Ever since the fall of the Warriors’ dynasty that defined much of the 2010s, one truth has come to define the Golden State franchise: without Steph Curry, they are lost.

It’s not a revelation to declare a team is worse without their best player, especially when the player in question is an all-time great who will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. But as the roster around Curry slowly got worse, the burden he carried became more obvious. When he’s on the floor and feeling good, the Dubs could hang with anybody. When he was sidelined? Golden State isn’t nearly good enough to contend. The franchise’s various whiffs on changing that, from failed lottery picks to the Jimmy Butler trade, have only made the margins thinner.

In fewer words, every time Curry has gone down with an injury in the last five or so years, it’s felt like a death knell. Without him, the Warriors were forgotten (and occasionally unwatchable). And so, when he grabbed his torso in pain on Wednesday night, the sound of hearts dropping in the Bay Area could be heard for miles around.

One day later, fears were confirmed—Curry is going to miss at least two weeks with an oblique tear, per the team. He’ll be sidelined for at least seven games after leading the Dubs to an 8–4 start. A few hours later, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Curry was expected to miss “closer to one month,” which puts him closer to more than 10 games missed (depending on how the NBA Cup scheduling works out) with a possible return around Dec. 12 against the Cavaliers.

It is obviously far from the worst case scenario, yet it’s hard to blame anyone for feeling nervous given Curry’s battle with runner’s knee last season that started as a brief absence and wound up keeping him out for 27 games. The superstar point guard is 38 years old with a lengthy injury history; it’s always risky to assume the recovery timeline will be kept to a T.

In years past this sort of news break is usually a precursor a bunch of losses from the Warriors. In fact, those losses have felt inevitable. And even this early in the year, such losses can lead to a deep hole in the standings that even Curry’s remarkable skill can’t dig his team out of.

This time? It could be different. It doesn’t have to be fatal. Because this time, the roster has a young talent to lean on in Yaxel Lendeborg.

Can Yaxel Lendeborg keep the Warriors afloat without Steph Curry?

When asked earlier this year what felt different about this particular Warriors team compared to last season, Curry immediately cited “Yax.” The rookie wing’s NBA career has gotten off to an exceptional start in Golden State as he demonstrates all the skills required to thrive in the modern NBA on both ends of the court. To the great pleasure of Golden State, he’s proving an excellent fit in Steve Kerr’s system; Lendeborg knows how to play off Curry’s gravity and can make plays when his superstar teammate is on the bench. As a result he ranks second among rookies in points per game (21.7) and third in three-pointers made per game (2.4) and third in individual offensive rating among first-year players who average at least 20 minutes per game.

Now they’ll be asking even more of him. It’s only been 11 games yet Lendeborg has shown flashes of being able to carry the Warriors’ offense—a capability nobody else on the roster really has. Brandin Podziemski has his nights but Lendeborg has already doubled his career number of 30-point games by doing so twice before Thanksgiving. Otherwise the team is a cobbled together collection of journeyman role players and Draymond Green, who can still do many things well other than score the basketball (which was never a strong suit in the first place).

No, it’s going to be on the rookie from Michigan. Everybody knows it, too.

“The spirit of this team is better,” Green said on Wednesday night when asked if this year’s Warriors are more well-suited to succeed without Curry than past iterations. “We're more certain of who we are, what makes us a good team. I think that puts us in a better position to be successful without him as opposed to where we were last year.

"Then obviously Yax, having a guy you can give the ball to who can create an advantage. BP (Podziemski) is playing a lot better. With the growth of BP, the growth of a lot of our young guys incorporating Yax, who is showing to be a really good young player in this league, I think it definitely puts us in a better position.”

Whether Lendeborg can be that guy every night is the question that will define the coming games for the Warriors. Prior to Wednesday he averaged 28.5 points per game in the two contests Curry missed earlier in the season. After the superstar point guard departed in the first quarter last night, Lendeborg finished with 25 points. For the year his advanced stats in 256 minutes without Curry are good—Golden State has an offensive rating of 117.2 per 100 possessions in Lendeborg’s solo minutes, per Databllr, which would currently rank top-10 in the NBA.

If anything the 24-year-old wing recognizes the necessity to take control of the game however he can if Curry isn’t out there. Because no one else can do it quite like he can. If Lendeborg can keep the Warriors afloat until Curry returns, the season isn’t lost due to the superstar’s injury—something Golden State hasn’t been able to say for years.

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