One Summer League Game Has a Warriors Reporter Ready to Move On From LeBron

It took all of five minutes for Yaxel Lendeborg to convince at least one person that the Golden State Warriors don’t need LeBron James.

That’s the joke, anyway. Matt Lively of CBS Sports Bay Area watched the Warriors’ 11th overall pick during his Summer League debut and came away with a conclusion that’s equal parts internet trolling and genuine hype.

“I’ve watched about 5 minutes of Yaxel,” Lively said. “The Warriors don’t need LeBron.”

Obviously, that’s an exaggeration. One Summer League game against a bunch of guys fighting for two-way contracts isn’t going to change the calculus for a franchise that reportedly wants to pair Stephen Curry and Draymond Green with the future Hall of Famer. But Lendeborg’s stat line was the kind of thing that gets people talking: 19 points on a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, 4-for-4 from three, six assists and five rebounds in 22 minutes.

Not bad for a rookie’s first taste of NBA action.

Lendeborg wasn’t supposed to be the guy who makes fans forget about the James sweepstakes. He’s a 6-foot-9 forward with an intriguing mix of size and skill, but he’s also a 21-year-old who has never played a real NBA minute. Still, the internet being the internet, a few people ran with the gag. Maybe the Warriors are in better shape than they think.

Probably not. But it’s fun to pretend.

The LeBron-to-Golden-State talk is real, but complicated

The Warriors have been linked to James ever since he informed the Lakers he wouldn’t return for the 2026-27 season. But according to Shams Charania, the path to that reunion isn’t straightforward.

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up, Charania laid out what the Warriors are trying to do.

“The Warriors going into free agency, they dreamt up a grand plan of Draymond Green, Stephen Curry, LeBron James,” Charania said. “The big domino with them is trying to get a player like an Anthony Davis you can bring in LeBron James and Anthony Davis as a package deal. Short of that, they’re not really looked at right now at the top of this list.”

That’s shorthand for: the Warriors want a blockbuster trade involving Washington’s Anthony Davis to bring both stars to the Bay. Without that second piece, James reportedly isn’t prioritizing Golden State at the top of his list.

So the big question is whether the front office can pull off the kind of deal that would make the Lakers jealous and the rest of the league furious. If they can’t, the Lendeborg Summer League hype might end up being the most exciting thing the Warriors do this offseason.

Free agency is entering its second week, and nobody really knows what James will do. That’s the beauty of it. Until then, the Warriors can watch their rookie knock down four threes in a Summer League game and dream about what could be.