If you’re a long-time Warriors fan dating back to the Chris Cohan era, you can’t help but reminisce a little bit about a certain free throw merchant named Corey Maggette when you look at Monday night’s box score from Denver.
Back when I wrote every once in a blue moon for GoldenStateOfMind.com circa 2007-2013, I recall Maggette was all the rage on that blog during his stint for Golden State, 2008-10. Signed for five years, $50 million as a free agent, Maggette was brought in to replace Baron Davis, who slammed the door shut on the We Believe era by going back home to LA to join the Clippers, also as a free agent that summer of 2008.
Maggette, though, dude just had a knack for getting to the free throw line, although it obviously didn’t translate to wins: 29-53 in 2008-09, 26-56 in 2009-10, my first year of being credentialed for games.
But the Yaxel Lendeborg experience sure feels like it’s leading to winning basketball. Need some instant point-of-attack defense? Slow the opponent to a walk-up after a free throw.
Steve Kerr on Lendeborg getting to the free throw line [full transcript below the paywall, per usual]:
Changes everything. When you get to the line consistently, you can control the game, you know? The other team goes on a run, you go to a guy like Yax or Jimmy (Butler), you get fouled, the game slows down. You set your defense. The game just gets a lot easier.
I was curious to know how often Lendeborg got to the line in college. According to Basketball Reference, he was already at 5.5 per game at UAB before heading to Michigan and kicking back on the perimeter while Aday Mara and Morez Johnson, Jr. mucked it up in the paint. Still, Yax (4.0) averaged more free throw attempts per game than Mara (3.5) and Johnson (3.9), each.
Why is 5.5 in 40 minutes of a college game impressive as compared to 13 the other night in your standard 48-minute NBA game? Well, Jimmy actually ranks 27th all-time NBA in free throws per game — at 5.7.
Yeah, off the cuff five-ish seems kinda low to be near the Top 25 of every baller to have ever donned an NBA uniform, but the numbers say, if you’re around five, day in and day out, that’s pretty impactful.
There are some great names on that all-time list that could be comparables for Yaxel if you just scroll up a bit on that page: Charles Barkley made 5.92 trips to the free throw line every game. Michael Jordan: 6.83.
If you’re wondering, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the benchmark of all modern-day benchmarks, is at 6.27, “only” good for 17th all-time. James Harden is actually sixth all-time at 7.06, although he’s down to Butler levels at 5.8 and 5.7 in his seasons with the Cavs.
A great comp for Yax? Karl Malone, 6.63.
Through four games, Yax has 31 free throws attempted (7.8 per game), so we’ll see how sustainable that is, but he likely will not break Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 13.8 FTA per game for a rookie, nor Oscar Robertson’s 9.2 free throw makes per game.
As long as Lendeborg just hovers around 5-ish, especially in the absence of Jimmy, that’s pretty game-changing. Oh, and by the way, Maggette is 32nd all-time at 5.57, just behind Rick Barry at 5.60.
Hat tip to Luca Evans of the SF Chronicle for finding this “shimmy jab” Jimmy Butler special executed by Yaxel to land inside the paint and “kick spray” to De’Anthony Melton:
Lendeborg told Evans back at Hawaii training camp that he’d asked Butler to teach him the shimmy jab. Amazing to see Yax put something into practice so quickly. And even though he could get away with throwing his body Monday night into smaller 6’7” guys like DeMar DeRozan, Bryce Hopkins, and Trevon Brazile — he even not only got Aaron Gordon to bite on a fake, but outwitted Nikola Jokic for an and-one, as well! — it’s only getting better from here on out, as Yaxel explained postgame Denver:
And at halftime (Kerr) was telling me to take an extra dribble before I finish. And I think my first layup I jumped from the free throw line, so it’s definitely gonna be trial and error for me. And I really appreciate just him for continuing to talk to me, have patience with me. He’s not screaming at me, he’s talking to me like a human. So it’s awesome just being able to experience that with him. And I mean he’s a smart basketball player, smart basketball coach, so he’s definitely gonna give me all the right tools and there’s nothing for me to be acting arrogant or in a negative way towards it, so I’m just listening to everything he’s saying and hopefully try to implement it next game, next play, whatever it has to be.
Yaxel also brings to mind the last time we drafted a power forward who could physically dominate his matchup: Chris Webber. So ironic that Yax wore his jersey as a kid and wore it the other night in the locker room after the Grizzlies game:
I still have emotional scars from losing Webber after he won Rookie of the Year. Ironically it was all about the spat he had with the late great Don Nelson (R.I.P.). I hope Yaxel ends up filling that emotional void that was left by that abrupt trade way back in 1994.
Below the paywall are all the transcripts from postgame in Denver. Be sure to also check out the recap that’s now in the description of the Watch Party:
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