With Quinten Post (illness) and Gary Payton II (knee) returning after two-game absences, Steve Kerr was once again given a full complement of players to choose from in the Golden State Warriors matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on Friday night.

While a far from perfect outing offensively, the Warriors won comfortably enough to rest some of their core players down the stretch of a 103-86 victory. Yet even despite no player seeing more than 30 minutes, we did get an idea of what a full playoff rotation may look like from Steve Kerr.

Gui Santos was the first casualty of a full Warriors rotation on Friday

Golden State have had 11 players see meaningful rotation minutes since the All-Star break, including second-year forward Gui Santos who has impressed significantly in his 56 games so far this season.

Yet Santos was a casualty of Post and Payton’s return on Friday night, with the Brazilian not entering the game until under six minutes remaining and with the Warriors leading by 19 points. It comes after he played less than eight minutes against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, while he saw less four in last Sunday’s loss to the Houston Rockets.

In between that Santos did play 21 minutes and was excellent in Tuesday’s win over the Phoenix Suns, recording seven points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block while finishing as a +15 in the blowout win.

It’s that performance and others over recent weeks that would leave some surprised at his omission from the rotation. Kerr otherwise utilized a 10-man rotation that saw all five bench pieces (Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, Kevon Looney, Payton and Post) playing between 14 and 23 minutes.

There are many fans who believe Santos is a more complimentary player to Golden State’s main core than Jonathan Kuminga, yet benching the former seventh overall pick would be a huge call and one that’s unlikely at this point.

The real issue is that the Warriors have four players who all play a similar position, and who all could outperform one another on any given night. Santos has at times been more valuable than Kuminga, Payton and even Moses Moody, but you can’t play 11 guys in the postseason to work out who’s playing better in that specific game.

Santos has certainly proved this season that he well and truly has an NBA future, but this might just be a situation where he’s left out of the mix over the next few weeks through no real fault of his own.