Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard linked to Lakers coaching job

Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard has been linked to the potentially soon-to-be vacant Los Angeles Lakers coaching job by sports book BetOnline.

With the whirlwind of rumors and gossip swirling about the still-occupied Los Angeles Lakers coaching job, it’s no surprise that the sports books have begun to weigh in and set betting lines. Among the many possible candidates, some reasonable and some unfathomably ridiculous (your $100 wager can net you $50,000 if LeBron James circumvents the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and becomes a player-coach next season), Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard is among the favorites as listed by sports book BetOnline.

Howard and Mark Jackson lead the way at +300, with your $100 wager winning you $300 if one of these candidates is the head coach of the Lakers by the first game of next season, as the bet stipulates. If you’re really getting into the Lakers’ spirit and feeling like betting on some borderline tampering, though, you could bet on Jason Kidd, who at +1200 has been somewhat actively campaigning for the job, which currently belongs to Luke Walton (+1000, by the way) who has not at all been fired yet.

Juwan Howard has been an assistant with the Heat since 2013 after a three-year stint from 2010-13 along with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Incidentally, 2013 was the year Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals were stripped of their NCAA title, and Pitino is a long shot, but on the board for the Lakers’ job at +5000.

To give you an idea of just how long a shot +5000 is, Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who signed an extension with the Heat two years ago, is also +5000 on the board.

Juwan Howard played for 19 seasons with the Washington Bullets (and Wizards), Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers and Charlotte Hornets before finishing his career with the Heat.

Another player with a long list of teams played for, Jerry Stackhouse, also appears on the board at +2000. Stackhouse is currently in talks with Vanderbilt to become their next head coach.

Now, if +2000 doesn’t get your blood pumping quite enough, you can go big. Big Baller Brand, in fact, as LaVar Ball himself is on the board, and your $100 will win you $100,000 if Ball is hired by the Lakers to be their head coach next season.

Nobody will call you a “small baller” for that wager.

My own personal favorite, a wager which should probably have the longest odds of any on the board: Charles Barkley at +50,000.

I think Sir Charles would rather coach an NHL team than the Los Angeles Lakers of LeBron James, Lonzo Ball and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but there’s a certain appeal to lighting money on fire in such a fashion. Just in case.

Anyway, Howard remains one of the serious candidates, in the eyes of BetOnline and its bettors, so it’s worth keeping an eye on things as they develop with the Lakers’ coaching search, if in fact they actually have such a search.