SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Yaxel Lendeborg is two summer league games into what he hopes is a long NBA career, but in the first couple performances of his first full week as a pro, two things have become very clear. First, the 23-year-old has the ability to help the Warriors in a variety of different ways. Second, he is on track to play a lot in his rookie year because of all the ways he can support the veteran group.<\/p>\n
The first part is evident in watching him play against a variety of mostly young players looking to find a way into the league in the California Classic. Lendeborg is bigger than so many of his peers, something his teammates have repeatedly noted in the week since the Warriors used the 11th pick of last month\u2019s draft to bring him to the Bay. They aren\u2019t just referring to his 6-foot-9, 240-pound frame. It\u2019s his presence on the floor that is even larger than the Warriors thought. Lendeborg moves well, has a physicality to his game, defends a variety of positions and has the ability to run the offense when needed.<\/p>\n
Most importantly for the Warriors, at least at the start of the season, Lendeborg can get rolling quickly from the outside. He went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc in Friday\u2019s win over the Los Angeles Lakers summer team and is going to be able to space the floor immediately for the Warriors when the regular season rolls around. While Lendeborg\u2019s shooting prowess is usually the first thing to jump off the page in his skillset, he has shown so much that Warriors assistant Khalid Robinson, who is serving as the summer league head coach, didn\u2019t want to limit Lendeborg to just one talent when asked Sunday what the rookie\u2019s most NBA-ready skill is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to pinpoint one and say, \u2018It is this,\u2019 or \u2018It is that,\u2019 because he does a number of things,\u201d Robinson said after Sunday\u2019s win over the San Antonio Spurs summer squad.<\/p>\n
Robinson offered a list of the ways the Warriors are hoping Lendeborg can pick up slack this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can be a pick-and-roll ball handler,\u201d Robinson continued. \u201cHe sees the floor passing-wise, he\u2019s very physical driving to the rim, he can make an open shot. Defensively, switchability, we played small with him at the five, and just him as a help defender \u2026 I think (he has) the combination of a full skillset and consistently putting that together night in and night out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next stop for LeBron should be…<\/p>\n
David Aldridge, Joe Vardon and more<\/p>\n
What\u2019s clear in Lendeborg\u2019s brief stint so far this summer is that the Warriors are going to give him as many reps as they can with him running the offense so that the transition can be smoother for him once the season begins. Lendeborg already said he would feel comfortable as a secondary ball-handler, and Robinson echoed that sentiment as the young group gets ready to head to the Vegas Summer League later this week.<\/p>\n
While there was plenty of hype between the early social media back-and-forth between Lendeborg and veteran forward Draymond Green, it will be crucial to the Warriors\u2019 success next season for the pair to find a partnership on and off the floor. Lendeborg has the type of strong personality to handle the chiding he might get from Green in the Warriors\u2019 locker room, but there are also elements of his game that could use Green\u2019s tutelage. Lendeborg admitted after Friday\u2019s win that he wasn\u2019t pleased with his defensive rotations and the fact that he didn\u2019t use his voice as much as Warriors coach Steve Kerr wanted him to during the few conversations they\u2019ve had to this point.<\/p>\n
In revealing that Lendeborg improved in that area on Sunday, Robinson also said the person they want him to learn from as he gets comfortable within the Warriors\u2019 system is Green, especially in his ability to \u201cput out fires\u201d on the defensive end of the floor. Like Green, the Warriors are hoping that Lendeborg\u2019s size and length will cover up teammates\u2019 defensive mistakes. There is no better person for Lendeborg to learn from than Green, who has carved out a Hall of Fame-level career over the past decade and a half by doing just that.<\/p>\n
The other thing that Lendeborg and Green appear to share is the ability to be comfortable under the spotlight. Lendeborg has shown an ease in his play over the first week of his career, and, like Green, the ability to handle the attention well. Green, who didn\u2019t come into the league with nearly as much buildup as a second-round pick in 2012, quickly adjusted to the bright lights and has allowed his personality to shine through ever since, becoming one of the most prominent names in the game. While Lendeborg can only hope he creates the type of professional career that Green has, he shares Green\u2019s ability to look comfortable as the center of attention.<\/p>\n
Lendeborg has quickly become a fan favorite in his time in Chase Center, getting big ovations while getting familiar\u00a0with his new home. He specifically pointed out veteran Warriors Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Al Horford as players who have helped get him comfortable in his early days around the group. While two games only provide a small window into what\u2019s ahead, Lendeborg\u00a0looks like he fits within the culture the organization has built for years behind star guard Stephen Curry and Green. He has the personality and the skills to back it up as he starts to put in the work.<\/p>\n
As Lendeborg left the podium on Friday night, he carried the box score with him proudly as a memento from his first professional game. He has the skills and the personality to succeed as a Warrior \u2014 now he just has to prove he can play like one. Lendeborg said he fell in love with the Warriors after being formally introduced as a member of the organization after the draft. The early returns show that he wants to back those feelings and stay in the Bay for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they didn\u2019t pick me I would have been very upset, emotional about it,\u201d\u00a0Lendeborg said a few days after being drafted. \u201cBut I\u2019m glad that they picked me, I\u2019m super happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Yaxel Lendeborg is two summer league games into what he hopes is a long NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2243,355,99],"class_list":["post-746483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}