SAN FRANCISCO – Gui Santos’ emergence this season has been one of the best stories of the Warriors and the entire NBA. All the work Santos has put in since being selected by Golden State in the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft was rewarded Saturday by the Warriors with a multi-year contract extension.
While the Warriors didn’t announce details of the deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported, citing sources, that Santos signed a three-year, $15 million contract with a player option for the 2028-29 NBA season.
“Happy for Gui, and happy for us,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Saturday during his pregame press conference. “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. … He’s become one of our most important players. We’re all so thrilled for him. He’s excited, it’s a great day.”
First on Santos’ list was calling his parents to tell them the great news. But he had to make them sweat at least a little bit.
Disguising his tone the best he could, Santos told his parents he had something serious to talk about. Life is good for Santos. He doesn’t get in trouble off the court, has been enjoying the best season of his young NBA career and got engaged over the summer.
“They were very excited, emotional,” Santos said. “More than anybody, they know how tough it was for me to make it here. Just to have that call, I was kind of serious, like, ‘Dad, mom, I got something serious to talk about to you guys.’ And they thought I got my fiancé pregnant.”
Parents know best. They might have got that one wrong and fell for their son’s innocent trap, but they know just how resilient Santos has been in his basketball journey.
“Man, it’s a lot of things that come to my mind when you see your work get a reward,” Santos said. “It was a lot of work since I got here through the G League. Even before, playing in Brazil. All the resources that we have there, it’s not much. Just to make it to the league is a big, big thing. But to get an extension with the best organization in the world, there’s no words that can describe this feeling.
“There’s the basketball, wanting to play for the Warriors and Steph [Curry] and all that. But one thing that’s really important for me is my family. When you get assured that you’re gonna be able to help them for long, long, long years, it’s just amazing. It’s a great feeling.”
Santos played professionally in Brazil for Minas before the Warriors drafted him nearly four years ago. His first season was played entirely in the G League for the Santa Cruz Warriors, where in 43 games he averaged 10.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists per contest. He then played 32 games for Santa Cruz and 23 for Golden State in 2023-24, and just six games for Santa Cruz but 56 – with two starts – for Golden State last season.
His fourth season since being drafted and third in the NBA has resulted in career highs across the board. Santos coming into Saturday, the day he signed his extension, is averaging 6.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, which all are the best of his young career. But his impact as of late has been much more than those numbers suggest.
Santos was a healthy DNP (Did Not Play) nine times before the calendar flipped from 2025 to 2026. He hasn’t been a DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) since. When Jimmy Butler went down with a season-ending torn ACL on Jan. 19, nobody on the Warriors stepped up more than Santos.
It has been 16 games since Butler’s season ended, and Santos in that span easily has been one of the Warriors’ best players. He has averaged 13.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game during that stretch with a 56.9 field goal percentage and 40.3 3-point percentage. After scoring three, five and seven points in the Warriors’ first three games following Butler’s injury, Santos has scored 10 or more points in 12 of the Warriors’ last 13 games, including the last five with 14 points Saturday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 23-year-old Santos now has 14 games scoring in double figures this season. He had just 12 such games through his first two seasons in the NBA.
“I think with Jimmy out, there was a void there in terms of having someone capable of getting the ball into the paint and either scoring or distributing. Gui’s pretty good at that,” Kerr said.” He’s been probably our best shot creator of late, just in terms of finding something out of nothing. And he does it in multiple ways. He can do it in a 1-on-1 situation with a live dribble, he can do it with a cut where he catches a pass.
“But without Jimmy, Gui really has seized the opportunity, the minutes we’ve given him, but also the role within the offense because of the void.”
Santos would have entered restricted NBA free agency this upcoming offseason and possibly could have kept playing himself into a larger contract. Once his new contract extension was offered, however, Santos didn’t think twice.
The Warriors stuck with his development and Santos has been relentless in getting better, improving his game and transforming his body. Santos has gone from purely an energy boost to a player coaches and his teammates can rely on as an offensive and defensive boost.
What he hopes to be most going forward is an inspiration to Brazilian basketball players. Santos is the one and only Brazilian-born player currently in the NBA. If he can inspire the next generation and do so in a Warriors jersey, his mission will be accomplished.
“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. …
“Overall, just be a good example for our kids in Brazil and show that if you work, you get what you deserve.”
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