A number of topline NBA Draft prospects will be suiting up for March Madness. The Golden State Warriors and their fans should be watching closely, including names such as Nate Ament, Yaxel Lendeborg and AJ Dybantsa.
March usually means two things in the basketball world. The Warriors and other contenders are tuning up for a deep playoff run to kick off in April. At the college level, the NCAA Tournament kicks off, perhaps the best sporting even there is, a single-elimination tournament to take 64 teams down to one champion.
In years past, Warriors fans have had no particular reason to tune into the madness of college basketball's premier tournament. Perhaps Stanford or San Francisco or Oakland were in the mix, or perhaps they were independently college basketball fans. But the Warriors side of things? The draft could come later, once the playoffs were done.
The Warriors are struggling this year
Things appear to have changed, not drastically but in a slow decaying orbit toward mediocrity. The Warriors haven't been top-tier contenders for a handful of years, and this season they are being pulled down by the weight of attrition. Jimmy Butler is out for the season. Stephen Curry has missed weeks nursing a knee injury. And the Dubs have paid the price.
At the time of writing, as the NCAA Tournament is kicking off, the Warriors have falled all the way to 10th in the Western Conference, clinging to a Play-In Berth by their fingertips. Even if Curry does come back rested and playing at his usual elite level, the Warriors would need to beat the odds just to make the palyoff field - awaiting a first-round matchup with the defending champions, the Oklahoma CIty Thunder.
Even last year's run from the bottom of the bracket seems incredibly unlikely. Playing from the 6th or 7th seeds is hard as you lose homecourt advantage, but it's easier than coming from the bottom of the Play-In, with the best-case scenario as the No. 8 seed. The Warriors continue to lose games against middling opponents, purely because they cannot compete in talent level. This season is, quite frankly, cooked.
Warriors fans should be paying attention to draft prospects
Now it's time to turn their attention to the NBA Draft. The Warriors are currently 11th in the reverse standings -- that is, they have the 11th-best lottery odds and the most likely slot for them to pick in would be 11th. If things froze today, they would have a 9.4 percent chance of winning a Top-4 pick and a 2 percent chance of the No. 1 pick.
Fans of the Warriors should be tuning into March Madness to evaluate the top prospects. There is a very real chance that Golden State's season is done in the Play-In Tournament, and the mission will be landing a lottery pick, getting Butler healthy and retooling the roster for another run next season.
Who should Warriors fans be watching heading into the NCAA Tournament? Fansided's full mock draft is available here if you're just getting started, but here are three specific prospects who fit the Warriors' biggest need -- a wing/forward -- and could be available, either at pick No. 11 or if they manage to leap up in the draft.
No. 3: Nate Ament, F, Tennessee Volunteers
2026 is the year of the freshmen in college basketball, and it's possible that first 10 or 11 draft picks are all college freshmen. That would be a historic moment, especially with the influx of international talent in recent years. College basketball has been packed with new, talented faces.
Somewhat lost in that sea of talent has been Nate Ament, one of the top prospects heading into the year and the perfect physical archetype of a modern forward. He is 6'10" tall but with real playmaking and on-ball scoring chops. He has overcome a slow start and dominated down the stretch for Tennessee, one of the dark horse teams to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
First Game: Friday, March 20 at 1:25pm PT vs Miami University
No. 2: Yaxel Lendeborg, F, Michigan Wolverines
For much of the year, the best team in the country were the Michigan Wolverines, and their best player is Yaxel Lendeborg. He doesn't fit the freshman theme, as he is a fifth-year senior and will be 23 years old on draft night. That might not be a problem for a Warriors team looking to make a run right away and would love to plug in a player ready to compete.
Lendeborg is 6'9" with a do-it-all skillset as a defender, rebounder, scorer and playmaker. He looks like a perfect fit in a Steve Kerr system, and he has improved enough as a shooter this year to survive next to the Warriors' other starters.
First Game: Thursday, March 19th at 4:10pm PT vs Howard
No. 1: AJ Dybantsa, F, BYU Cougars
Both Ament and Lendeborg could be available were the Warriors to pick 11th in the NBA Draft this June. If they somehow leapt up to the first pick, however, AJ Dybantsa is the most talented name for them to consider.
This year's draft has a consensus top 3 players: Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cam Boozer. Of the three, Peterson has some injury concerns and Boozer is more of a big who wouldn't be the cleanest fit with Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler. The Warriors might not care about that and take him anyway, and he would be a monster for the franchise for the next decade. But let's assume they try once again for the best of both worlds.
That would bean Dybantsa, a 6'9" smooth-scoring forward who looks like some combination of Kevin Durant and Tracy McGrady out on the basketball court. He puts up triple doubles with ease, drops 40 points at the dorp of a hat, and has everything a future superstar needs in terms of size and skill. He needs to lock in more consistently on defense, but he is also 19 years old. There is time.
Dybantsa would be a franchise-altering addition to the Golden State Warriors. Watching him just in case makes a lot of sense for fans starting to see the writing on the wall for the Warriors' season.
First Game: Thursday, March 19th at 4:25pm PT vs Texas