Yaxel Lendeborg has been one of the stories of the entire league through the first 10 days, not just at the Golden State Warriors where his impressive play has electrified the outlook and mood of the franchise.
It does beg the question of whether this would be occuring if the Warriors had been succesful in luring LeBron James as a free agent during the offseason? The answer is almost assuredly no, and as a result Lendeborg's emergence is clearly makes the James rejection far less painful than what it appeared even a week ago.
Yaxel Lendeborg is making LeBron James' rejection less painful
Dating back to James' free agency decision and it felt as if Golden State were the team that needed him the most. With Jimmy Butler injured on the sidelines, they only had one legitimate star in Stephen Curry. In contrast, the Cleveland Cavaliers had/have Donovan Mitchell, James Harden and Evan Mobley, while the Philadelphia 76ers had just added Jaylen Brown to Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecomb.
That's also exactly why James didn't sign with the Warriors. He didn't want to be 41-years-old on a team needing him to be the second-leading scorer on a nightly basis through the regular season. His decision to join the 76ers was ultimately the obvious one from a purely basketball standpoint, and one that may have actually benefited Golden State in hindsight.
Even if Lendeborg was impressive and better than everyone predicted, there's still no chance that he gets this kind of usage so early in his career. He might be a starter and playing 25-30 minutes, but it's easy to envision that Steve Kerr would have been running the non-Stephen Curry minutes through James.
Now Lendeborg is running those non-Curry minutes. It's not perfect as the 11th overall pick recorded seven turnovers against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night, but it's still an overwhelming positive as Lendeborg averages 22.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists across his first five career games.
Warriors might have lucked out with LeBron James rejection
The Warriors wanted James, particularly veterans in Curry and Draymond Green who played the role of recruiters during the four-time MVP's free agency process. It's crazy to think that in retrospect, they may have lucked out in not signing James.
Golden State would have likely still had a hard time being a contender even with Curry and James. There may have also been a circus element to it, even though having the legendary duo play together would have been extraodinarily entertaining.
Perhaps above all else, the James move would have been a short-term one-year, maybe two-year move. Now, in Lendeborg, the Warriors have a player who's impacting right now, while also being a key pillar they hope to build around for the next decade.
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