Being a young-player fan in the Bay has been a creative writing exercise for a while now. How many times has Dub Nation squinted at a flash in the third quarter of a blowout and built a whole career out of it? I’m thinking of Anthony Randolph truthers. We argue about the thin line between bad player fits and organizational rigidity . I’ve written plenty of those columns myself. The future was always the thing we got to talk about while the present belonged to Steph.
That’s why the first week of this
season has felt strange. Generally most (good) teams let their rookies learn on company time, getting their feet wet without absorbing massive responsibility. The Warriors’ rookie Yaxel Lendeborg is already punching time on the clock with the season on the line.
Through three games, Big Yax is averaging 18.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists in about 34 minutes a night, and he’s hitting 44.4% from three. He opened with a steady 12 in Los Angeles. Against Memphis, he put up 18 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals. Then in Phoenix, he hit six threes on his way to 26.
Now, let’s just take a step back and activate gold blooded homerism. Hey Stathead, how many players in Warriors history have averaged 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists for a season?
- Wilt Chamberlain (1963–64, age 27): 36.9 points, 22.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists
- Kevin Durant (2016–17, age 28): 25.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists
- Rick Barry (1972–73, age 28): 22.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists
- Nate Thurmond (1967–68, age 26): 20.5 points, 22.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists
That’s four Hall of Famers, with none none of them rookies. Three games doesn’t put Yaxel in that room, buuuut it’s a funny room to have him standing outside of, don’t cha think?
And for the blistering fireball of skepticism I’m sure awaits for me for daring to dream, let’s clarify that none of this is garbage-time production. Coach Steve Kerr is giving him starter minutes in close games because the team needs what he does right now. With Yaxel, I keep catching myself skipping the projection step entirely, because he’s already answering the questions I’d normally spend three years asking when checking out a prospect.
And it made me think of when James Wiseman was drafted and thrown into the fire on a depleted team. In December 2020, Klay was out with the Achilles, and the Warriors handed a 19-year-old the starting center job on opening night. Remember how Coach Kerr praised Wiseman at that time?
The Warriors are just three games into the season, but rookie James Wiseman has been the obvious choice when it comes to exciting storylines. “Now imagine doing that while playing three college games, then not playing at all for over a year, and then not having training camp. It’s insane. What we’re asking James to do is insane. He’s handling it beautifully.”
James Wiseman (2020–21, first 3 games, age 19): 14.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 0 assists, 1.3 blocks, 1.0 steal in 24.0 minutes, shooting 46.9% from the field (15-of-32), 83.3% from three (5-of-6) and 64.3% from the line (9-of-14)
Wiseman scored 19 in Brooklyn, then had 18 points and three blocks on Christmas in Milwaukee. I remember how that felt. The Warriors were getting blown out, but a 7-footer galloping to the rim gave us something to believe in. Every good night was a promise, and we were all collecting promises.
Yaxel arrived with the job already posted, and there’s a reason the Warriors felt comfortable posting it. He’s 24. He went from a warehouse job to junior college, then to UAB and Michigan, before the Warriors took him 11th. He’s had five years of college basketball to figure out who he is. Wiseman had three college games.
So these NBA three games don’t prove Yaxel was the better prospect as they show two very different starting points. Wiseman was a raw idea the Warriors hoped would turn into a player. Yaxel already arrived as a player, and nobody knows yet how much bigger his game can get. With Wiseman, you fell in love with the ceiling and with Yaxel, you’re watching the floor and noticing it’s already pretty high.
Wiseman’s story went sideways for reasons no three-game sample could have predicted. He tore his right meniscus at the end of his rookie year and then missed the entire next season. The early flashes were real but they just never got the runway.
Here’s the part that keeps nagging at me. The Warriors are 0-3. For years, the problem with Warriors rookies was timing. The kids weren’t ready yet, and the Steph clock doesn’t wait. The whole plan was to keep winning with the vets while the young guys caught up. Now the Warriors finally have a rookie who doesn’t need to catch up, and they’re still losing because of injuries and age. In Phoenix he was plus-5 in a nine-point loss. The rookie has held up his end of the deal more or less for three straight games, and the deal still isn’t closing. He’s still got a ways to go, duh. He’s shooting 66.7% at the line, and he turned it over six times against Memphis. His helpside defense has been trash according to his coach.
But still, as far as a rookies go, there’s a lot to like so far with Big Yax. For years, the question was whether the Warriors’ young players could help Steph win now. Three games into Yaxel’s career, the question is whether the Warriors can win while he’s helping them.
