Team: Golden State Warriors · Age: 23 · Position: SF/PF · Status: signed first-round rookie · Draft: No. 11 in 2026 · As of: 2026-07-18
2026-27 median projection
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73 | 25.5 | .468 | .780 | 1.2 | 10.8 | 6.2 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1.6 |
Nine-cat: top-100 to top-145, with stocks-driven upside. Points: B-. Dynasty: 8.5/10, roughly a top-45 to top-80 asset. Opening-night allocation: 26 minutes.
Translation case
At Michigan, Lendeborg averaged 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.2 blocks in 30.2 minutes, shooting .515 FG, .372 from three, and .824 FT (Sports Reference). Golden State selected him 11th and signed him in early July.
His fantasy appeal is structural: rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks can all survive an imperfect scoring transition. A scouting split found 23% on guarded catch-and-shoot threes versus 43% when unguarded (SI draft report), so the median does not simply import his college 37.2%.
Summer League supplied encouraging role evidence. He posted 19 points, five rebounds, and six assists on perfect shooting in the California Classic (NBA.com) and scored 21 in his Las Vegas opener (NBA.com). Those performances show comfort handling and shooting; they are not a statistically reliable NBA forecast.
Range
- Ceiling: Green does not return or Butler's absence extends; Lendeborg plays 31 MPG and approaches 13/8/3 with 2.3 combined steals and blocks, producing top-70 value.
- Median: sixth-man forward with occasional starts and useful but not elite stocks.
- Floor: rookie shooting and decision speed lag, Horford/Santos absorb forward minutes, and he lands near 18 MPG.
Older rookie age improves immediate readiness but reduces the amount of age-curve upside that dynasty markets usually price into a lottery pick.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Pennsauken High School (New Jersey), then a three-year junior-college run at Arizona Western (NJCAA) before two seasons at UAB and one at Michigan. The progression is unusually legible for a six-year college player.
| Season | School | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | Arizona Western | 14 | 19.2 | 6.1 | 7.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | .714 | .000 | .552 |
| 2021-22 | Arizona Western | 31 | 30.4 | 12.0 | 11.0 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 1.5 | .607 | .357 | .722 |
| 2022-23 | Arizona Western | 33 | 30.0 | 17.2 | 13.0 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 1.4 | .727 | .438 | .647 |
| 2023-24 | UAB | 35 | 30.1 | 13.8 | 10.6 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 2.1 | .513 | .333 | .800 |
| 2024-25 | UAB | 37 | 33.6 | 17.7 | 11.4 | 4.2 | 1.7 | 1.8 | .522 | .357 | .757 |
| 2025-26 | Michigan | 40 | 30.2 | 15.1 | 6.8 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 1.2 | .515 | .372 | .824 |
At Michigan he was Big Ten Player of the Year, a consensus first-team All-American, a Big Ten All-Defensive selection, and Midwest Region NCAA Tournament MVP on a team that won both the Big Ten and the national title. Draft: 2026, first round, 11th overall, Golden State Warriors; no draft-night trade. At 23 he was the oldest first-rounder in the class and at least three years older than every player taken ahead of him.
NBA record: none. Lendeborg has not played an NBA regular-season game.
Summer League 2026: across five summer-league games he averaged 16.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.4 steals, and led all rookies in the event at 15.9 box plus-minus. The Las Vegas opener against Dallas was 21 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists; he followed with 14 points, four assists, and three steals against Oklahoma City and 15 points on 6-of-12 with nine rebounds and four turnovers against Memphis. The passing volume is the signal worth keeping — a 6-foot-9 forward initiating at that rate is what the projection is built on. The shooting sample is far too small to read either way; he was 0-of-2 from three in the Memphis game.
Fantasy history: none. No NBA seasons, so no category or points-league finishes exist.
Durability: no NBA games played, so there is no professional availability record. The college history is clean: 35, 37, and 40 games in his three Division I seasons, starting 31, 37, and 39 of them, with no publicly reported major injury. The 14-game 2020-21 juco season was a shortened pandemic schedule and a bench role, not an injury year. Six college seasons without a lost year is a real, if imperfect, durability signal.
Trajectory: The arc is a slow, uninterrupted climb rather than a leap — scoring rose in every year but one from 6.1 to 17.7 before settling at 15.1 in a better league, and the assist rate doubled from 2.1 to 4.2 in his second UAB season and held at 3.2 against Big Ten defenses. The important detail in the Michigan year is that the rebounding fell from 11.4 to 6.8 while the efficiency and free-throw shooting improved, which reflects a move from primary interior rebounder at UAB to a perimeter-oriented forward role on a deeper front line, not a decline in ability. The three-point percentage has climbed each Division I season, .333 to .357 to .372, but the volume was never large and the guarded-versus-unguarded split cited above is the reason to discount it. He is the rare rookie whose non-scoring categories — rebounds, assists, steals, blocks — were all above-average at every stop, which is why he can hold nine-cat value even if the jumper does not travel. The cost of the six-year path is that he enters at 23 with most of the developmental runway already spent; what he is now is close to what he will be, and 2026-27 should look like the median rather than the ceiling.
Career sources: Yaxel Lendeborg (Wikipedia) · Sports-Reference college stats · ESPN player page · NBC Sports Bay Area — summer league production · NBA.com — Warriors vs Mavericks summer league · NBA.com — Warriors vs Thunder summer league
Open questions
- Is Lendeborg a day-one starter or the first forward off the bench?
- Will Green sign, and can Lendeborg play center in regular NBA lineups?
- Does the three-point shot hold up against closeouts rather than Summer League space?