The Warriors need Yaxel Lendeborg's fast-tracked development
THE WEEK BEFORE training camp, every Golden State Warriors player gathered at Jimmy Butler's mansion in San Diego and competed in a handful of pickup games.
In his lone game paired with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, rookie wing Yaxel Lendeborg found himself near the elbow during a frontcourt inbound. As the ball was delivered to Green up top, Curry cut toward Lendeborg to set a back screen. Both defenders remained with Curry; Lendeborg, sensing it, slipped backdoor and received a pass from Green for an uncontested dunk.
"'That's all year! All year!'" Green and Curry roared at Lendeborg with ferocity, according to the rookie. "Super loud and aggressive."
In Lendeborg's mind, he made the simple read within the flow, using Curry's gravity for two easy points. It represented something far bigger for Green and Curry. Their newest weapon was already recognizing and leveraging the patterns that make the Warriors' offense hum, signaling a readiness to help the team win before the two franchise legends age out of the league.
"It looked like we had been playing together for a long time," Green said.
On their final draft board in June, the Warriors -- who owned the No. 11 pick -- had Lendeborg and Arizona guard Brayden Burries ranked neck-and-neck, behind the consensus group of prospects up top. If Burries was there, team sources have indicated they would've drafted the 20-year-old combo guard for his upside. He had fans all over the organization.
But the Milwaukee Bucks, selecting 10th, took away that option. The Warriors quickly pivoted to Lendeborg, adding the older prospect they believed fit their immediate timeline and urgency of Curry's final seasons.
"He's massive," Butler said. "Just a big human being."
At 24 years old and 241 pounds, standing 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-4 wingspan, Lendeborg has the size and power of a mid-prime wing on a Warriors roster that is currently thin and injured at that spot, waiting for Butler and Moses Moody to return from lengthy rehabs for serious knee injuries.
Lendeborg won over Steve Kerr in the predraft process, impressing the Warriors coach during a film session because of his knowledge of the game paired with charisma and his willingness to learn.
"Unbelievably coachable," Kerr said of Lendeborg after Tuesday night's preseason win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The organization has been impressed that, after a long national title run at Michigan that included an MCL and ankle sprain in the NCAA tournament, Lendeborg took his offseason work seriously, played in eight summer league games and led them to a Las Vegas title.
Then he showed up at training camp and Kerr inserted him into the starting lineup, showing a belief that he can be a small forward in a lineup that includes Green and a center or a power forward next to Green in smaller groupings.
Newcomers either typically get the Warriors' unique style, offensive flow and Curry-centric approach or don't -- and it's obvious immediately. Andre Iguodala and Juan Toscano-Anderson did. Kelly Oubre and James Wiseman didn't.
The Warriors' belief in Lendeborg comes at a time when the franchise is desperate for young talent that helps win in Curry's final years while better positioning them for a tricky rebuild.
"He's going to play a ton," Kerr told ESPN. "Frankly, he deserves it. He's one of our best players already."
LENDEBORG INITIALLY DECLARED for the 2025 draft after two seasons at UAB, averaging 17.7 points and 11.4 rebounds as a small-ball center his last season there. General manager Mike Dunleavy and a group of front office members met Lendeborg at the combine in Chicago. Their feedback: He was behaving "like a jackass," Lendeborg recalled in a summer league interview with ESPN.
"I was like, damn, I did that bad?" Lendeborg laughed.
It wasn't clear then whether Lendeborg was even a first-round pick. There was a belief he needed to improve his work habits and sharpen his approach. He withdrew from the draft, transferred to Michigan, morphed into a dominant force on a national title team -- averaging 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 51.5% from the field -- and returned to the combine with a rising stock.
"The biggest thing for sure is just practice overall," Lendeborg said. "I never took practice serious [until Michigan]."
Kerr commented recently about Lendeborg's constant presence in the gym. Teammates have embraced what they say is a genuine personality and curiosity, as Lendeborg regularly asks questions to help fast track his growth.
"I don't think he's afraid," Curry said. "It's a lot for a rookie to absorb all this information and process it. He's open-minded. He's listening. You can tell he's locked in mentally."
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But there's still a natural "goofiness," as several in the building have described it, that seeps onto the court and will cause inevitable growing pains for the rookie. One possession into the preseason, the referee had to ask Lendeborg to tuck in his jersey. The coaches particularly mention the "nonchalant" nature impacting his defensive focus.
"The biggest thing I see that he needs work with is being in a stance," Kerr said. "Off-ball, he tends to stand up a little bit. The other night against the Clippers, he was casual and Rui [Hachimura]came off a couple pindowns and he wasn't quite prepared."
The Hachimura scouting report is clear -- run him off the line. The Warriors went over it before the preseason game against the Clippers. But Lendeborg sagged off and gave him a few jumpers. Green expressed a bit of on-court frustration and reiterated a need for Lendeborg to focus more on the defensive end when the rookie texted the veteran for advice after the first game.
