While only a handful of players have transferred to Michigan Basketball in recent years, UAB transfer Yaxel Lendeborg may be the best of them all:
The month of May ended with a bang for Michigan fans. After a long few weeks of waiting out the NBA Draft process, Yaxel Lendeborg decided to forgo the NBA Draft and stay in college for one more season.
As we covered after his commitment , Lendeborg staying in college is a win for all parties. The 6-foot-9 forward gets to improve his draft stock with more national exposure while earning NIL money and pursuing a national championship. Michigan gets Lendeborg’s talents to significantly improve it’s 2025-26 trajectory, and college basketball is better with players like Lendeborg staying in school.
The Wolverines have not been afraid to dive into the transfer portal in recent years, but in program history, there hasn’t been a player as talented as Lendeborg to decide to transfer to Ann Arbor.
Don’t believe me? Let’s break down the program’s transfer history and see if anyone compares to Lendeborg in terms of rankings and expectations.
Transfers under Dusty May
2025
- G Elliot Cadeau (ranked as four-star, 0.9400 on 247 )
- F/C Morez Johnson (four-star, 0.9600)
- F Yaxel Lendeborg (five-star, 0.9900)
- C Aday Mara (four-star, 0.9500)
2024
- G Tre Donaldson (four-star, 0.9300)
- G Roddy Gayle Jr. (four-star, 0.9400)
- C Vlad Goldin (four-star, 0.9500)
- G Rubin Jones (three-star, 0.8900)
- F Sam Walters (four-star, 0.9300)
- C Danny Wolf (four-star, 0.9500)
Based on 247Sports’ rankings, Lendeborg is the first five-star to commit to Michigan through the portal. His NBA acumen and impressive counting stats, comparable to only Larry Legend , play a big part in that ranking.
Looking at all these names in one spot, it’s impressive Dusty May has already been able to acquire this much talent in the new world of NIL, even if it’s out of necessity. Rebuilding rosters year over year through the portal is the norm now, and May and his staff deserve credit for their adaptability.
Transfers under Juwan Howard
2023
- G Nimari Burnett (three-star, 0.8700)
- F Tray Jackson (three-star, 0.8400)
- F Olivier Nkamhoua (four-star, 0.9200)
2022
- G Jaelin Llewellyn (four-star, 0.900)
2021
- G DeVante’ Jones (unranked)
2020
- G Chaundee Brown (four-star, 0.9700)
- G Mike Smith (unranked)
2019
- G Brandon Wade (unranked)
There’s a decent case to be made that Chaundee Brown is the most impactful player in this group. He was a key bench piece who averaged 8.0 points per game and shot 41.9 percent from three on a team that made it to the Elite Eight. Lendeborg is a more talented player on paper, but Brown’s impact in one season at Michigan is noteworthy.
A note about Juwan Howard while we’re here — while he deserves credit for landing this talent, one of Howard’s biggest weaknesses in hindsight was player development. There are exceptions, like Kobe Bufkin, but development within the program fell off a cliff once John Beilein left.
Transfers under John Beilein
2018
- F Jaron Faulds (unranked)
It was much harder to transfer when John Beilein was coaching when you factor in players having to sit out an entire season and NIL not being a thing back then. Transfers were never prioritized under Beilein because they didn’t have to be — he was so good at developing his own recruits that he never had to go to the portal.
Conclusion
Looking at the 18 players on this list, Lendeborg is the most talented player on paper. In terms of impact, Brown, Nimari Burnett and Danny Wolf have solid cases for the best transfer in program history, but Lendeborg has the potential to jump to No. 1 on the list after next season.
While Michigan’s transfer portal history isn’t exactly vast, Lendeborg will finish his career as the most impactful player in program history if he plays even 75 percent as well as he’s expected to. You can only do so much with one year of eligibility, but leading Michigan to another Big Ten Tournament title and/or a lengthy postseason run would probably establish him as a program legend, at least as it pertains to transfers.