The Golden State Warriors selected Yaxel Lendeborg in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft. The 11th overall pick had an incredibly impressive debut at the California Classic, but he’s inevitably going to be compared with a player the Warriors could have chosen instead.
The Warriors ultimately decided to take Lendeborg but Aday Mara, another frontcourt player who the Warriors had been connected to ahead of the draft, went No. 12 overall to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Yaxel Lendeborg made the Warriors look smart in his first action
Mara, just like Lendeborg, came into the draft out of the University of Michigan. Many analysts assumed Golden State would take one of the two Michigan guys, and the front office clearly liked Lendeborg a little more.
Either player would have made sense. It really just came down to who they thought would fit better on the team. Mara's a bigger player at 7'3" and would have provided the Warriors with a legitimate long-term center, giving the team the size they haven’t had in a while as a 21-year-old.
Lendeborg's a forward who stands at 6'9" and can score both driving to the rim and beyond the arc. Given the fact the Warriors shoot the three-ball more than any other team in the NBA, it makes sense that they went with the 23-year-old since he can be a threat in multiple ways.
The 24-year-old Lendeborg proved that in his first Summer League action on Friday as he scored 19 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting, including draining all four of his three-point attempts. He definitely looks like a promising prospect, even though it was just one Summer League outing.
Mara had a good debut for the Thunder in the Summer League on Saturday, scoring 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting while recording three rebounds.
It’s going to be interesting to see how these two rookies fare in their first NBA season. If Lendeborg makes a consistent impact Golden State fans will be happy, but what if he’s inconsistent and Mara has a great year while Kristaps Porzingis deals with injuries? That could certainly lead to some regret over the decision to pass on a player who would have replaced the veteran Porzingis.
Only time will tell whether the Warriors made the right choice, but one can bet Warriors fans will keep a close eye on Mara to see if Golden State should have gone with him over Lendeborg.
Add us as a preferred source on Google