It was also a problem two days before during an open intrasquad scrimmage. Lendeborg gifted De'Anthony Melton and Gui Santos space on the perimeter and they stepped into easy 3s. Green was frustrated. Someone in the gym had to loudly remind him: "He's a rookie!"
"Everybody [in the NBA] can shoot," Lendeborg said. "I've been a guy that's always given up the jump shot and kind of baited players to go into the paint and attack me. Here I can't do that."
Lendeborg said he became comfortable at Michigan in a switch everything scheme. He's rangy and fluid with shot-blocking instincts and felt comfortable against guards, wings and bigs. But this isn't college.
"The switch attack offense in the NBA is very, very advanced," assistant coach Frank Vogel told ESPN. "So if you're just going to rely only on switching, it's not all about guarding the guy you switched onto. It's about guarding the exchange, giving up roll behinds, giving up hip taps, slip outs."
Vogel was hired this summer to take control of a Warriors defense that has slipped. Players, coaches and front office members have raved about Vogel's early impact and attention to detail. That includes regular lessons for Lendeborg.
"It's more like a chase over, fight over kind of game [in the NBA]," Lendeborg said. "I've never really done that, so I'm still trying to navigate that. Then some of the rotations off-ball as well. Just, like, when to help, when not to help. Those kind of things have been confusing me a little bit."
There are defensive areas where Lendeborg's size will naturally help. He has 18 rebounds in 40 preseason minutes and said after his second game he felt it was easier to rebound in the NBA because the paint isn't as packed and the opposing rebounders seem "lazy."
"In a league where the big shoulder offense of just plowing into a guy to create space, he's going to be one of them guys that you're not going to be able to punk," Vogel said. "And that's going to be a big benefit to us."
Most rookies, as Vogel put it, arrive "really thin" and need at least a couple years in the weight room before it's feasible for them to survive when the NBA game ramps up physically. But Lendeborg is already in the OG Anunoby and Paolo Banchero weight class (240-plus pounds). His body is ready. The veterans and coaches are now just trying to train the mind.
"What does Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] do?" Kerr said. "What does Damian Lillard do if you get switched on him? You're guarding a big, know the scouting report -- is Chet Holmgren going to pop and hit 3s? What's his tendency? Pick a guy. You get switched on to Luka [Doncic]. Are you ready for that pump fake or is he going to goad you into three free throws? That only comes with experience and watching League Pass and getting to know the league."
THE WARRIORS DON'T have the greatest recent track record of developing lottery rookies, but they believe the timing and situation is far different than it was withJonathan Kuminga, whom the Warriors drafted with the No. 7 pick in 2021 and traded in February after never finding the correct developmental direction and alignment during five turbulent seasons..
Lendeborg is actually a month older than Kuminga. The Warriors drafted Kuminga the same year Lendeborg was beginning the second of three seasons at Arizona Western College in Yuma. His late teens, early 20s growing pains were ironed out in junior college and eventually high-stakes Division I.
Front offices often shy away from drafting older prospects early because of the concern about a limited upside. Lendeborg is already 24. But if he is an immediate high-level contributor at a position of great need, as the Warriors believe he will be, they will get his age 24 to 27 seasons on a bargain four-year, $28.1 million deal.
"We're in a position now [as opposed to past seasons] where we can be thinking of development," Kerr said. "Not just for Yaxel, but our whole group. We are not in the [championship] conversation. So let's see what we can do as a group to kind of reestablish what we stand for and how we operate and new beginnings in a lot of ways. All of that is really exciting to me. And Yaxel's a big part of that."
Lendeborg has no issue embracing the spotlight and pressure. He has declared he can average 15 points, six rebounds and four assists in his first season. He believes he could win Rookie of the Year.
Asked during one of his many livestreams this summer about Phoenix Suns wing Dillon Brooks, he responded: "I'm finna give Dillon Brooks belt, man. Stop playing." The Warriors face the Suns on Oct. 24, their third regular-season game.
"You can also see his youth with his comments in the media," Kerr said. "Our fans are going to love listening to him and he's going to say some stuff that he may have to retract and hold back. But I love it. I love him. I love guys like that. We always encourage everyone to be themselves and he's got a really great personality."
But that comes with an added spotlight, especially when playing for a brand like the Warriors next to a teammate like Curry.
"The nature of our league, social media and all the microscope is that they'll expect him to be a 20-8-6 guy right out the gate or whatever number you put on him," Curry said.
"But his job is to block all that out. He will know if he's impactful. He will know if he's helping win games. The stats and the numbers will follow. It's our job to protect him in that."
Still, the Warriors are struggling to contain their excitement and temper expectations for Lendeborg, who has popped off for 21 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and two blocks in his first 40 preseason minutes.
"He's obviously a winner," Curry said. "He had a successful year in college in the big role he had. He has great feel. He has great size. He's been shooting it really well. You can tell he wants to make the right play. For our offense and game plan, that's usually going to shine."br/]
