Warriors preseason takeaways: Williams shines, Lendeborg learns, turnovers linger

A preseason game, especially the first one of the new season, is never expected to go perfectly, or anywhere near that. After just five days of training camp at BYU-Hawaii in Laie, the Golden State Warriors traveled to Honolulu to take on the Los Angeles Clippers before heading back to the Bay Area.

Two years after Lindy Waters won it at the buzzer for Golden State in that same building, the Warriors came up short, falling 104-101 in the last few seconds of the game.

Winning will become vital in just about three weeks, when that same Warriors squad will face the other Los Angeles team, the Lakers, in their season opener. For now, it's about what comes out on tape and how to improve it.

"Typical first preseason game, a little rust early, not a great shooting rhythm, but a lot of good stuff," Steve Kerr said postgame.

The coaching staff spent all summer reimagining the team's offensive schemes, focusing more on the spacing with a five-out look and the flow of the team. The results in that first game weren't great, but that's what preseason is for. Making adjustments from game to game and seeing improvements as the season inches closer are what actually matter. Plus, implementing a whole new system takes time and reps. Needless to say, this team needed changes after going 37-45 last season. Those changes aren't going to happen overnight.

Here are a few takeaways from the first preseason game:

The turnovers were an issue (again)

Cutting down on turnovers was one of the main areas of emphasis coming into the camp. Last season, the Warriors averaged 15.7 per game, which was tied with the Wizards for third-most in the league. Kerr mentioned pregame his desire to see some of the offensive concepts they put in place that would limit those errors, especially the silly ones. He set a goal of committing at least two fewer turnovers every night, which would propel them within the top 10 in that category. Things didn't exactly go according to plan against the Clippers, as the team finished with 16 total miscues, including a few that were avoidable.

In the second quarter, Steph Curry tried to whip a jump pass from under the basket to the top of the key despite having an open shooter in the corner. His attempt was picked off by a defender and led to a three on the other end. Later on, Yaxel Lendeborg lost the ball after wanting to dump it off to center Charles Bassey instead of trying to go up to either get a bucket or draw a foul. The Clippers again turned that mistake into a three on the other end. Those are the type of turnovers Kerr desperately wants to get rid of. Out of the 15 players that logged double-digit minutes, five of them committed at least two turnovers.

One player that didn't cough the ball up was Draymond Green. In a lesser role than what he'd been accustomed to over the past decade, Green didn't have the ball in his hands as much. Kerr made it clear during camp that they don't want him trailing the play anymore or directing traffic as often. Draymond still delivered a couple of nice dimes that led to points.

Brandon Williams provided a nice spark

I wrote last week on how the Warriors hadn't really had a player like Williams in a long time, maybe since the 2022 version of Jordan Poole. In his first appearance in yellow and blue, the speedster put his whole arsenal on display.

In 16 minutes of action, Williams showed off his dazzling speed, went to the rim at will, drew contact in the paint, and showcased his impressive finishing ability, putting some English on a couple of his layups at the rim. Williams finished with 11 points and three assists, went 3-for-3 at the line, and posted a team-high +16 off the bench.

"He's a real weapon and we're lucky to have him," Kerr said of the 26-year-old.

Even when not resulting in points on the board, his sheer will to attack the basket led to good things happening. In the second half, Bassey secured an offensive rebound after Williams penetrated inside the restricted area and made the defense collapse. The center easily grabbed the ball and added two points.

The Warriors will need that boost, especially when their main provider, Steph Curry, is on the bench.

"He's fast, really fast and crafty," Green said. "He bring something to this team that we haven't had in a long time."

The rookie made his anticipated debut

A day before making his NBA debut with the franchise that drafted him with the No. 11 pick a few months ago, Lendeborg admitted in an interview with 95.7 The Game that he was "super nervous." Who wouldn't be when their first start comes alongside three possible Hall of Famers in Curry, Green and Al Horford?

The shooting numbers didn't jump off the page (four points on 1-for-6 shooting from the field), but the recently turned 24-year-old showed promise on both ends of the floor. Overall offensively, Lendeborg demonstrated his excellent feel for the game. He knocked down a three on the Warriors' first possession of the game, kept the ball moving on the perimeter, and initiated productive pick-and-rolls with Bassey. On defense, he had a nice block in transition.

The turnover I mentioned earlier, the one where he tried to throw it to Bassey instead of rising up for a bucket, blemished an otherwise solid first outing offensively. The main takeaway for the young forward is that he needs to remain aggressive. Everybody on the Warriors agrees on that.

"We need him to be more aggressive," Kerr said of the rookie. "He's very capable of being our lead offensive threat when Steph is off the floor."

"The balance for a guy that's expected to have an impact is to walk that fine line of aggressiveness but being okay knowing you're going to make mistakes and not get deflated," Curry mentioned. "But we don't want anything passive."

The good news is that Lendeborg is just five practices and one preseason game into his NBA career. Every rookie makes mistakes and needs time to adjust to the NBA game on both ends of the floor. Defensively, Lendeborg will develop those defensive instincts over time, as well as get to know the personnel on the other team. Time it requires, more reps he'll get.

At the end of the day, it was just one of six preseason games. The Warriors will now travel back to the Bay Area to face the Lakers on Tuesday before playing the Blazers on a back-to-back (you read that right, a back-to-back in preseason).

Who even remembers preseason games anyway? Curry, entering his 18th season in the NBA, remembers just two of them: the Lindy Waters buzzer-beater a couple of years ago and Kobe slapping his butt after he drained a long three over him back in 2014.

"So we're not going to get bogged down by the results of the game."

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