Yaxel Lendeborg is already feeling the impact of playing alongside veterans who want him to be more aggressive.
The Warriors rookie said encouragement from Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and the rest of the team has given him a major confidence boost, particularly because the message has continued privately and not just in public.
“Oh, it’s definitely making it skyrocket,” Lendeborg said of his confidence. “And especially, me texting them personally and them still telling me that, it’s not like a media thing, it’s personally.”
Hearing teammates publicly tell a rookie to shoot can easily sound like standard encouragement. Hearing the same thing directly in private conversations makes it feel more genuine.
Lendeborg said the support has also forced him to change the way he talks to himself on the floor.
“It definitely makes me feel a lot better with myself,” he said. “It puts me in a situation where I have to talk to myself like, ‘Man, I really have to do this.’”
His point was that Curry, Green and his teammates can only push him so far. Eventually, the decision to shoot, attack and trust his own ability has to come from him.
“It’s not going to be them pushing me to just shoot the ball every single time,” Lendeborg said. “It has to be me thinking like, ‘Yeah, I can do this. I’ll be able to do it.’”
That was the mindset he carried into his latest appearance, and he came away encouraged by the result.
“I pretty much went in with that mindset tonight,” he said, “and it ended up working out better than I thought.”
Yaxel Lendeborg said encouragement from Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and the rest of the team has given him a major confidence boost, particularly because the message has continued privately and not just in public. https://t.co/ZV48gJv4TI
— OpenCourt-Basketball (@OpenCourtFB) October 8, 2026
For Golden State, the development is an encouraging one. The Warriors are not simply asking Lendeborg to fit in quietly as a rookie. Their veterans are actively pushing him to trust his scoring ability and play without hesitation.
And for Lendeborg, the biggest step may not be learning when to shoot. It may be believing that players like Curry and Green genuinely want him to.
