Dusty May has been busy since Michigan’s national title. He was forced to rebuild his front court with the imminent departures of Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara to the NBA, adding J.P. Estrella, Moustapha Thiam, and Jalen Reed to replace them. And now he’s in Chicago for the NBA Draft Combine, awaiting a pivotal decision from Morez Johnson Jr., who has until May 27 to withdraw from the draft and return to school.
While Johnson’s decision could drastically change Michigan’s outlook for next season, the overwhelming expectation is that he’ll stay in the draft. So, the big “if” that May identified comes from the new-look front court, not last year’s three-big lineup.
In speaking with Andy Katz at the Combine in Chicago, May highlights Estrella’s upside and Thiam’s strengths, then, rounding out the new additions he said, “If Jalen Reed can get healthy, then we think that we’ve got another queen on the chess board.”
Dusty May stopped by to chat with @TheAndyKatz at the NBA Draft Combine 🏀 pic.twitter.com/YrJtw2MAHX
— Andy Katz (@SidelinewithAK) May 12, 2026
A healthy Jalen Reed could put Michigan over the top
That “queen on the chess board,” last season was Yaxel Lendeborg, who had already established himself as one of the most productive players in the country at UAB before transferring to Ann Arbor. Reed doesn’t have that statistical output on his resume after playing just six games last season before suffering a season-ending Achilles injury that required surgery.
During the 2024-25 season, Reed played just eight games before a torn ACL cut his season short. Now, the 6-foot-10 forward is nearly two full seasons removed from a sophomore year in which he started 20 games and averaged 7.9 points and 4.1 assists. Still, the potential is there for Reed to be a significant difference maker for Michigan, especially if Johnson stays in the draft.
At 6-foot-10, Reed has proven to be a knockdown shooter, hitting 39 percent of his three-point attempts in the 2023-24 season and 42.9 percent of them in his six appearances last year. Granted, those numbers come on a low volume, but as long as he’s capable, a healthy Reed would provide the spacing that May needs to make his supersized three-big lineup fit.
While again he’s not Lendeborg, Reed has ball-handling and playmaking skills. His assist-to-turnover rate is troubling, but no coach in the country puts bigs in more advantageous situations than Dusty May. Increased dribble hand-off possessions are part of his plan for maximizing Estrella’s skillset, and he no doubt has a clear vision for Reed, who is also a skilled scorer out of face-up situations.
It will also help that next season’s team could be the most guard-dominant group May has coached during his three years at Michigan. Cadeau is back to run things from the point, and Trey McKenney will slide into the starting lineup after a stellar close to his freshman year. The burden on his forwards will be less, and that will free a healthy Reed, if that’s what he gets, to lean on his strengths.
Betting on Reed, who hasn’t been healthy in two years, isn’t the safest plan. So May will also need to ensure that his contingency plans, five-star freshman Brandon McCoy, redshirt freshman Oscar Goodman, or whoever he develops to fill that role on the wing, are ready to log significant minutes.
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