Kerr + Gui Santos transcripts from Warriors-Hornets
00:00 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME GSW-CHA: 1-0 in the post Chris DeMarco era. Just wanted you to know that. Alright. Yeah.
00:06 How’d it feel to win the first game of the post Chris DeMarco era?
00:09 Felt good. Any win feels good. That’s a good young team. They’ve done a really good job putting together a roster with guys who, you can tell, they love to hoop and they’re talented and not an easy team to beat. We had to make 24 threes to win a close game. Tells you how well they’re playing.
00:35 You won five out of six now going into the New Year. What’s some — what’s an aspect of how you guys are playing that you’d like to carry over into the next year?
00:42 Our offense has dramatically improved. We’re scoring at a much higher clip now. Raymond (Ridder) just told me, six games in a row with 120 or more. We haven’t done that in a while. It just feels like we’ve got a better rhythm and, obviously, playing a lot of people and I have a lot of options every night. It’s not easy to decide who to play, but I feel comfortable playing all of them and that’s, I think, our depth is helping us right now.
01:14 And last question is, you played 13 guys again today. I know you’ve talked in the past about wanting to get a rotation, but when you have so many options like you do now, is it hard to narrow it down at all?
01:25 It is. It’s really hard, but at least we have some patterns that we’re sticking to with our main guys, with Steph, Dray, and Jimmy. They’re all in a good rotation pattern. Everybody else just has to be ready to play when their name is called. The way the game is played with the pace and all the three-point shooting, we’re gonna play a lot of people and we’re gonna play a lot of people in short bursts, too. So it’s a little different, but we have to get used to it.
01:58 Steve, record crowd tonight to see Steph, obviously. Does it ever amaze you how much support he has back here?
02:11 It never ceases to amaze me, the support Steph has everywhere. It makes sense given who he is, what he’s accomplished, what kind of human being he is, but whether it’s here or last night in Brooklyn, MVP chants coming from the road crowd, we’re getting used to that, but it’s a sign of how Steph impacts people. There’s something magical about him. Everybody here knows this is his hometown. They watched him grow up, but it’s always fun coming here only once a year, so it’s a special trip for us.
02:53 Santos seems to bring special joy to the game when he’s out there, Joga Bonito and stuff. How does that impact the team with his spirit?
03:04 I prefer joie de vivre, but that’s just me. But I love Gui. He just brings energy, the rebounds, the passing. You just feel him when he’s out there and that’s what you want from bench guys. You want to feel a burst of energy as soon as they get on the floor and tonight he was also making his shots, but I’m comfortable playing Gui any game, at any moment because of that energy and that joy that he brings.
03:38 He celebrates the hustle play as much as the basketball.
03:41 Yeah, he does. And the rest of the guys, feel that and celebrate it as well. He and Will, Melt, they’re — all three have really given us a big lift lately and that’s what you want, to support your best players. You want guys who are gonna be flying around and making solid plays, but making energy plays as well.
04:04 To follow on that, you closed the last couple games with Will and De’Anthony next to Steph, Draymond, and Jimmy. What have you seen from that closing group? What do you like about it?
04:12 I like the two-way ability of that group. Both Will and Melt can handle the ball against pressure. They make the right play. They’re patient. They understand you don’t have to take the first shot just because you’re open with 20 seconds on the shot clock. You try to get it to Steph and Jimmy and make the defense work and then later in the shot clock, shot’s not there for Jimmy or Steph and you’re open, then that’s when you let it fly. So both of ‘em have a really good sense for the game and they’re very versatile defensively.
04:46 What’d you make of Draymond’s trip?
04:48 Draymond was awesome. He was fantastic. I think he’s really starting to click, the 12 assists tonight. Made, I thought, the biggest shot of the game. Charlotte, understandably, went to double Steph and made somebody else beat them and Dray did. Will Richard hit a big one as well, but yeah, Draymond is playing at a very high level.
05:12 Steve, when you see Kon Knueppel on tape, what are you seeing from him? Obviously, just coming back from ankle injury today, but what are you seeing from him?
