2 transfers who can replace the departing starters in Michigan Basketball's lineup

The portal giveth and the portal taketh away. That's how it has been through the first week of the madness. Now Michigan basketball will vie to secure another commitment to fill a void in the starting lineup. Until we hear the intentions of Danny Wolf and Nimari Burnett, two or three more spots need to be finalized before the supply runs out.

Here are a pair of names who could start for the Wolverines when the schedule arrives.

Yaxel Lendeborg, UAB

On3's Joe Tipton proclaimed that this is a battle between Michigan and Kentucky for his services. The "Yax" man is the current top player in the portal according to multiple sites. He scored in double digits in every game, but three this season. He averaged around 16 per contest against the conference's cream of the crop, Memphis.

Lendeborg is a walking double-double and is a natural playmaker. He might remind some folks of a poor man's Glenn Robinson. He provided 25 points in two games against Dusty May, in his final season at FAU. Some Wolverine basketball accounts on twitter/x have some high praise for him. Gotta wonder how much he will command in the NIL market though as Kentucky supposedly leads for his talents.

An interesting stat from @optaSTATS on twitter/x has Lendeborg being the only player over the last 20 years to score 30 plus, have 20 or more rebounds and play all 40 minutes without a turnover. This kid belongs in a power four conference. For what it's worth, Yaxel has started following Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May on social media.

Austin Rapp, Portland

A unexpected name who popped up in the portal is Rapp. He was one of Portland's top players and sees himself worthy of making the leap to the big leagues of college basketball. He's probably a borderline starter who would probably fill the Sam Walters role because he's built similar to him and can shoot the three like nobody's business. He nailed six triples in a game twice during the season.

Rapp won the West Coast Conference freshman of the year. Rapp was in elite company with the presumptive player of the year in all of college as seen in the tweet above. If Michigan basketball can't land a shooting specialist like Abdi Bashir from Monmouth, then Rapp would be the next best thing. The Aussie wasn't a recruit who had teams knocking down doors to get him to sign with their program like they are today.

He's not a post player, but with Morez Johnson in the fold, he can confidently stretch defenses like Danny Wolf did with Vlad Goldin. Rapp's worst outing was when he went scoreless in a matchup with Santa Clara in February. He still managed to grab 10 boards in the blowout loss for consideration.