{"id":335921,"date":"2025-12-08T23:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/335921\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T23:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T23:27:07","slug":"cedric-cowards-unlikely-nba-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/335921\/","title":{"rendered":"Cedric Coward\u2019s unlikely NBA debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">The Memphis Grizzlies took a bold swing in the 2025 NBA Draft, selecting 6&#8217;6&#8243;, 205-pound wing Cedric Coward with the 11th overall pick. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">To move up, Memphis traded the 16th pick to Portland later used on Yang Hansen a 2028 first-rounder (via Orlando), and two second-round picks in 2027 and 2028. It was a steep price for a player I called an \u201cunpolished gem,\u201d especially one who had played only 16 Division I games by age 22.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">Coward\u2019s unconventional path made him one of the draft\u2019s biggest gambles. Fresno, California native began at Division III Willamette University, then transferred to Eastern Washington University, and finally landed at Washington State University where he flashed real scoring talent, averaging 17.7 points per game. Still, questions remained about his limited high-level experience.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6z\">Fast forward to the 2025 NBA season, and the Grizzlies\u2019 bet is already paying off. Coward ranks fifth among rookies in scoring at 13.4 PPG, fourth in rebounding at 6.2 RPG, and twelfth in assists. He\u2019s currently outscoring fellow 2025 rookies such as Dylan Harper (drafted 2nd overall), Ace Bailey (5th), Tre Johnson (6th), and Egor Demin (8th) according to NBA.com. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">CEDRIC COWARD BLOCK <\/p>\n<p>AND A LOB TO JAYLEN WELLS \ud83d\udd25<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KIznvwkzAn\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/KIznvwkzAn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grizz Lead (@Grizz_Lead) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Grizz_Lead\/status\/1997832106995753363?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 8, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">Coward\u2019s 7&#8217;2&#8243; wingspan makes him a disruptive on-ball defender, and his feel for the game has allowed head coach Tuomas Iisalo to plug him into a variety of lineups early in the year. He plays to his strengths: getting to his spots, scoring efficiently, and using few dribbles while he continues refining his handle. And there have been some spectacular moments so far. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">For a player once labeled raw, he looks remarkably polished under the NBA spotlight. Memphis didn\u2019t just draft potential; they may have uncovered a future cornerstone who is already outperforming what\u2019s expected of a typical 11th overall pick.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">His emergence gives Memphis plenty of options as they try to rebuild the roster, while staying in the middle of the pack in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies are getting strong play not just from Coward, but from recent draft choices Zach Edey, Cam Spencer and Jaylen Wells, which has contributed to a recent run of success without Ja Morant. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Memphis Grizzlies took a bold swing in the 2025 NBA Draft, selecting 6&#8217;6&#8243;, 205-pound wing Cedric Coward&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-335921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}