NBA DRAFT: Why the Toronto Raptors should ABSOLUTELY consider taking Cedric Coward 9th-overall

NBA DRAFT: Why the Toronto Raptors should ABSOLUTELY consider taking Cedric Coward 9th-overall

All aboard, the Centric Coward Express is leaving the [Music] station. You are Locked On Raptors, your daily Toronto Raptors podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hey, what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked On Raptors, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. It is Thursday, May the 29th, and I am your host Sean Woodley. I’m cover the Toronto Raptors now for 11 seasons on various platforms. And you can follow all my work over on Blue Sky. You can find the show on Instagram. You can join us in the Locked On Raptors Discord server. Link in the description of the podcast. Come hang out, talk playoffs, talk draft, talk Raptors. It’s all good times in our listener community. Today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bets bet wins. And we’re off and running here on a Thursday edition of the show where we’re talking some draft stuff. We’ve got news regarding a whole bunch of dudes going back to school, which maybe puts the quality of the Toronto Raptors second round pick at number 39 into some question, into some doubt. Maybe they trade that pick. We’ll get into all of that and some of the names who are no longer in the draft and those who have stuck in it a little bit later on. But off the top, I want to talk about a guy who is roaring up my personal draft board for the Toronto Raptors at number nine. And that is Cedric Coward. A man who is about to defy the bust name Hex by having uh I don’t know, just like too much good going on for him to possibly be a bad NBA player despite his last name being Coward. I look forward to him uh sort of taking back the word and forcing me to use different words to describe NBA general managers who sit on their hands and don’t trade their bucketloads of picks for good players. I won’t be able to call Sam Prey a coward no more. I’ll just have to call him something else when he inevitably never trades any of his picks for anyone better than he currently has on his team. Anyway, Cedric Coward, I’m so damn into this dude. We’ve talked about him a little bit on a couple of recent episodes. We talked about him briefly last week with Trill Bro dude and I am just uh growing ever more fascinated by the idea of the Toronto Raptors just taking him at number nine and maybe being a bit of a surprise though I don’t think it’s a surprise at this point. Cedric Coward has been rising up draft boards ever since he graded out extremely well at the combine. And when you couple that with his college production, which albeit is pretty limited and against not good competition for the most part, it is hard to look at this guy and think, “Oh, he’s just not going to find success in the NBA.” There’s a lot of good to his game. Let’s give you the lowdown on Washington State’s Cedric Coward. He’s 21 going on 22. Will be 22 in September. So 22 in time for the start of this NBA season. A little bit older for a wing prospect. Not so concerning for me. We’ll talk about why in a sec. 66 measured at the combine with a 72 wingspan. Played his first two seasons of college in the Big Sky Conference. That loaded league that is the Big Sky for Eastern Washington. And then he spent six games last year playing for Washington State in the WCC before he suffered a torn laborous shoulder and missed the rest of the year. A bummer because in the six games he played, he was freaking awesome. 17.7 points, seven boards, 3.7 assists, point8 steals, 1.7 blocks for like a two three on the wings. Pretty interesting. 33 minutes a game shot 71% on twos, 71%. That’s center numbers, 40% from deep on five tries a game, 84% from the line. The dude can just make shots. And yeah, he’s a bit of an older prospect. And when you’re picking at number nine, I’ve talked a lot about how much the Raptors stand to gain from taking a big upside swing here and finding a star in this draft. Ultimately, it’s pretty unlikely you’re going to find a star at number nine. And so, as much as I, you know, if there’s a guy like Jeremiah Fears there, I’m 100% making that pick because I think his star upside is pretty substantial. Beyond that, I I think you’re looking at a lot of dudes who project to be high-end NBA role players. And with Cedric Coward at age 22, you know, we talked about this last week with Trill when he was on the show. You know, wings of the position where drafting an older guy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting them at the end or sort of near the tail end of their improvement curve. Wings take time to develop. They take forever in a lot of cases. And at 22 years old, you’re still hopefully going to have some improvement potential for a guy like Cedric Coward. Comparing him to, you know, recent dudes