Yaxel Lendeborg has barely gotten his feet wet in Summer League, and he’s already putting the Golden State Warriors in a tricky spot with Draymond Green.
That’s what happens when a young forward comes out firing the way Lendeborg has. Through his first two games at the Californica Classic, he’s averaged 15 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.0 steal while shooting 58.9% from the floor and an eye-popping 77.8% from 3-point range.
For a Warriors team that already saw Green’s game show obvious decline last season, that kind of early production forces a hard question: how long can the 36-year-old hold onto a starting job if Lendeborg keeps this up?
The encouraging part for Golden State is that Lendeborg doesn’t look boxed into one spot. His shooting and his ability to handle the ball and make plays suggest he can spend time at the three, even though his near 6'10" frame would normally point to the four in today’s NBA.
But that versatility creates another problem. If Lendeborg is in the starting mix with Green, what happens to Gui Santos? Santos closed last season strongly and would have his own case for a starting role.
There are only two starting forward spots to go around, and Golden State’s roster picture could get even more crowded depending on what happens next. The Warriors are still trying to finalize the roster, including efforts to bring in superstar forward LeBron James and his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Rui Hachimura.
Green has spent most of the last 11 NBA seasons coming off the bench in all but seven games, but this situation feels different. After years in which Jonathan Kuminga pushed at Green’s hold on the starting power forward job without ever really taking it, Lendeborg may be the one who finally nudges Steve Kerr into a real lineup change.
Plenty of fans would say that change should already have happened last season. In their view, Green belongs in a bench role now, and that would be best for him and the team.
Still, Kerr has a complication that can’t be ignored: the chemistry between Green and Stephen Curry. Moving Green out of the starting five makes that connection harder to tap from the opening tip.
There’s also the money side of it. If James or other free-agent moves shake out a certain way, Green could still be back on a new deal worth more than $20 million, which would keep him in starter-level territory.
Green opted out of his contract, but there’s no sign he’ll be anywhere other than Golden State next season. The real question is what his role looks like, and how many minutes he gets when the Warriors finally sort it out.
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Warriors Put Immediate Pressure On Melton With This Curry Backcourt Bet
DeAnthony Melton is back in the mix for Golden State, and the move says plenty about how the Warriors want to shape the backcourt around Stephen Curry. The club brought Melton back on a two-year, $11 million deal, betting that his defense and versatility give them a better fit than a more offense-first option would have, even if the debate among fans has already started to tilt toward firepower versus balance.
Meltons first run with the Warriors never had much time to breathe, and that is part of what makes this next stretch so interesting. Golden State is clearly comfortable with the idea that Melton can answer a real need next to Curry, but the pressure is immediate: he has to stay available, settle into the role quickly and show that the fit the front office sees is more than just a theory on paper. [Read more 🡒]
Draymond Green Blasts Celtics Over Stunning Jaylen Brown Trade
Draymond Green didnt hide his reaction to Bostons latest roster shake-up, taking aim at a trade that sent Jaylen Brown out of the Celtics orbit and immediately sparked debate around the league. From Golden States perspective, it was the kind of move that invites instant overreaction, especially when a player of Browns stature changes teams and the first question is whether one side just handed the other a major advantage.
Greens criticism landed in the middle of a broader back-and-forth about how to judge the deal, with some seeing Philadelphia as the clear winner and others pointing to the uncertainty around Paul Georges recent play and health as a reason to slow down. Even in a league that lives on bold swings, this is the sort of transaction that can look one way on the day it happens and another way once the dust settles, which is why the discussion around Boston is far from finished. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Already Regret Passing On This Draft Night Opportunity
Golden State has gotten a promising early look at Yaxel Lendeborg at the California Classic, but the bigger draft-night question is whether the front office left another useful piece on the board. The Warriors had interest in a few players who slid farther than expected, and the kind of move that might have brought one of them into the fold was there if they wanted to push up into the early part of the first round.
Instead, the player drawing the most attention has been the one they watched land elsewhere, and he has already started to look like more than just a Summer League flash. His recent run has only sharpened the sense that Golden State may have passed on a chance to add a wing with real long-term value, especially with other names the team liked still waiting to make their own summer debuts. [Read more 🡒]