Warriors Roll Out Hybrid Lineup as Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg Earns Start Next to Steph Curry

Underdog NBA just dropped the Golden State Warriors' starting five for Monday night against the Phoenix Suns, and Steve Kerr is officially letting the rookie ride shotgun with the Hall of Famers. Golden State is rolling out Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Richard, Yaxel Lendeborg, and Draymond Green.

Seeing Lendeborg in the starting unit next to Curry and Green feels like a glitch in the simulation until you look at what happened over the weekend. The rookie just casually dropped a career-high 37 points on the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday while the veterans were resting in sweatpants. Earning a start after that kind of performance is just basic workplace economics.

"Underdog NBA reported the lineup: 'Warriors will start Curry, Podziemski, Richard, Lendeborg, Green on Monday.'"

Now that Curry and Green are back in the mix, the entire geometry of the floor shifts. Curry is already torching nets to the tune of 29.2 points per game this season, and Golden State is sitting on the fifth-best offensive rating in the league at 119.4.

Bettors looking at player props tonight have a massive headache trying to figure out the math here. You have to decide if Lendeborg is going to keep eating or if his usage rate completely evaporates with the primary offensive engine back on the floor.

The stakes are surprisingly high for a random Monday in November. The Warriors are 4-3 and sitting in ninth place in a Western Conference that has absolutely zero margin for error. They need to figure out if this hybrid mix of aging legends and unproven youth can actually hold up in high-leverage minutes.

Podziemski keeping his spot in the starting five is also telling. He has had a bumpy ride with some abdominal strain issues in the past, but keeping him out there shows Golden State is desperate for his secondary playmaking.

We will see exactly how this lineup functions against Phoenix tonight. If Lendeborg proves he can be a legitimate scoring threat without needing the ball in his hands every possession, the Warriors might actually have the depth to survive the winter grind.