like Jaylen Williams, for example, who was 21 when he came into the league. Again, not and not everyone’s going to be Jaylen Williams. That guy is an allNBA player and an alldefense player. I’m not saying Cedric Coward is that, but the point stands on the development track. When you’re 22, but you’re a wing, you can get by a little bit more and still have some room to improve and have some upside. And even if he doesn’t have crazy high upside, he just does so much that checks boxes for what the Raptors are looking for and checks the boxes of what any team’s really looking for when it comes to a high-end role player who potentially can be like a starter on good teams. He’s got defensive versatility. I think he’s going to be able to guard two through four with his length, his size. He’s pretty thick. Um, I think maybe he’ll in the odd case hang with a guard here and there, but I don’t think he’s necessarily so fast that he’s going to be someone who is sort of like your guard stopper if someone’s really ruining your day, right? I don’t see him being like a Pascal Seakum back in the playoffs in 2017, was it? Uh, or 2018 where it’s like, all right, John Wall’s kind of cooking us. Why don’t you just go guard him then, uh, Pascal and you’ll make it work. Like that’s not going to be Cedric Coward’s game. I think again two three four switchable across multiple positions. Um, you know, that to me feels like he’s not going to be someone who can go get hunted for mismatches or anything like that. Just a damn good point of attack defender, good team defender, good feel for the game, good feel for defense and how it works. I I think he’s going to fit in beautifully and would be, you know, a guy who fulfills the thing I’ve been calling for, which is more defensive reinforcements for this team that showed a lot defensively in terms of progress throughout last season, but I think need just needs more raw talent in order to fully get there. I think Coward certainly checks that box. He shoots the cover off the ball, which is obviously a very important thing when you’re building a team around Scotty Barnes, who does not shoot the cover off the ball. And when your starting center is Yaka Purle at the five, the more shooting you can cram into those one, two, three spots, the better. And he’s just a damn good three-point shooter. Always has been throughout his college career. Around 40% basically every single year. Uh not basically, just around 40% every single year of his career. 39% as a freshman, 38% in his second year, and then 40% on five attempts a game in those six games he played for Washington State this past season. The man can shoot. Again, the free throw indicators are really encouraging. Shot 90% from the line in 2023 24, his second season at Eastern Washington. Uh shot 84% this past year. Really high level shooting touch. Basically all over the place for Cedric Coward. He’s got mid-range touch as well. And that’s the thing, it’s not just a three-point shooting that makes him valuable. He makes his shots from everywhere. He’s a career 69.7% true shooting guy in three college seasons, including 70% in his six games this past year. And he’s again not a big man. Usually, you’d expect those numbers from big men who were just dunking everything. No, this is a guy who takes a lot of his shots away from the rim, threes, mid-range pull-ups, and they just go in, baby. For a team that’s whole thing over the last couple seasons has been that they generate high quality looks, but they just can’t get him to fall. Having a guy who basically everything he touches goes in the basket to me sounds like a pretty intriguing prospect for the Raptors to consider. Uh again, 71% on twos is insane. He shot 77% on twos in his second year at Eastern Eastern Washington. Again, not great competition in the Big Sky, but still, you can’t do that by accident even in like lower division college basketball. He’s also, I think, a pretty interesting passer as well. A nice connective passer. Maybe not going to be a league creator type or anything like that, but can get it off the catch, drive, uh, you know, use his shooting gravity to draw a closeout, pump, get by a dude, and then if he sees help, he can make the right next read. He can hit cutters on the baseline. He can throw skip passes to the other side. uh if he’s posting up, there’s a few like really tantalizing clips of him throwing gorgeous, gorgeous crosscourt passes out of the post for wideopen threes to his teammates. I think that totally fits into what the Raptors are looking for in terms of darkco ball. He’s not someone who’s going to like be this incredible ball handler who’s like a lead crater for you probably. Don’t think he’s like quite got the downhill burst necessarily to go and do that. The handle’s not that tight, but it’s tight enough to make a couple dribbles and do something with it. whether it’s get all the way to the