Yaxel Lendeborg Could Have Much Bigger Role on Warriors Than Expected

· Yahoo Sports

Steve Kerr has spent more than a decade making first-year players wait their turn in Golden State, which is what makes the latest report about Yaxel Lendeborg so surprising.

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According to ESPN's Anthony Slater, the veteran head coach has already told the rookie forward that he could open next season in the starting lineup.

Slater shared the detail on Thursday's episode of NBA Today while running through the rookies who impressed him most in Las Vegas, and his answer centered on the 23-year-old forward the Warriors refused to trade away on draft night.

For a franchise in need of fresh legs, the timing could not be much better.

"I asked him about his early conversations with Steve Kerr, and he mentioned, 'Hey, you know, Steve has a history of not playing rookies,' but basically said, you know, he's different, and Steve Kerr's already told him he might start," Slater said in the segment, which was transcribed by Heavy.

A Summer That Changed Everything

Lendeborg earned the attention with one of the best summers any Golden State rookie has put together in years.

He averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, four assists and 1.5 steals across six games in Las Vegas, then delivered 21 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game win over Memphis.

All 30 teams voted him Summer League MVP, and the performance had fans around the league calling the No. 11 pick a genuine draft steal.

General manager Mike Dunleavy never doubted the choice.

"From our standpoint, we knew we were going to pick Yaxel at 11, he was the guy," Dunleavy told reporters on draft night, per NBC Sports Bay Area.

Why the Door Is Wide Open

Opportunity is the other half of the story.

Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in a January game against Miami, and Moses Moody suffered a season-ending knee injury of his own in the spring, leaving two spots on the wing without obvious answers while both veterans work their way back.

Those absences helped drag down a Warriors squad that finished 37-45 and 10th in the Western Conference, so the front office has every reason to let younger legs compete for real minutes this fall.

The locker room seems ready to embrace the rookie as well.

Draymond Green, who has appeared in 949 career games, showed love to Lendeborg and the summer squad during the title run, while people around the team keep pointing to a mindset that should excite the fan base.

Lendeborg is older than most rookies, since he turns 24 in September, and that maturity showed in how comfortably he handled a leading role all summer.

What It Means for October

Golden State's bigger roster picture remains unsettled, and nobody should pencil a first-year player into an opening-night lineup in July.

Kerr has surprised people before, though, usually in the other direction, by holding young players back until they force the issue.

Lendeborg appears to have forced it already.

If Butler and Moody open the season on the shelf, the path from intriguing draft pick to starting forward could be far shorter than anyone in the Bay expected.

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