Webber Scouts Yaxel Lendeborg's Game

Chris Webber had thoughts on Yaxel Lendeborg, and the thoughts were not about the stat line.

Lendeborg's national championship game was not his best. He played all twenty minutes of the first half, made big plays in the second half, followed up shots. But that is not what Webber wanted to talk about. Webber wanted to talk about what Lendeborg did not do.

He did not force twenty. He did not try to prove something to the critics. He could have pressed the envelope, and if Michigan had lost, the postgame conversation would have been entirely different. He stayed inside what the team needed. For Webber, the selflessness told him more than the box score.

Rich, for his part, said he is biased. Top ten. Lottery pick. Hands down. Size, ability, and the willingness to show up in a title game even when the shot is not falling. Webber did not disagree, but he extended the frame.

He is consulting with teams right now on the draft. The intangibles teams are asking about are exactly the ones Lendeborg showed in the championship: is he a gamer, does he show up, does he make big shots, does he run from the moment, does he push the envelope inappropriately when the team is already rolling. The answers, across the board, are clean.

Skill is table stakes. Lendeborg can get a bucket. What makes him draftable at the top of the board, in Webber's frame, is the combination of the bucket and the way he fits next to other players.

Webber's close was the line that matters for any team that drafts him. Every teammate Lendeborg plays with is going to be a little bit better. You cannot say that about every player in this draft.