rim and score, get to that mid-range pullup, or get into the teeth of the defense, draw help, and then find the right read out of it. Um, four assists a game nearly in his time at Washington State where he was heavily used um in all kinds of situations for that team. Pretty encouraging stuff for the playmaking side of things with Cedric Coward. Uh, and that’s 3.7 assists to 2.2 turnovers. So, pretty good assist to turnover ratio as well. Kind of the best of any of the guys we’ve kind of talked about on the wings over these last couple days. Colin Murray Boils, Rashier Fleming, Carter Bryant, like he’s got the assistant turnover ratio crown among those guys for sure, too. Um, just a lot of stuff I really like, man, that just really checks boxes for me and checks boxes for what the Raptors are going to be looking for. You know, the idea of a long-term outlook where if you take Cedric Coward at nine and in a couple years time he’s slotting in as your starting two guard, assuming RJ Barrett’s not on the team, then you get Quickly or whomever quickly gets traded for in the guard market over the next couple years. uh Coward Ingram Barnes, Purle or whomever is playing center in a couple years like Coward Ingram Barnes as a two three four you’re cooking with gas I think just in terms of like basketball geometry and fit and skills that you want to have um really into it. I have been a Kaman Malawash, Jeremiah Fears guy throughout this entire process where I’m thinking if one of them is on the board at nine, they’re the pick, no doubt. And I’m not taking anyone else. For all of the guys we’ve talked about outside of those two dudes, Cedric Coward for me is the one who’s making me think the most of would I take him over Malawash or fears at nine. Still probably not quite there. I think the upside on fears is just too high. And Malawash, I think, you know, people are kind of sleeping on his upside as well. I think particularly as a defensive player and as an anchor as a guy who could just drive top 10 defenses for the next 10 years with his size and rim protection um and like rim deterrence and all of that. Um but if there’s a guy who’s making me think or if there’s a guy, you know, if both Malawash and Fears are off the board, there’s a very real chance that by the time all is said and done, I have Cedric Coward as my number one pick for the Raptors at number nine. I feel that strongly that he’s just going to be a good NBA player. Um and and I I know it’s a small sample. It seems crazy, but all of the production is off the charts good. The efficiency is ridiculous. And I just know that you can fake that. No matter what the competition is, like shooting talent is shooting talent, man. You’re hitting, if you’re hitting wide open threes, you’re hitting, you know, contested threes. I don’t care who it’s against. If they’re going in at that clip and you’re shooting, you know, 85% from the line, like there’s a lot to really believe in there. And, you know, the physical tools to me obviously translate to the NBA as well. I think he’s just going to be in the NBA for a very, very long time. And I have no problem getting that kind of player at number nine. And I know, hey, some people might say, “Oh, that’s too high. You can’t go that like that high. That’s a reach at number nine.” I just don’t care about this concept of a reach at number nine. I really don’t. I trust that the front office has their own board. I don’t care about consensus boards. If your guy is there and you deem he’s the best player, you take him at nine, go for it. I have no problem with that. this whole idea of getting cute and trading back. Like, if you just want to have two extra picks in the draft, totally fine. But if the idea is we’re gonna trade back and still get our guy because he’s not he’s, you know, oh, he’s a secret dude. No one knows about Cedric Coward. We’re going to get him at 15. If we trade back with the Thunder or something like that, like, do it at your own risk because there’s a very real chance he’s gone in the lottery and you’re not getting your guy if he’s your guy. If he’s their guy, take him at nine. Be happy with it. If he’s not your guy and you just want to have two shots in that part of the draft, then fine, you can entertain a tradeback. That’s no problem. But not taking Cedric Coward at nine because quote unquote it’s a reach. Don’t care about that line of thinking. I circ I can promise you the Toronto Raptors don’t care about that either. This is a team that does not care about going consensus and going in line with picks that everyone’s going to agree with on draft internet. uh if he’s their guy at nine, which you know, considering the package of skills he brings to the table is very possible. Uh I I have no problem with it. Cedric Howard is going to be a good NBA player. I feel very sure about this. You don’t accidentally have a 70% true shooting three seasons