05:25 Chris Mullin. I see a lot of Chris Mullin, really good size on the wing, big strong body, catch and shoot, but also incredible IQ, passing, making the right play over and over again. Yeah, he’s already a really damn good player.
05:46 Charles (Lee) has talked about his ability to find an open spot on the floor. Have you noticed that?
05:51 Yeah. Yeah, he’s got a knack. He’s got a feel for the game. You can tell. And the pump fake and the sidestep threes to turn a decent three into a great three, that’s just feel. And the poise that he has on the floor is really impressive.
06:14 Just the stretch of games you guys got coming up. It’s pretty significant home stand, save for the game in LA in a few days. Just what kind of runway might this be for you guys?
06:23 Yeah, we gotta take advantage of it for sure. The schedule was against us for the first couple months of the season and now it flips back the other way.
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06:30 Gui, what was working in that second quarter? You come in and play nine minutes, hit three threes and grab some offensive rebounds. What was working for you?
06:39 GUI SANTOS: Man, it’s just that. There’s just a day that you feel good. Even the first shot when I shot it, the ball was like wrapping around the rim and just going in, so there’s days that you feel great. My body was feeling great. I was just trying to always just bring energy, going crashing offensive boards and on days that the ball goes in more like today, just everything goes naturally. Just go there and play basketball.
07:07 So you bring a lot of spirit to the game and stuff like that. What is your favorite aspect of it, because celebrate everything nicely?
07:20 So, like you said, I think the way that I play, the spirit that I bring to the game is always because, where I came from, we know we love to play like that, for us to make the NBA so hard. So when we got here, we know that it’s even harder to keep ourself in the NBA, so what we do is just play hard. You could see all the Brazilians that play in the league. They all like, most part of them, they all know because they work really hard, hardworking, hard playing players, so I think that’s what make me bring that type of spirit to the game.
07:57 The Joga Bonito?
07:59 Joga Bonito, yes.
08:01 Have you had contact with the national team?
08:03 Yes. Yes, last summer in 2024, I played for the Olympics with them. The year before, I played the World Cup, so it’s always a pleasure for me to play for the national team.
08:21 Gui, what helps you stay ready just with your role shifting?
08:24 Sometimes just my mentality, the hard working is always there. I’m always working. I’m always doing the stuff that I have to do to my body to be ready, to my game to be ready, so just the mental, I just work a lot on that. I just always stay ready. Doesn’t matter if it’s in the first quarter or in the last quarter. It’s still myself ready for the whole game. And when you step in there, you gotta wake up your body, you gotta jump on the balls. Like I had one today, the ball was almost out of bounds, but I keep believing till the end of the play. If the ball — if I cannot get the ball, I’m still thinking that I can get the ball, so I’m gonna go to the end with that.
09:07 You guys have won five of six, offense is improving. What are you noticing on that end of the floor?
09:13 So I think we a little bit more connected. We have an emphasis to still giving the ball to Jimmy, Steph, Dray. That is the guys that run the offense more and when they have the ball in their hands, every time something great happens, so that’s the goal. We still thinking about that. Even when Steph doesn’t have the ball in his hands, he’s just running around and setting screen and everybody’s worried about him, the gravity that he has, and we are wide open because of that, so it’s all connected.
09:50 Hello, Gui. Last year, 2025, You got a more chance play on the court as a Warriors player. What’s that year mean to you?
09:58 2025 was a great year for me. A lot of things special happened in my personal life, but great stuff happened in my basketball life, too, so I’m very glad of this year. I’m very glad to be part of this organization and, like I said, Warriors is not a team, it’s kinda like a family, so it’s always great for me be around here, be around players like Steph, Draymond, Jimmy, all the young players, too, because we, like I said, we are family. We know we keep each other together. And even when the things is not going well, we are there for each other. When the things is going well, we there for each other, too. I think that’s the spirit and also that’s the great part of the 2025 for me, for sure.
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