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Juwan Howard is only one season into his Michigan tenure, but he has a strong enough resume to begun to draw the eye of front offices at the NBA level. According to a report by NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, it appears that Howard is “gaining traction” in NBA front offices to fill a head coaching vacancy:
ESPN Sources: A possible NBA coaching candidate whose name is gaining traction within front offices: Michigan coach Juwan Howard. Howard has an obviously strong resume as a player and later an assistant under Erik Spoelstra. He interviewed for Lakers, Cavs before taking UM job.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 24, 2020
An NBA draw is no surprise with a rather successful first season in Ann Arbor for Howard with a 19-12 record. He drew the eye of many experts and analysts as his team played at a high level and spoke very highly of the new culture he brought to Michigan as a first-time head coach.
Howard is clearly extremely passionate about his alma mater and the players in the Michigan Wolverines basketball program. The same program that lost John Beilein to the Cleveland Cavaliers over a year ago.
But as mentioned in the report, Howard has a great resume under one of the best basketball minds around in Erik Spoelstra and was a two-time champion as a professional. A call to the NBA was not an if, but a when situation.
It would be a gut punch to lose Howard after just one promising season, especially with his impressive recruiting efforts that have already been paid dividends for the program. But as always, this is just a rumor at this point and situations like this come and go often with strong collegiate coaches. We shall see if this fosters into a legitimate concern for the maize and blue.