Yaxel Lendeborg has walked into Golden State with the kind of confidence teams love and the kind of maturity they don’t always get from young players. That combination is already making him stand out in a Warriors pipeline that, in recent years, has featured lottery picks with plenty of talent but less of the seasoned feel Lendeborg brings.
The difference starts with his background. Golden State is getting an older prospect with multiple years of college experience, and that shows in the way he carries himself. He is asking the right questions, he has a winning mindset, and he already seems to understand that being effective is about more than putting up numbers.
Lendeborg has already stacked up early success in his first weeks as a Warrior player, coming off the NCAA championship with Michigan and then a Summer League title. Now he says the goal is to keep that momentum going and help push the Warriors back toward major relevance.
At media day, Lendeborg didn’t shy away from his own ceiling. “I feel like I could be Rookie of the Year, but that's not my main focus.”
He clearly knows the opportunity in front of him, and he also knows the bigger picture. The playing time should be there, but he’d rather be part of a team that wins than chase individual hardware.
That’s exactly the part that has caught the attention of injured All-Star Jimmy Butler. Butler pointed to Lendeborg’s college experience as a big reason his approach already feels different from the usual young arrival.
“I think whenever you bring in younger guys they all just want to get busy and get to it right away, scoring and doing all these things. He can do that at a high level, but all the questions that he asks is about 'how can I help to win?'
That's what you get whenever you get a guy that's played in college a couple years. They know what it takes to win and they know it's not all about scoring,” Butler said.
Butler’s first reaction to Lendeborg’s size was even more blunt: “He's fucking massive! He is a BIG human being.”
The funny part is that while Lendeborg is bringing a winning mindset that some recent Warriors lottery picks didn’t show right away, he probably won’t get to enjoy the same immediate team success those players did. James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody were all on Golden State’s 2022 championship team, with Wiseman going second overall in 2020, Kuminga seventh in 2021 and Moody 14th in 2021. Their roles in that title run were limited, though, and in the cases of Wiseman and Kuminga, the winning habits may never have fully taken hold the way they seem to have for Lendeborg.
For now, the proof will come on the floor, beginning Sunday in the Warriors’ first preseason game against the L.A. Clippers. But even before that tipoff, Lendeborg has already put himself in position to make a real impact right away.
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Warriors Camp Battle Next To Draymond Just Got More Intriguing
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There is a real opening there, and not just in the frontcourt. Golden State also has a starting job to sort out at shooting guard, where Brandin Podziemski and De'Anthony Melton are in the mix. For now, the camp spotlight is on how the Warriors balance those battles while trying to find the right fit around Green before the season gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]