Fans heading to the Chase Center this weekend for the California Classic will see a number of familiar faces on the Golden State Warriors’ “Team Gold.” Fans seeing the Warriors’ “Team Blue” at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento may need to buy a program.
The team announced two rosters for the California Classic, an offseason kickoff event that the Warriors and Sacramento Kings are holding at both their arenas over eight games Friday-Sunday. The Warriors are fielding two teams, probably because the tournament
needed an equal number of teams after the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Brooklyn Nets, and Milwaukee Bucks all accepted invitations to play.
Warriors Gold seems to be closer to what the likely roster for Las Vegas Summer League will look like. The Gold team plays two games at the Chase Center, facing the Lakers on Friday and the Spurs on Sunday. Warriors Blue will be in Sacramento exclusively, facing the Bucks on Saturday and the Kings on Sunday. The Heat, Spurs, and Lakers are staying in San Francisco, while the Nets and Bucks stay in the state capital, and you can assume the relative status of those NBA teams from that placement.
Let’s look at Team Gold, which — no disrespect to the fine athletes on Team Blue — features the players who are likely to play in the NBA next season.
Yaxel Lendeborg: He’s an NCAA champion from Michigan who was the No. 11 pick in the draft. He plays great on-ball defense, is insanely competitive, and his dad played with Al Horford’s dad in the Dominican League.
Will Richard: Another national champion, this time in 2025 for Florida, Richard was the 56th pick in the 2025 draft who ended up playing 69 games (nice) for the Warriors last season. His outside shot needs some work but Richard was a very solid defensive player who was thrown into the fire due to injuries and deserves a role on next year’s team.
LJ Cryer: Cryer played 18 games for the Warriors last season and he was not shy about pulling the trigger on outside shots. He shot 39.4% on 5.2 three-point attempts in 16.2 minutes per game. Cryer is pretty small and wasn’t able to guard anyone, but his three-point shooting is excellent.
Lajae Jones: Jones was the No. 54 pick in the 2026 draft who has, well, Will Richard vibes. He went to Florida State, is a high-motor defensive player, and doesn’t hit threes reliably. There’s talk that Jones’ Israeli passport makes him a viable candidate to play overseas and become a “draft-and-stash” candidate, if the Warriors don’t need a cheap rookie deal, and that’s all we will say about Israel in this piece!
Malevy Leons: There are two Dutch players in the NBA and the Warriors had both of them last season, baby! Leons was on a two-way deal last season and played 25 games, averaging 3.3 points and 2.9 rebounds, plus 0.6 steals and 0.4 blocks in 11 minutes. He might get a two-way this year, too.
Jack Clark: Clark is a forward from VCU who played 35 games for the Santa Cruz Warriors last season, starting 25 of them. He’s 26 years old.
Chase Hunter: Chase Hunter played six years at Clemson and spent last season with the New Orleans Pelicans’ G League team, the Birmingham Squadron. He’s big for a point guard at 6-foot-4 and plays good defense, plus his name makes him sound like a soap opera star.
Graham Ike: The Warriors signed Graham Ike to an Exhibit 10 deal, which is essentially a training camp invitation. He’s a 6-foot-9 center who you probably saw anchoring the middle at Gonzaga, where he was the WCC Player of the Year last season. Ike put up 19.9 points and 8.0 rebounds and dominated the glass and it wouldn’t be shocking if he ended up with a two-way deal.
Chance McMillian: Another Exhibit 10 guy, McMillian helped lead Texas Tech to the Elite Eight while scoring 14.2 points and shooting 43.3% on threes, best in the Big 12. He’s small for a shooting guard a 6-foot-3 but he can really shoot.
Lachlan Olbrich: An Australian center who went one pick ahead of Will Richard last year, Olbrich played 37 games last year while on a two-way deal with the Chicago Bulls. He’s 6-foot-8 and won a title in Australia before going to the NBA. Olbrich is somewhat small and slow for a center but is apparently very tough — we’ll get an update from Andrew Bogut later.
Max Shulga: The Warriors love the end of the second round of the draft. Shulga was the 57th pick in the 2026 draft and spent last year with the Boston Celtics’ G League team and got into 11 NBA games. As far as we can tell, he’s still under contract with Boston but is getting some reps with Team Gold.
Deivon Smith: The Santa Cruz Warriors traded a first- and second-round pick to get Smith, who absolutely tore it up in nine games for the team, averaging 17.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 6.6 assists, with two triple-doubles. Then he broke his wrist and his season ended. He should be quite exciting to watch.
Alex Toohey: Toohey was the No. 52 pick in last year’s draft. He originally had a two-way contract, but when he needed season-ending knee surgery, the Warriors gave his spot to Leons. It’s extremely hard to judge Toohey, who looked bad in Summer League and training camp last year but was hurt the entire time. He should be in the organization this year, though maybe just in Santa Cruz.
We’ll see which of these guys end up on the Las Vegas roster, where the Warriors will try to recapture the glory of the 2013 Summer League title, which everyone knows led directly to the four subsequent championships. We’re pretty sure they would have won the California Classic, too, if that’s a thing you can do!
