This is shaping up to be a historic NBA Draft for Michigan basketball.
On the heels of the greatest season in program history, in which the Wolverines went 37-3, won the Big Ten Championship and bulldozed their way through March Madness en route to winning the second national championship in program history, some of the team’s stars appear poised to give further evidence as to why the team was so loaded.
Currently four former or current Wolverines − Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr. and Elliot Cadeau − are going through the NBA Draft process, though all indications are Cadeau will return to Ann Arbor next season.
Michigan Wolverines player Yaxel Lendeborg stands next to head coach Dusty May during a celebration honoring the team’s NCAA men’s basketball national championship at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
As for the others, the former U-M starters could make some history if some current projections hold. CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno released his latest NBA mock draft this week which has Lendeborg (No. 8, Dallas Mavericks) and Mara (No. 9, Chicago Bulls) both being selected in the Top 10. He has Johnson going No. 23 to the Atlanta Hawks.
If this were to hold, it would be the first time Michigan ever had two top-10 selections in the same draft (since at least 1957).
There have been a few that were close. In 1990, U-M had three of the top-20 selections with Rumeal Robinson (No. 10, Hawks), Loy Vaught (No. 13, Los Angeles Clippers) and Terry Mills (No. 16, Milwaukee Bucks), but only one in the top 10.
A few years later, in 1994, a pair of Fab Fivers in Juwan Howard (No. 5, Washington Bullets) and Jalen Rose (No. 13, Denver Nuggets) were both top 15. Likewise, in 2023, when Howard was U-M’s coach, his son Jett Howard (No. 11, Orlando Magic) and Kobe Bufkin (No. 15, Hawks) were both taken in the top 15.
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Michigan also had a pair of first-round selections in 2013 when Trey Burke (No. 9, Utah Jazz) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (No. 24, New York Knicks) were both selected and did the same again the next year in 2014 when Nik Stauskas (No. 8, Sacramento Kings) and Mitch McGary (No. 21, Oklahoma City Thunder) went in the opening round, as well.
Those are the five instances where Michigan has had two or more first-round selections and all indications point to 2026 becoming the second time U-M has three first-rounders and potentially the first time multiple players are selected inside of the top 10.
Lendeborg was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and became a first-team All-American in his lone year in Ann Arbor, exceeding even the loftiest of expectations he shouldered when he came to Michigan with as the No. 1 transfer portal prospect and U-M’s staff assured him it could take him from a late first-round prospect to a future lottery pick.
“If you asked me today who is going to be the player who goes higher than expected on draft night, it’s Lendeborg,” Salerno wrote. “The knock on Lendeborg is that he is an older prospect. That shouldn’t matter because at this point, he might be the best overall player available. The Mavs need a point guard, but taking Lendeborg would be worth the swing.”
Howard Eisley Jr., left, and Aday Mara of the University of Michigan basketball team ride in a pickup truck through downtown during a parade honoring the team’s NCAA national championship in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
Mara, meanwhile, changed his stock even more. A reserve for two years at UCLA, he blossomed into perhaps the best rim protector in the country. He was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and, at 7-foot-3 with an ability to extend the floor on offense, demonstrated some unicorn skills that the next level so desperately desires.
“Mara has been a serious draft riser since the NCAA Tournament,” Salerno wrote. “Mara was as good a rim protector as anyone in college basketball and is also very efficient on the offensive end. Of his 305 shot attempts, 213 were at the rim. He converted 76.8% of his attempts at the rim, which is very impressive. His passing as a 7-foot-3 big man also stands out.”
The first round of the NBA Draft is set for Tuesday, June 23 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Two Wolverines to go top 10 in NBA Draft? This mock draft says so