Any word on whether or not Draymond has made good on his promise to put Yax through a wall in training camp?
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Draymond may have finally met his match in Yaxel.
OK, I’m going to take a stab at an all-purpose post on what our various alumni have coming this season:
Starting from least to most tenured:
Nimari Burnett is currently on an X10/Camp contract with the Raptors. The raptors currently have 14 (of 15) NBA roster spots occupied, and all three two-way spots. At this stage, a G-League deal (with the Raptors?) seems like the most likely scenario.
Aday Mara appears almost certain to be the third center for the Thunder this year. This, definitionally, is a non-rotation role, but is one nick or bruise away from playing minutes. The general reviews on Mara’s summer league were not particularly great - passive offensively, a bit slow defensively is the summary - but it’s summer league. He did rebound well, and blocked a few shots. The goal for this season will be to flash competence when pressed into action because either Holmgren/Hartenstein are out and show that he can be counted upon for a full rotation slot when Hartenstein’s option comes up prior to the 28/29 season. Holmgren is the long term plan here, but he leaves some distinct skills that need to be made up elsewhere - mass/strength defensively to match up heads up with opposing centers, and any sort of scoring pop in the paint. If Mara can flash these, he has a good shot of sticking.
Yaxel Lendeborg is essentially assured of starting for the Warriors at small forward, bringing some level of athleticism and youth to a pretty ossified starting lineup (Steph, Draymond, Horford). Yax obviously has a pretty broad skill set, and they’re absolutely going to ask a lot of him, especially as a shooter and defensively - after Podz, he’s the only guy here who can guard a ball-handler, and other than Steph, maybe the best shooter in the starting lineup. Jimmy Butler will likely return at some stage this season, which will cut into Yax’s minutes, but he’s in line for a pretty heavy load this year unless he shows he can’t handle it.
Ignoring who the new coach is, Morez Johnson was sort of a weird pick in Dallas, as this team is absolutely full of power forwards and centers. Derek Lively, Daniel Gafford, Moussa Cisse, and Dwight Powell are all centers with NBA contracts. They obviously have (the now apparently 6’10") Cooper Flagg and PJ Washington returning as players whose most natural position is the 4, along with FA signings Santi Aldama and Tarik Biberovic coming over from Febernace. Given that lineup, it seems like Morez’s first opportunities will be at center - Lively and Gafford are always hurt, Dwight Powell can’t play anymore if ever good, and Moussa Cisse is Moussa Cisse. My one qualm here is that Morez is going to be a pretty small NBA center. Is he going to start from the jump? I’m not sure, but he’s obviously going to play quite a bit, and had a promising start in summer league, averaging 18 points, 6 boards, and 3 blocks over his two games. “Getting shut down in summer league” is generally a very good sign, and one Morez accomplished. In terms of season goals/questions to be answered, I’ll be interested to see how his shooting carries over (Dusty said he wants to see Daniel Gafford shoot threes, so you know Morez will), but the big thing Morez needs to show is that he can live in the league as an under-sized center.
Danny Wolf was a second year player in summer league this year, and didn’t really answer many of the questions remaining from last year - can he play with the ball? If he one of Brooklyn’s best options with the ball even if he can? Can he approach any sort of efficiency as a scorer? The NBA chattering classes seem to be extremely down on him after a season where he struggled to play within the offense (lots of clock-killing aimless dribbling that went nowhere, struggles to shoot and finish inside), but flashed some promise as a rebounder and defender. The Nets are still terrible and will absolutely be giving their mass of somewhat questionable youngsters room to make mistakes and grow, but that may make this something of a “prove it” year for Danny. Another year where he struggles to score and can’t facilitate offense will make a rookie extension pretty unlikely (he’s not helped by the fact that the Nets drafted 3 other guys in his class who ALSO want to play with the ball).
Kobe Bufkin is in a similar spot to Nimari - he’s on an X10/training camp deal with the Pelicans, who have no room to make him a permanent member of their NBA roster or put him on a two-way at the moment. A trip to the G-League and then some finger-crossing that someone will take a flyer on him is the likely end result here.
