Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg's defense a mixed bag in NBA Summer League originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAS VEGAS – Yaxel Lendeborg’s introduction to Dub Nation was more in line with a No. 30 on the back of a Warriors jersey than a rookie rocking No. 1. He couldn’t miss. At all.
The Warriors’ top draft pick this year, taken No. 11 overall, was a perfect 6 of 6 from the field and 4 of 4 on threes in his first NBA Summer League game at the California Classic. Lendeborg wasn’t known as a shooter in college, but it was impossible to ignore this summer.
Between the Cali Classic and Las Vegas, Lendeborg shot 48.4 percent from the field (44 of 91) and 45.9 percent from 3-point range (17 of 37) while averaging 14.9 points per game. Lendeborg scored off catch-and-shoot threes and off the dribble. He bullied opponents with his massive 6-foot-9 and 240-pound frame, and showed great body control in the air thanks to a 7-3 wingspan. In transition, he’s a wrecking ball that throws defenders out of his way.
It’s easy to forget that Lendeborg is the height of LeBron James, the weight of Al Horford and has the wingspan of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Nobody is perfect. Not even an NBA Summer League MVP. As Lendeborg continued to shine throughout summer league, questions about his defense were impossible to ignore.
Lendeborg in his college career was known first for his defense than his offense, which is the side of the ball that was expected to stand out first this summer and early into his pro career. He was a back-to-back America Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year at UAB and then was named to the Big Ten All-Defense team his one year at Michigan. Those kinds of accolades didn’t show up early this summer.
There weren’t multiple instances of Lendeborg getting beat off the dribble. It’s not that players were blowing past him or muscling through him. It’s that his level of awareness defensively was lacking to the point where Lendeborg was out of position or looked uninterested.
“I think with Yax, it’s just an overall level of awareness you have to have defensively at all times,” Warriors summer league head coach Khalid Robinson said after practice on July 13. “You can’t really switch off. The very good defenders in the league have that constant level of awareness, knowing that when they can go put out a fire and be proactive.
“We tell these guys we don’t want you to be reactive, we want you to be proactive. It’s something that all these guys have to continue to grow at.”
The practice where Robinson was asked heavily about Lendeborg’s defense came after his second summer league in Las Vegas, having already played two at Chase Center in the Cali Classic. He beat former Michigan teammates Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara in his first two Las Vegas games, and even admitted after that it was hard for him to lock in against his friends with the Warriors having large leads in more of a relaxed environment.
Robinson says the foundation to a young player learning more defensively begins with a lot of fundamental technique. It’s a mix of group work and 1-on-1 individual workouts with coaches where players can really hone in their technique on the ball and off the ball. Then comes film, reiterating decision points and highlighting the film when someone is making a mistake or when they’re doing well. Robinson, a respected assistant on the Warriors’ staff, is keen on being able to build a person up and not just crush someone.
“You want to correct and you want to teach,” he said.
Has Lendeborg been open to that kind of coaching?
“From the day I met him right after the draft, up until now, he has been very open to coaching and wanting to be coached and wanting to know how he can get better on both ends of the ball,” Robinson said. “He is a very coachable guy. When you sit down and watch film with him, he is very attentive. He asks questions, so it’s exactly what you want from a young player that’s trying to grow this week.”
Any funny business was put to the side the next day. Lendeborg was done playing against his friends and finally was going to battle with a growing rival. The Warriors’ third game in Las Vegas was vs. Cameron Boozer and the Memphis Grizzlies. Like their one game against each other in college, Lendeborg was on the losing end.
He again outscored Boozer, this time 15 to 12. Lendeborg had more rebounds than him too, nine to seven. A new level of competitiveness was apparent watching Lendeborg play Boozer’s Grizzlies in a game that also was Steve Kerr’s first appearance of the summer. And it was the most 1-on-1 opportunities defensively Lendeborg had through five games.
Following the loss, I asked Lendeborg how he would evaluate his defense up to that point.
“My defense has not been what it’s been before,” Lendeborg said. “I would probably evaluate myself as like a C. I’ve been missing a lot of off-ball assignments. I haven’t really had the opportunity to guard too many people on-ball, so I haven’t really been able to showcase that as much as I could.
“When the regular season starts, if I’m able to play with the big squad, I’m going to try to prove that I am a willing defender, a pretty good defender, and hopefully everything starts going upwards.”
The next game was Lendeborg’s worst from a scoring and shooting standpoint. He scored just three points on 1-of-9 shooting and was 1 of 6 on threes, yet that didn’t stop him from having his best defensive game of the summer. Lendeborg was a plus-12 in a 10-point win over the New York Knicks with one steal and two blocked shots.
His defensive activity in the win was much more reminiscent of who we saw in college. Lendeborg disrupted passing lanes and his motor didn’t turn off. His one steal came in the fourth quarter, as did one of Lendeborg’s two blocked shots.
Lendeborg then had another game of one steal and two blocked shots in the semifinals to send the Warriors to the summer league championship. Unsurprisingly, his second blocked shot came in the clutch with a little more than a minute remaining and the Warriors ahead by three points.
Though Lendeborg wasn’t credited with a blocked shot in the championship game, he did have another two steals. He also had six defensive rebounds, including two huge ones in the last 37 seconds of the win.
With 48.5 seconds left, the Grizzlies had the ball under their basket and trailed by one point. They got it to Boozer at the top of the arc, and Lendeborg immediately picked him up. Lendeborg fought through a screen and stayed in front of Boozer until he found just enough space to attempt a go-ahead layup, but Lendeborg deterred the shot with his left hand and then grabbed the rebound.
“I keep hearing that my hips are stiff, so I got to figure out how to loosen up my hips,” Lendeborg said after the Warriors’ championship win. “A lot of what I’ve been hearing too is like a point-of-attack defender. … So I want to try to work on those two things, just the little things to fix that up.”
The one question Lendeborg has asked Steph Curry about is how he got his stamina up to becoming the most conditioned player in NBA history. Lendeborg has acknowledged he needs to get his conditioning to a better point after taking time off his feet from playing through two different leg injuries in Michigan’s national title run.
Don’t be discouraged from a few summer league blips in Lendeborg’s defense. Be encouraged by his coachability and honest self evaluations as his competitiveness and defensive pride found a new level in the biggest moments.
Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s