How Yaxel Lendeborg is finding his fit with Michigan basketball

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Yaxel Lendeborg walked off the court after one of his first practices at Michigan, looking like a 6-foot-9 sponge that was ready to be wrung out.

Eventually, all of this will be second nature: the cuts, the screens, the mix of structure and free-flowing improvisation. Right now, Lendeborg is still soaking it all in, still absorbing. He showed a trace of tentativeness as the Wolverines ran through their offensive sets, a hint of surprise when coach Dusty May stepped into the drill and whipped a behind-the-back pass in his direction. There was another moment when the clouds parted and Lendeborg, the No. 2 player in The Athletic’s transfer portal rankings, soared above everyone for a one-handed dunk.

“It’s a lot of different play calls that I’m not really used to, so I’m having to get adjusted to that,” said Lendeborg, a transfer from UAB who opted for Michigan over the NBA Draft. “There’s certain times when I’m just looking around and I’m, like, confused on where I’ve got to be. I feel like I’ll get there in a week or so. I’m getting a little closer now.”

Lendeborg isn’t the only one who’s adjusting. Much as he did in Year 1, May constructed a roster that’s heavy on transfers and freshmen, supported by a few returning players in key roles. Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin, the 7-footers who carried Michigan to the Sweet 16, are gone. So is point guard Tre Donaldson. And yet, expectations are firmly in place for an even deeper postseason run.

Nimari Burnett, Will Tschetter, Roddy Gayle and L.J. Cason are back from last year’s team, joined by five-star freshman guard Trey McKenney. Michigan added point guard Elliot Cadeau from North Carolina in hopes of solving last year’s turnover struggles. Aday Mara, a 7-3 center who transferred from UCLA, provides size and rim protection, and Illinois transfer Morez Johnson is a 6-9 powerhouse in the paint.

Lendeborg, a double-double machine who averaged 17.7 points and 11 rebounds last year at UAB, is the player who ties it all together. He committed to Michigan in April while also testing the NBA waters. Unlike other coaches, Lendeborg said, May didn’t try to talk him out of the draft or make promises about turning him into a lottery pick. Michigan would have a good team either way, May told him, but Lendeborg was the player who could make it great.

“He said (I’m) basically like the queen on the chessboard,” Lendeborg said. “Basically like a Danny Wolf role, trying to do the same things he was doing.”

Much of Michigan’s success last season came from creating mismatches with Wolf, a 7-foot point-forward who was drafted with the No. 27 pick by the Brooklyn Nets. Lendeborg isn’t as tall but has similarities as a do-it-all big man who’s capable of initiating offense. Cadeau described him as a “pro playing college basketball,” and his versatility makes an impact on every column on the stat sheet.

Michigan has started to experiment with using Lendeborg as a creator in ball-screen sets with another big man, May said, similar to the way the Wolverines used Wolf last year. If this works, it will be further proof that Michigan has found its niche as a program that creates unconventional frontcourt matchups that most teams on the schedule aren’t built to defend.

“I think there will be times that we roll out a really, really rare big lineup,” May said. “There’s going to be other times when we play small and quick and have one of our really skilled guys at the five. We’re going to have to figure out who plays the best with who and try to align those minutes.”

Building a team this way comes with tradeoffs. The Wolverines had one of the nation’s best frontcourts last season but weren’t a particularly good 3-point shooting team and ranked near the bottom of Division I in turnover rate. Though Michigan didn’t add lights-out shooting in the offseason, May is banking on a bounce-back season from Gayle, continued efficiency from Burnett, development from Cason and enough shooting from the rest of the roster to win games in the Big Ten.

The turnover issue was more vexing. May and his staff studied the problem in the offseason but didn’t find many patterns behind the random, careless turnovers that plagued the Wolverines last year. Cadeau, a five-star prospect from the Class of 2023, had turnover troubles of his own at North Carolina, but he also had one of the best assist rates in the country. May said Cadeau’s quickness and creativity as a facilitator jumped out immediately during summer practices.

“Last year, we were turning the ball over at this time, and we turned it over all year,” May said. “We had to find other ways to win. This year, the turnover issue, after such a small sample size, has been cleared up simply through roster construction.”

As much as Michigan wanted to be balanced, much of the scoring load fell on Wolf last season. The Wolverines hope to have more options this year, but it won’t be a surprise if the offense runs through Lendeborg. He was projected as a borderline first-round pick and performed well enough at the NBA Draft Combine to consider staying in the draft. Ultimately, he decided that having a year at Michigan to assert himself as an elite player would put him in the best position for a long NBA career.

Yaxel Lendeborg received first-round considerations in this past year’s NBA Draft but opted to stay another year in college. (Courtesy of Michigan Athletics)

Lendeborg, who played his first three seasons at Arizona Western College, never followed the gilded path of a five-star recruit. He’s discovering what he can do, along with everyone else. That means coming to terms with his own talent and thinking of himself as the best player on the floor, a realization that didn’t hit him until somewhat recently.

“That’s been a big thing for me,” Lendeborg said. “I never feel like I belong on the court.”

Through a few weeks of summer practices, Lendeborg is starting to feel at home. The game is still moving fast, but now that he has had some time with his new teammates, he’s pretty sure he’s in the right place.

“It seems like everybody’s unselfish,” Lendeborg said. “That’s really new to me. I’ve had a lot of guys who wanted every shot, to be the man. I feel like nobody here wants to be the man. Everybody just wants to win. That’s something I’m really happy to be a part of.”

(Top photo courtesy of Michigan Athletics)