Jett Howard signed a two-way with the Mavericks after never really getting off the ground in Orlando. The Mavericks, as most teams, need a guy like what Jett theoretically is - the struggle has been his ability to be that guy. I assume he’ll get some reps here and there this year, but he’s definitely not at the top of the plans at this stage. There’s obviously scoring talent here, but the fact that a team that badly needed that still couldn’t see a way to get him on the floor consistently is a bit of a concern.
There was a lot of tal this summer about how the Hornets would upgrade at center on Moussa Diabate, but it never really happened, and the Hornets enter the season with a deeper center room, but not one, at least at the start, that should challenge his starting spot. To backtrack here - at this time a year ago, nobody thought Moussa Diabate would be the starter, and after losing the role to Ryan Kalkbrenner in training camp, there was essentially no thought he’d ever have it. Then, Moussa finished the season 2nd in offensive rebounding rate, started his final 47 games, and carried a whopping +11 pp100 on/off differential, playing as part of the best offensive 5-man lineup in the league last year. Kalkbrenner is still around, and the team drafted Hannes Steinbach, but the role is still Moussa’s, at least for now. I’m honestly not sure what is left for him to do - he’s a very limited offensive player outside of his rebounding, but this clearly had a huge impact on the team’s success. He hasn’t particularly progressed as a defensive playmaker in his NBA time - this is probably his greatest opportunity.
Caleb Houstan & Isaiah Livers do not appear to be in a training camp. Correct me if I’m wrong!
Franz Wagner, after showing pretty amazing durability across his first three years, had a tough season last year, suffering through two extended injuries, including a second oblique muscle injury in as many years. Franz has essentially printed the same season back-to-back for five seasons (it’s a pretty good one!), so I’m not sure any major change here should be expected. It would be great if he showed he can shoot threes, but we’re close to 1500 three point attempts into his career and haven’t seen any significant improvement. Franz is a good player - he’s not an all-star, and he’d need to break with a pretty consistent track record of performance to become one.
Jordan Poole is on the Pelicans, but mostly exists as a trade exception, with his Warriors extension expiring after the season. He’s not in the plans here, the Pelicans have guards, I don’t expect to see him play until he’s dealt…which may not even happen? Not to be too much of a downer, but there’s plenty here for him to work on (re-capturing his shooting, cutting turnovers, playing defense) but it’s been a few years since he played basketball that could be described as “professional”, so I’m not sure our exercise applies here.
Moritz Wagner, after spending years in Orlando with his brother, signed a deal with the Nets in the off-season. There are a few center-like players here - Day’ron Sharpe, Danny Wolfe, Julius Randle, Noah Clowney - but aside from Sharpe I’m not sure if any will actually play the spot. That said - Wagner, a great offensive player in his limited role - generally needs to be paired with a strong defending partner to survive, and that doesn’t seem to exist here (to be fair, this is the Nets were discussing). I imagine he’ll be in the rotation, delivering his hyper-efficient scoring punch for 15-20 mins a game off the bench, and annoying basically everyone who is not a Nets (or Michigan) fan in the process.
After struggling to find consistent minutes in Detroit, and struggling through his lowest minutes load and least efficient scoring season in his career, Caris Levert may be entering the decline phase of his career. He finds himself on a Bucks team that certainly has a lot of “guys”, and he’s definitely a guy. Theoretically there are so many guards who could feasibly be in an NBA rotation - Levert, Tyler Herro, Gary Trent, AJ Green, Brayden Burries, Kevin Porter, Ryan Rollins, and Kasparas Jackiucionas. I have no idea how this shakes out in terms of minutes, but mostly this team is basically cold storage for mid-season trade pieces, which could include Caris, I suppose. I’d GUESS he’s outside of the rotation to start (I assume we see Burries, Herro, Rollins, Jacucionas get most of the mimutes) but who knows what will happen.
