After a successful stint in the Brazilian league, Santos was drafted late in the 2nd round in 2022. He has mostly spent his time in the G-League on a two-way contract, but he got a standard contract with the Warriors late in the '23-'24 season. Santos has decent size for a forward, and good body control to finish inside off cuts or as the roll man. He can hit shots from outside, hitting 33% of his 3-pointers in his G-League and NBA minutes combined.  Defensively, he has some good instincts to rotate and be disruptive, but he isn't a high-level athlete, so don't expect him to provide secondary rim protection or be a lock-down guy on the ball.  Santos will still only be 23 years old as a potential free agent in 2025, so even though he hasn't shown too much, he still has a chance to prove he belongs in the NBA.

Santos' $2.2 million salary for 2025-2026 is non-guaranteed, and if he is waived he will become an unrestricted free agent and the Warriors will have no form of Bird rights on him. If he is waived, teams could claim him off waivers, but would need to fit his salary within cap space or an exception to do so, as his contract doesn't fit within the minimum salary exception as it was a three-year contract. If Santos becomes a free agent, other teams will have multiple ways to sign him as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. If Santos is waived and clears waivers, his value will likely have dropped low enough that he would only have offers for the minimum, and he may not even get fully-guaranteed offers.

Eugune Omoruyi (1 year minimum, non-guaranteed, 2024) Terry Taylor (1 year minimum, non-guaranteed, 2024) Chuma Okeke (1 year minimum, non-guaranteed, 2024)