LAIE, Hawaii \u2013 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\u2019s emphasis was a lot of work in transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a very poor transition team last year,\u201d Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. \u201cOne 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\u2019re working hard on that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Warriors allowed the eighth-most points in transition per game last season (24.7).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bringing in veteran coach Frank Vogel<\/a> to run the Warriors\u2019 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 \u2013 12 as a head coach and nine as an assistant. He ran the Dallas Mavericks\u2019 defense last season after a one-year stint as the Phoenix Suns\u2019 head coach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re using some of his transition defensive drills, some of his rebounding drills,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cWe’ve been watching tape of Dallas’ training camp from last year. The drill work that Frank did with them, and Frank said, \u2018No more Dallas tape after the game.\u2019 Those guys don’t like watching another team, so now we have enough tape for ourselves to watch our own camp tape.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut 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 \u2013 I’m very confident.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are three takeaways from the second day of Warriors training camp, which featured comments from Kerr and De\u2019Anthony Melton.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gui Santos\u2019 Next Steps<\/p>\n 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\u2019 G League affiliate. Santos transformed his body and his game, slowly earning more opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019 breakout<\/a>, knocking down the door and playing 68 games with 30 starts while averaging 20.5 points per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGui\u2019s great,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cJust 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 \u2013 two, three years \u2013 night after night, playing heavy minutes \u2026 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. In a season where the team was searching for silver linings, Santos was one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s returns from injury, Kerr wants Santos to stay within himself and build off the block he already has created.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJust 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,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cIt 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe’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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Yaxel\u2019s Versatility\u00a0<\/p>\n On a team that still has Curry, Butler and Draymond Green, the spotlight is shining equally as bright on rookie Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>. He\u2019s almost impossible to miss, whether it\u2019s his size or bravado. And that size already has stood to Warriors veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMan, Yax is \u2026 I think the big thing about Yax is he’s such a smart player,\u201d Melton said. \u201cSo 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHim rolling to the basket, we’re trying to tell him, \u2018I don’t think nobody wants to step in front of you rolling to the basket.\u2019 He’s such a versatile player. We just got to continue to have him do it more and more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n There already have been instances in controlled 5-on-5 where Lendeborg essentially has been the Warriors\u2019 center, which Kerr isn\u2019t worried about offensively but acknowledged that would be a big adjustment defensively. Ideally, he\u2019ll find his way as one of the Warriors\u2019 two forward positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The advantage of having Lendeborg\u2019s strength, length and ability to shoot the ball makes Kerr comfortable playing him as a small forward or a power forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just a basketball player,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI mean, he can dribble, pass, shoot. It doesn’t really matter what position you play him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Open Competition\u00a0<\/p>\n Kerr on Tuesday was adamant that Green will continue to be in the Warriors\u2019 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cYeah, yeah. Nothing has been decided yet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n