Film Breakdown: Yaxel Lendeborg's Pick-and-Roll Offense Gives Warriors New Dimension

Yaxel Lendeborg had an impressive offensive showing this preseason.

In five games, he put 15.6 points on 56.9 percent shooting and 43.8 percent from three. He also showed off his floor game with 7.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.8 blocks.

I was high on Lendeborg coming into the draft, but I have to admit I didn't know he'd be so advanced as a pick-and-roll ball-handler.

Lendeborg torched the Trail Blazers last night as a shooter, driver and passer when handling out of pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops.

I break down seven plays below before I get into what his pick-and-roll proficiency means for the Dubs.

Lendeborg Film Breakdown vs. Blazers

The result of the following seven plays was three Al Horford threes, two Lendborg threes, one Lendeborg floater and one Lendeborg dunk.

The Blazers gave Lendeborg different defensive looks, and he broke down each one.

The first play shows why teams might hesitate to go over the screen:

Lendeborg had a lot of space after getting past the screen, putting Donovan Clingan in a tough spot. Clingan stayed back to give Lendeborg the floater, and Lendeborg took advantage.

Below, Lendeborg rejects the second Horford screen to get into the lane before kicking it out to Horford:

This could be a cheat code against drop coverage.

On the next play, Will Richard's screen creates a defensive breakdown that leads to a Lendeborg dunk:

This is an example of the five-out offense opening up the lane. The Warriors have five capable shooters on the floor, which is partially why the Blazers are late to help.

This is one of the nice things about having a 6'9" ball-handler playing pick-and-pop with a 6'8" shooter. Lendeborg can get this pass over Vit Krejci to Horford in rhythm.

On the next play, the Blazers let Lendeborg accept the Green screen, which results in a three:

Deni Avdija plays the type of defense that says, "I don't respect your shot." If Lendeborg keeps knocking these looks down, defenders will have to go over screens, which will open up drives into the paint for floaters, layups, alley-oops, etc.

Lenderborg hits his second three on the next play:

We've seen Lendeborg hit a couple of side-step threes going left. It's impressive that he has a "pull-up three going right" in his arsenal as well.

On this last play, Cissoko ices the screen well, applying major ball pressure. Lendeborg protects the ball well before hitting Horford with a perfect bounce pass:

In this game, Lendeborg didn't need to either a) hit the roller with a lob or b) hit a shooter in the weak-side corner. He's shown he can do those things, which suggests he doesn't have a glaring weakness as a ball-handler in screen situations.

What Lendeborg's Proficiency Means for the Warriors

For most of the last 17 seasons, getting enough offense in the non-Curry minutes has been a problem.

Jimmy Butler has done a great job leading non-Curry lineups over the last two seasons, but he should be out until at least January with a torn ACL.

Lendeborg already looks like the Warriors' best bet to lead non-Curry lineups.

It won't look exactly the same, as Lendeborg doesn't have the face-up game to play out of the mid-post like Butler does.

Instead, the Warriors should let Lendeborg operate out of pick-and-rolls and pick-and-pops like they did against the Blazers. He already looks to have a great rapport with Horford.

Of course, Lendeborg will also play lots of minutes with Curry, and the possibilites of what they can do in a two-man game are exciting.

We've seen the Warriors run inverted pick-and-rolls with Butler or Green as the ball-handler and Curry as the screener. Imagine how effective they could be with Lendeborg turning the corner off a Curry screen.

Lendeborg is also a great option to be used as a screener when Curry is ball-handling. Lendeborg can roll to the basket and look to finish or play-make, or he can pop and hit threes.

The Warriors desperately needed an offensive player who can a) score in the paint and b) use the threat of his paint scoring to score from the perimeter and playmake. Having that with Lendeborg could lead to their most efficient offense in years if Butler returns to form.