A mock draft of lottery picks from Michigan’s recent Final Four teams

The 2026 NBA Draft has come and gone, and the Michigan Wolverines were well represented, with three players selected in the first round. The success of sending players to the next level comes on the heels of the program’s first national championship since 1989, albeit the third Final Four appearance in the last 13 years.
Those three Final Four teams all had their own identities and were spaced out enough that the cores of players are almost entirely different. So how would they stack up against each other? To find out in the spirit of draft season, we’ll be conducting a mock draft lottery (14 picks), including only the players from those three teams. Here’s a look at how things shook out:
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Trey Burke had the most decorated college career of anyone you’ll find on our list, and although he wasn’t able to secure a national title for his 2013 team, he was perhaps one blown call away from doing so.
Burke was the ninth overall pick in 2013 and didn’t have much of an NBA career, but his 2013 season was probably the best individual season in program history, earning first-team All-American honors and the National Player of the Year award with 18.6 points and 6.7 points per game. His three-pointer against Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen will also go down as one of the biggest shots in program history.
Call him a one-year wonder or a “mercenary” if you want, but Yaxel Lendeborg’s services to Michigan will forever be appreciated as the leader of the best team in program history. After transferring from UAB last summer, he took his already-polished game to another level in 2026.
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Lendeborg did it all for Michigan, running the offense at times while playing great defense and being fearless in the paint, even playing in the National Championship at less than 100 percent health. He earned Big Ten Player of the Year and first-team All-American honors by averaging 15.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.
Canadian sharpshooter Nik Stauskas took Ann Arbor by storm as the Robin to Trey Burke’s Batman as a true freshman during the 2012-13 season. Following his freshman year, he took his game up another notch, earning Big Ten Player of the Year and second-team All-American honors in 2014.
Known as a sharpshooter, Stauskas hit 44 percent of his three-pointers in 2012-13 and 44.2 percent in 2013-14. That skill got him selected eighth overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, although it didn’t materialize into him being much more than a journeyman at the next level.
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You might not have thought much of it when he initially transferred in from UCLA, but Aday Mara quickly proved himself at Michigan by turning into a major asset on both the offensive and defensive ends.
Checking in at 7-foot-3, Mara swatted away anything in sight for Michigan, averaging 2.6 blocks per game as well as 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds en route to third-team All-Big Ten Honors and being named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
Michigan’s 2017-18 team made a bit of a surprising run to the Final Four with big man Mo Wagner being the heartbeat of one of John Beilein’s best teams. The German was much more well known for his work on the offensive end, scoring 14.6 points per game as a junior, along with an impressive 39.4 percent from long range.
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Wagner flirted with the NBA Draft after a breakout sophomore season, but came back to Michigan as a junior and earned a second-team All-Big Ten selection along with the Final Four trip before being selected No. 25 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Tim Hardaway Jr. has put together a nice career for himself as a role player in the NBA over the last 12 years, but he was also one of the leaders of Michigan’s Final Four teams as a junior in 2013. That season, he scored 14.5 points per game with 4.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists while knocking down 37.4 percent of his shots from deep. He did all that by being pretty durable and an in-game workhorse, logging a whopping 34.8 minutes per game in 38 games that season.
Similar to Mara, Morez Johnson Jr.’s transfer from Illinois didn’t generate a ton of buzz, but the big man proved to be an integral component of Michigan’s championship run. Whether it was using his big body inside to wreak havoc on the offensive and defensive ends, or simply staring into the camera during postgame interviews, he did it all in his lone season in Ann Arbor. Johnson averaged 13.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors in the process.
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Mitch McGary lands right in the middle of our draft despite not having the track record at Michigan that some of the other players in here did. McGary didn’t play a major role for the 2012-13 team initially, but the true freshman emerged as a major factor by starting every game during the NCAA Tournament, with the highlight being his 25 points against Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen. He came back to Michigan for his sophomore year, but played in only eight games due to a back injury. Following the season, he was selected No. 21 overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It took him a while to get going, but Elliot Cadeau saved his best ball for the end of the season. Once thought of as a castoff from North Carolina due to his subpar scoring ability, he was the floor general for Michigan and helped engineer one of the nation’s best offenses. He averaged 10.5 points, 5.9 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game last season and will look to top those numbers as a senior.
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After sitting out a season (in the pre-portal days), Charles Matthews became a big contributor for Michigan despite playing sparingly at Kentucky as a freshman. During his junior year, he helped provide the spark for an eventual Final Four run alongside Wagner, averaging 13 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman was another key cog in the machine for Michigan’s Final Four run in 2018 as one of the team’s senior leaders. He was a one of the team’s biggest threats from beyond the arc, hitting 37.4 percent of his shots from deep while also being reliable on the defensive end. There wasn’t much of an NBA career to speak of for Abdur-Rahkman, but his presence in the program for four years helped lay the groundwork for the players that came after him.
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He has the potential to wind up much higher on this list based on what happens this upcoming season, but Trey McKenney was the spark of the bench Michigan needed during its title run. Although he played just 22.1 minutes per game, McKenney averaged 9.9 points and 2.8 rebounds per game while hitting 39.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc and being an extremely physical presence on the defensive end. Not to mention, his shot in the final minutes of the National Championship against UConn will go down as one of the biggest shots in program history.
Speaking of big shots, Jordan Poole had a few of those during his Michigan career, including a three-pointer as time expired to defeat Houston in the Round of 32. Much like McKenney, Poole was the 2017-18 team’s spark of the bench, but took on a much bigger role as a sophomore when he averaged 12.1 points per game while hitting 36.9 percent of his shots from deep.
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Poole has struggled over the last two seasons in the NBA, but has already had a solid pro career, playing a big role in an NBA title with the Golden State Warriors in 2022.
Rounding out our list with the son of an NBA great, Glenn Robinson III was an integral part of Michigan’s Final Four run during his freshman year in 2012-13. One of the more athletic players in the program, he was a great finisher at the rim and not too shabby on the defensive end either. Much like Hardaway and Stauskas, Robinson was a journeyman in the NBA after being a second-round pick in 2014.
Others to Consider: SF Duncan Robinson, PG Zavier Simpson, SG Nimari Burnett
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