{"id":835301,"date":"2026-07-31T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835301\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T08:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:59:09","slug":"yaxel-lendeborg-admits-warriors-drafted-him-despite-his-unprofessional-behavior-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835301\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaxel Lendeborg Admits Warriors Drafted Him Despite His Unprofessional Behavior Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>, for now, represents the Warriors\u2019<\/a> hope for the post-Steph Curry era of their future<\/a> alongside Brandin Podziemski<\/a>. But among the young players, Lendeborg did not give the best first impression to their front office that he is capable of doing so.<\/p>\n

In fact, he recently spoke to ESPN and admitted that even before he went to Michigan, he had declared for the 2025 draft out of UAB and met with the Warriors\u2019 front office last year.<\/p>\n

At the 2025 NBA Draft combine in Chicago, the Warriors told Lendeborg that they did not like him because he was behaving \u2018like a jacka\u2013.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, damn, I did that bad?\u201d Lendeborg said<\/a>. \u201cBut thinking back, I guess my answers weren\u2019t as professional. Just giving honest answers like, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m BSing in practice. Yeah, I\u2019m not doing my job in games, but I\u2019m performing.\u2019 I guess I didn\u2019t really give out the good vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subsequently, Lendeborg transferred to Michigan and won the national championship in college, which may have played a role in convincing the Warriors\u2019 front office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for sure is just practice overall,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cI never took practice seriously [until Michigan]. My sleep habits, watching more film.\u201d<\/p>\n

His last year in college, Lendeborg averaged 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists while shooting 51.5% from the field and 37.2% from beyond the arc. A noteworthy difference in his game was a lot more three-point shooting (averages increased from 1.9 to 4.5 three-point shots per game this season).<\/p>\n

But Lendeborg admitted that was not the only thing that convinced the Warriors\u2019 front office to draft him after having rejected him a year ago. He revealed he had a meeting with Steve Kerr<\/a>, where the head coach quizzed him about film to gauge his knowledge of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I pretty much gave all the right answers,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cThen he asked me what the things that they need to improve on this year were, and I gave him exactly what he was thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I kind of read his mind in a way. And I mean, I feel like that gave me a little bit of an edge. I won him over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Kerr also recollects the timeline of events in a similar manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a really good natural feel, and we have a direct need for him here,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a better situation for him. He\u2019s going to have veteran leadership and a lot of playing time and a lot of coaching. And he embraces the coaching aspect of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr even admitted that Lendeborg could immediately slide into the starting lineup considering both Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody are expected to be sidelined for the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a position of need,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cThen his positional size alone. We\u2019re in a position now where we can be thinking of development and not just for Yaxel, but for our whole group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not in the [championship] conversation. So let\u2019s 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\u2019s a big part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Kerr has a reputation for not trusting young talent<\/a> as much. But Lendeborg somehow managed to win him over<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure you can tell from his summer league quotes, there\u2019s no filter,\u201d Kerr added. \u201cI like it. Everyone knows we let guys be who they are here. So he\u2019s going to generate a lot of fans. Our fanbase is really going to enjoy him. He\u2019s fun-loving, loves life, loves the game. He loves passing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fits in so well because he understands the power of just throwing the ball to the first open guy. And if anything, we\u2019re going to have to work with him to be more aggressive. We\u2019re going to want him to be able to catch the ball at the nail against a switch and get a shot when we don\u2019t have any better options because he can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This shows how far the pendulum has swung now in Lendeborg\u2019s favor as a result of his discipline and dedication to improving. The Warriors may have found a potential foundational piece for their long-term future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yaxel Lendeborg, for now, represents the Warriors\u2019 hope for the post-Steph Curry era of their future alongside Brandin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-835301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}