Michigan basketball: 3 starting lineup options for 2020-2021 season

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - DECEMBER 06: Head Basketball Coach Juwan Howard of the Michigan Wolverines during the first half of a college basketball game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Crisler Arena on December 6, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Michigan Wolverines won the game 103-91 over the Iowa Hawkeyes. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images) /

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Michigan basketball (Photo by Cassy Athena/Getty Images) /

Juwan Howard will have a few Michigan basketball starting lineup options for the 2020-2021 season, but what’s the best-case scenario for the Wolverines?

Entering Juwan Howard’s second season as the head coach of Michigan basketball, there were extremely high hopes for the Wolverines and what they could potentially do in the 2020-21 season. Yes, they were always losing Zavier Simpson and Jon Teske to graduation. But the excitement came from the players that the former member of the Fab Five was bringing in.

Coming into the middle of April, Michigan had the No. 4 ranked recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. In addition to top-100 recruits Hunter Dickinson, Zeb Jackson and Terrance Williams, the crown jewel for the Wolverines was Isaiah Todd, the No. 13 overall recruit in the country.

In addition to Todd, however, Michigan basketball fans were hopeful that the already great group of newcomers would be even better. For quite some time, the Wolverines were considered the favorites to land the No. 10 overall recruit, Joshua Christopher. But when he made his decision on April 13, the wheels somewhat came off for Howard’s club.

Christopher spurned a stint in Ann Arbor and instead signed with Arizona State. Even worse than that though, Christopher’s decision seemed to set into motion a chain of events as Todd, their other top-15 recruit in the class, then de-committed from Michigan and instead decided to turn pro

Losing two highly touted recruits is one of the dangers of trying to compete for those types of players, which Howard has learned. Furthermore, this club lost both David DeJulius and Colin Castleton to the transfer portal as well. Having said that, the Wolverines still have talented players coming in as freshmen while also sporting a strong group of veteran players that can help compete in the Big Ten.

But with Christopher and Todd out of the picture, let’s take a look at three possible scenarios for the Michigan basketball starting lineup in the 2020-21 season.