SerpApi.Org
2 hottest Yaxel Lendeborg overreactions from 2026 Warriors Summer League appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Golden State Warriors, for the first time in five years, had a draft pick in the lottery. Their draft position even held some significance, as the last time they drafted with the 11th overall pick, they selected Klay Thompson — a four-time NBA champion, future Hall of Famer, and one half of the iconic Splash Brothers backcourt with Stephen Curry. In the end, they selected one of the oldest prospects of the draft in Yaxel Lendeborg, a national championship-winning forward with Michigan.
It was clear why the Warriors decided to draft Lendeborg in the first place. Last season showed that they were in dire need of a true wing alongside Curry, as they had to rely on Gui Santos to hold it down for most of the season especially after Jonathan Kuminga was traded away. Moreover, their win-now quest remains as pressing as ever, what with Curry being 38 years of age already.
And it looks like Lendeborg, the 23-year-old forward who will be turning 24 prior to the start of the 2026-27 season, is going to be a ready-made rotation fixture for the Warriors. He led the Dubs to Summer League glory in Vegas, recording a double-double and hitting a dagger three in the championship game against the Grizzlies, and it looks as though the team found themselves a keeper.
Watch sports LIVE with fuboTV (free trial)
There are plenty of reasons for Warriors fans to be excited for Lendeborg, and here’s why they should be all-in on him after an excellent summer.
Could Yaxel Lendeborg be the next Jimmy Butler?
This is the exact definition of what an overreaction is. Jimmy Butler is a future Hall of Famer, one of the greatest playoff performers in recent memory, and winning follows him wherever he goes. But there was once a time when Butler was simply a defensive specialist whose offensive game was so unrefined that he struggled to get minutes on the Chicago Bulls.
Butler was only 22 when his rookie season began, but it wasn’t until he was 24 years of age when he became a full-time starter for the Bulls. He was an elite defender, but he shot below 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from deep during his third season.
Thus, it became all the more surprising when he emerged as the Bulls’ best player in 2015, developing into a two-way force who got to the basket, became a deadly midrange threat, and remained one of the best perimeter defenders in the association.
Lendeborg does not profile to be the defender Butler is early on in his career. Moreover, the Michigan alum has been flashing a more developed three-point shot than Butler has ever displayed in the NBA.
However, it’s not too impossible for the young Warriors forward to follow a similar career trajectory — only that he’ll be older than Butler was in his first season in the NBA but immediately ready after honing his craft on the collegiate level.
Lendeborg is surely going to be taking a backseat to the Warriors’ more established players, and he’ll have an even smaller role should LeBron James actually take his talents to the Bay. But this would just give him time to ease into the NBA game.
Like Butler, Lendeborg can focus his energy on the defensive end, and the attention his teammates will draw should create plenty of open shots for him. With his natural feel as a passer, he is shaping up to be a good glue guy from the jump, which makes him the exact kind of player the Warriors need from him at present.
But once the Curry era ends, Lendeborg could blossom like Butler did in his fourth season in the NBA. He has been flashing ballhandling chops during Summer League, and he has excellent size for a wing (6’9″, 7’3.25″ wingspan), making him a potential mismatch problem on the wing should his post game develop like Butler did.
And he’s already confident in shooting from beyond the arc (1.7 makes per game on 4.7 attempts in six Summer League games) that he can potentially be a devastating three-level scoring weapon once he hits his prime.
This is a major overreaction, and it is going to be the 99th percentile outcome for Lendeborg to become an All-Star like Butler ever was. If anything, a more realistic top-percentile outcome for Lendeborg is Josh Howard, another older rookie who ended up being a solid tertiary scoring weapon and even an All-Star-caliber player.
But Warriors fans can dream, and this, indeed, is the best-case scenario for the Michigan alum.
The Warriors rookie is going to stuff the stat sheet
Lendeborg is not likely to move the needle for the Warriors in Year 1. He will be a rotation player, especially due to the Dubs’ dearth of options on the wing, but he’ll most likely be coming off the bench unless he blows everyone away during training camp. The Dubs’ pursuit of James also puts Lendeborg’s role for the team in doubt, at least for next season.
But once the Warriors start to make Lendeborg a more prominent member of the rotation, he’ll manage to put up numbers that should make him a darling of the fantasy basketball world. Even the analytics world will love Lendeborg’s two-way contributions, unselfish play, and his penchant for winning basketball that was ever so display during Summer League.
During the Dubs’ Summer League championship victory, Lendeborg recorded 21 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, and two steals on 9-18 shooting from the field (2-6 from three, 1-1 from the line). Overall, in six Summer League games, Lendeborg recorded 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 steals, and o.7 blocks per game on 46/36/80 shooting splits.
Even if Lendeborg’s ballhandling and overall offensive game don’t develop to the level of Butler or Howard (which is not likely to happen anyway), he should be a valuable stat-sheet stuffer whose game adjusts to whatever the team needs from him on any given night.
He has flashed solid weakside rim protection, he is active in the passing lanes, and he can make open threes, making him a potential Robert Covington type player, a defensively versatile wing who can scale up a position or two while being a snug fit in any lineup.
Like ClutchPoints’ content? Be sure to follow us.
Related: NBA rumors: Warriors insider gives ‘pessimistic’ LeBron James free agency update as wait continues
Related: Stephen A. Smith disagrees with Draymond Green on LeBron James leverage take