Tim Hardaway Jr. is once again going to be on the wing next to a former MVP candidate, this time it’s in Miami, with Giannis. You all know the role.
Duncan Robinson will be tasked to do the same exact thing he did last year.
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Sounds like the Warriors, both the coaches and the players, are high on Yax. They expect him to slot in well with the vet and ask him to space, defend and be a connector, which is a good role for him.
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Vlad Goldin is on a two-way with the Heat.
This article says that Houstan is on the Pelicans training camp roster:
https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/teams/New-Orleans-Pelicans/19/Rosters/Training_Camp
Also, if we’re tracking former Michigan players:
– Tarris Reed is on the Spurs
– Colin Castleton is on the Magic
– Tre Donaldson is on the Heat with a two-way
Then if you REALLY want to go down a rabbit hole, Caleb Love, Terrance Shannon, and Christian Anderson are in the league. 
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I meant to put Vlad in, and forgot. For my purposes, I’m tracking guys that ended their career at Michigan, otherwise it gets too hectic.
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I look at this and I just see how opportunity-rich Jordan Poole really is! He has a wealth of options to pursue here! Need not limit himself to any one or three areas for improvement!
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Jalen Wilson, too!
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I was only joking about the guys that never wore the uniform. Appreciate you doing the list and giving us regular updates. I do think it is just the three guys who played part of their career with us - Tarris, Tre, Colin. Doubt Hunter gets another shot and no one else has even made a cameo in the NBA.
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Moe and Danny going against Moussa on NBATV right now.
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And Yax is up next!
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Great performances from Yax, Aday, and Danny tonight in the preseason.
Yax with an efficient 17 points and 9 rebounds in 21 minutes, both team-leading. Kerr, as notorious as he is for not playing rookies, has already said that Yax is one of Golden State’s best players, and it seems like Steph and Dray have echoed that sentiment. I think he’ll have a real shot at ROTY if no other rookie goes nuclear.
Aday went 5/5 from the field and 2/2 from the line, and also led OKC with 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, in 18 minutes. He’s running the floor well in transition, posting up efficiently, making awesome reads. Derik Queen really struggled against his size as well, getting blocked two or three times. Looks a lot better than he did in Summer League, though it’s still unlikely he’ll play much this season with OKC’s depth.
Danny was a primary ball-handler for BKN’s third string lineup. The positive is that he ended up with an efficient 9 points and a team-high 5 assists (1 TO) in 15 minutes. It’ll be interesting to see how he slots into the rotation, especially with guys like Noah Clowney and Josh Minott at the 4. It also seems like he’s slimmed down a bit, and is becoming more of a true 7-foot wing, so I don’t expect there to be as much competition there with Moe (they played together quite a bit and Moe even threw and alley-oop to Danny).
I’m really anxious to see Rez suit up in a few days in Macau. He’s been injured for most of training camp and from Mavs intel, seems like he’s getting acclimated a bit slower. Unlike Wolf, Rez will probably be a true 5 as @mgl mentioned above, due to what looks to be pretty poor roster construction and a logjam at the 4 that Dusty will have to deal with. I actually don’t expect to see him play too much at the start of the season, especially as Gafford looks better so far in camp, though I hope I’m wrong.
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Yeah, Mara is their 3rd big, given that they have Chet and Hartstein ahead of him. He’ll get some runs in when one of the two bigs is sitting out games for rest. To see him play better than in the Summer League is encouraging.
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For Rez, I am pretty sure that there will be some mid-season trade to clear up the log jam.
I hope that Mara doesn’t catch the OKC flopping bug 
Even he is behind Hartenstein and Chet, there are plenty of opportunities given that OKC plays a lot two bigs together.
And of course, the Warriors play by play guys call him Lendeberg 
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Haha I love Yax’s honesty. Gonna miss his interviews this year
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funny quote but idk if i trust his thoughts about this when he’s 24 and only played summer league and then one preseason game
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