{"slug": "yaxel-lendeborg-shares-his-thoughts-on-lebron-to-warriors-rumors", "title": "Yaxel Lendeborg shares his thoughts on LeBron-to-Warriors rumors", "summary": "Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg addressed rumors of LeBron James and Anthony Davis potentially joining Golden State, expressing excitement about learning from veteran stars while hoping to avoid being traded. The 23-year-old first-round pick impressed in his first summer league practice, showcasing versatility across all five positions.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...SAN FRANCISCO – [Yaxel Lendeborg](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/26/yaxel-lendeborg-steph-curry-warriors-nba-draft-michigan/) did his absolute best to focus on his first summer league practice with the Warriors, but the team’s first-round pick found it difficult to ignore the constant messages on his phone.\n\nLendeborg’s friends were spamming him with texts about [free agency rumors surrounding his team](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/29/lebron-james-and-anthony-davis-to-warriors-heres-how-it-could-happen/). With [Draymond Green declining his player option](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/29/draymond-green-contract-option-golden-state-warriors-lebron-james-anthony-davis-free-agency/), the Warriors suddenly became a realistic target for both LeBron James and Anthony Davis.\n\nAlready becoming well-known for speaking his mind, the rookie could not help but entertain thoughts of how he might fit into a squad that had Curry, Green, James and Davis.\n\n“Where would I fit into this?” Lendeborg asked during his post-practice press conference on Monday evening. “It’s definitely been interesting to see and I’m excited to see how it plays out. Hopefully I don’t get the back end of that and get traded, and hopefully I can stick around and see how that goes and learn from all the veterans that are going to come in.”\n\nWhen imagining the ceiling of such a team, Lendeborg set the expectations as high as possible.\n\n“That would be ridiculous, playing with a bunch of guys that have been doing this for a long time … (my friends) are trying to figure out, man, am I going to get a ring my first year,” Lendeborg said. “Hopefully if it all happens, we’ll see how it goes.”\n\nWhile Lendeborg’s friends were blowing up his phone, the rookie spent practice impressing both his teammates and coaches at Chase Center.\n\n“We’ve seen him bring the ball up the court to initiate offense, we’ve seen him playing as a four or five, and he’s played on the wing,” Khalid Robinson said. “He kind of played all five positions.”\n\nOf the players who went up to the podium, several commented on how Lendeborg was comfortable using his size to impose his will on the game. Listed at 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds, the 23-year-old flew around the floor like a player 6 inches shorter.\n\nLendeborg and the summer league Warriors will play their first game at Chase Center on July 3 against the Lakers.\n\n**Other news and notes**\n\nAside from Lendeborg and second-round pick Lajae Jones, several other familiar faces were also present for the team’s summer league practice.\n\n- Will Richard, last year’s surprise rookie, said he has spent the offseason living in the weight room, and fellow rising sophomore LJ Cryer noted that his goal was to show he could stay healthy.\n- Malevy Leons wanted to show coaches one thing this summer: “That I can shoot with my right hand.” The Dutchman was relegated to shooting with his left for several weeks after he injured his right wrist.\n- Alex Toohey, the No. 54 pick in the draft last season, will be with the team this summer. However, the Australian wing will not play as he continues to rehab from a left knee injury that saw him miss almost all of last season.\n- Vallejo native Chance McMillian will try to impress after missing all of last year’s summer league following ankle surgery.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/yaxel-lendeborg-shares-his-thoughts-on-lebron-to-warriors-rumors", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/30/yaxel-lendeborg-golden-state-warriors-lebron-james-free-agency/", "published_at": "2026-06-30 15:05:14+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-30 15:21:10.503684+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Yaxel Lendeborg", "Golden State Warriors", "LeBron James", "Anthony Davis", "Draymond Green", "Steph Curry", "Khalid Robinson", "Chase Center"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/yaxel-lendeborg-shares-his-thoughts-on-lebron-to-warriors-rumors", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/yaxel-lendeborg-shares-his-thoughts-on-lebron-to-warriors-rumors.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/yaxel-lendeborg-shares-his-thoughts-on-lebron-to-warriors-rumors.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/yaxel-lendeborg-shares-his-thoughts-on-lebron-to-warriors-rumors.jsonld"}}