Report: Juwan Howard Expected To Sign With Miami Heat

Juwan Howard is -- finally -- on the verge of joining the Miami Heat. According to Ira Winderman of the Miami Sun-Sentinel, the 37-year old Howard is expected to come to terms with the Heat on a minimum-salary deal as Miami continues to try to fill out its mostly barren roster.

Howard would likely serve as a backup to recently signed power forwards Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem. While the ancient Howard likely wouldn't see the court too much for the Heat, he did demonstrate that he still has something in his proverbial tank with the Blazers last season, when he averaged 6.0 points and 4.6 rebounds in spot-start duty for the injury-plagued Blazers.

If Howard does sign with Miami, it would come almost exactly 14 years after his abortive move to the Heat, when his $101 million contract with the team was rescinded due to salary cap chicanery on the part of Pat Riley's franchise. Howard ended up returning to the Wizards for a similarly sized deal that quickly became viewed as an albatross preventing the team from rebuilding, as he never lived up to his contract.

With the Heat likely only able to add minimum-salary players going forward, Howard gives them an NBA-caliber veteran presence off the board, as well as some size. Miami still needs a legit center going forward...but they're certainly getting closer to fielding a team of actual NBA players around their Three Kings.