged career highs in points per game (9.2), rebounds per game (3.9) and assists per game (2.3). Where he really shone was down the stretch of the season when the Warriors were hit hard by injuries to Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and eventually Moses Moody. In a season where the team was searching for silver linings, Santos was one of them.
From the time that Butler sustained a torn ACL on Jan. 19 through the end of the regular season, Santos played in 35 games and started 28. His numbers rocketed to 14.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, shooting 50.8 percent from the field. As the Warriors wait on Butler and Moody’s returns from injury, Kerr wants Santos to stay within himself and build off the block he already has created.
“Just continued growth shooting the ball. We asked a lot of him last year, and he turned it over quite a bit in those last 25 games when Steph was out,” Kerr said. “It was a good process for him to have to create shots for us because we didn’t have any other options, and then feel the mistakes that he made at the same time.
“We’re just looking for continued growth. He’s a focal point of our team, our offense. But fitting next to Steph, next to Jimmy when he’s back, where he’s still able to attack and make plays, but also being the role player, fill-in guy that he’s so good at.”
Yaxel’s Versatility
On a team that still has Curry, Butler and Draymond Green, the spotlight is shining equally as bright on rookie Yaxel Lendeborg. He’s almost impossible to miss, whether it’s his size or bravado. And that size already has stood to Warriors veterans.
“Man, Yax is … I think the big thing about Yax is he’s such a smart player,” Melton said. “So stuff just comes to him naturally. I don’t think he even notices sometimes. But like you said, his versatility. Like, he’s a big body. He can guard space, and that’s important. And he can go out to the rim not scared about it. And offensively, I mean, running into him when he sets a screen, you can feel the physicality you need, and that’s what you get from Draymond too.
“Him rolling to the basket, we’re trying to tell him, ‘I don’t think nobody wants to step in front of you rolling to the basket.’ He’s such a versatile player. We just got to continue to have him do it more and more.”
At 6-foot-9 and 241 pounds with a wingspan that stretches past 7-foot-3, Lendeborg is one of the biggest players on the Warriors. Lendeborg, who turned 24 years old on Wednesday, began his college career as a center at Arizona Western College, played bully ball his two years at UAB and then found himself on the wing at Michigan.
There already have been instances in controlled 5-on-5 where Lendeborg essentially has been the Warriors’ center, which Kerr isn’t worried about offensively but acknowledged that would be a big adjustment defensively. Ideally, he’ll find his way as one of the Warriors’ two forward positions.
The advantage of having Lendeborg’s strength, length and ability to shoot the ball makes Kerr comfortable playing him as a small forward or a power forward.
“He’s just a basketball player,” Kerr said. “I mean, he can dribble, pass, shoot. It doesn’t really matter what position you play him.”
Open Competition
Kerr on Tuesday was adamant that Green will continue to be in the Warriors’ starting lineup to pair him with Curry as much as he can. The next day, the Warriors coach strongly stated the other three positions in the starting five are up for grabs as an open competition.
“For sure,” Kerr said. “Yeah, yeah. Nothing has been decided yet.”
Kristaps Porziņģis was expected to be the Warriors’ starting center like he was last season. But a health issue has him home instead of in Hawaii with the rest of his teammates. Al Horford could slot into that position, as could Green. Kerr preferably would have Horford come off the bench and Green play much more power forward than center to save his body.
Santos has etched his name into the Warriors’ rotation for the foreseeable future, but even he could find himself in a competition with Lendeborg. Maybe they both start to give the Warriors newfound size on the wings.
Who starts next to Curry has been a question since Klay Thompson departed in the summer of 2024. That also has been a question for Brandin Podziemski and Melton for stretches over each of the past two years, as well as this season, too. Podziemski played all 82 games last season and started 43 of them. Melton played in 49 games after making his season debut on Dec. 4 and started 24.
The elder of the two says he couldn’t care less about starting or coming off the bench going into his ninth season and third as a Warrior.
“Nah, I think for me it’s just, man, we got such a deep team,” Melton said. “It’s just about collecting wins and adding them up. And I think, end of the day, we want to see where we’re at in April. … So for me, it doesn’t really matter. I think I just want to collect as many wins as possible.”
Time is on the Warriors’ side to find the right winning formula of a five-man combination to start games. That’s what training camp is for, and that’s what playing six preseason games is for three weeks away from the regular-season opener against the Lakers in Los Angeles.
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