in a row in college basketball if you don’t got some juice. We’re going to come back on the other side and we’re going to talk about a pick that has a little less juice than we thought it might, which is the 39th overall pick. Unlike Cedric Coward who, you know, forgo forgo foregoed, is that the word? Yeah. Decided not to go to Duke for his next year of college, he’s staying in the draft. A lot of dudes have gone back and that has very much dwindled the second round talent pool. We’re going to talk about that and the impact for the Raptors at 39 coming up in just one second. Today’s show is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props, performance trends, and same game parlays. Fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. Of course, you’ve got tonight, you’ve got Pacers, Knicks in the East Finals. If you think Tyresese Hallebertton is going to go do the damn thing again, maybe take the over on his assists. He seems like he’s pretty all right at getting assists. Was it 15 in that triple double he had in game number four? Tyresese Hallebertton probably win a lot of people some money these days if you’re taking the over on his assists in particular, but the scoring is there too. Pascal Seakum take the over on his points. 30 straight 30 points in two straight games. You can go do that over at FanDuel. It’s a perfect time to sign up as well. If you’re new, head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet benefit. Wins you get 200 bucks in bonus bets. make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Back at it here on your Thursday edition of Locked On Raptors. Uh we’re we’re putting the Cedric Coward hype train in the garage for the moment. Sure, we’ll bust it back out, take it for a spin as we get closer to the draft, uh, going forward. But let’s talk about the 39th overall pick because it’s a little less sexy now uh, after some news over the last couple days of guys going back to school and the impact of NIL money is just so apparent on this year’s draft. Sam Bassini wrote about this earlier on at the Athletic talking about how this talent pool is just going to be thinner than ever because of NIL and that’s totally right. Talked about Coward. He was one of these guys who could have gone back, right? And another reason I like Coward so much is Duke was like, “We want that guy to play for us.” He was going to play for Duke until he decided to stay in the NBA draft. Um, like if Duke wants you, that’s probably a pretty good sign of your overall talent as a player. I digress. A lot of guys who could have been in the mix for the Raptors at number 39 in this draft or in the event they trade back and get another pick in the back part of the first round. Um, a lot of those guys are now off the board as they are going back to college. A lot of news yesterday from guys who made their calls and are opting to get that bag of NIL money before they join the NBA. And honestly, like I love this. It sucks for teams that are drafting, especially teams that are stretched financially. We’re now with the second apron. One of the only places to get new talent on your team for a second apron team is the second round. And look, the the the way that the pool is thinning, that’s going to be harder and harder for teams to get now. Um so it sucks for them. It sucks for the Raptors who pick number 39. Like they’re just not going to have um as good a chance of getting a really good player there at 39 as they would have with this full stocked, you know, class of guys who are, you know, still have remaining eligibility in the NCAA. But overall, like this is great. It’s wonderful for the college basketball players to go get this money. I I I love that they now, you know, can kind of make their decision of, hey, I could go to the NBA when I’m maybe not quite ready, try to get that bag, or I can go get a bag, get, you know, improve my game, and then when I’m out of eligibility in college, try to hit the NBA and be an NBA player there. I I think it’s such a great backs stop for these guys who in most cases second round picks are not going to make lifealtering money in the NBA, but if they can make a pretty good bag at college and be good on, you know, good players on good teams. We’ll talk about a couple guys who are going to be pretty crucial figures on really good college teams next year, like I I think that is uh a really cool and fun path that makes college basketball better. It makes college basketball a better place to evaluate prospects within because it’s higher competition across the board. And I think it’s just like a great change to the system overall, even if it hurts the Raptors this year at number 39. Overall, Pro Labor, baby. Let’s uh get these players some money with it. When it comes to the guys who dropped out, um a handful of guys very much could have been in the mix for the Raptors. You have Tahad Pedifford who plays for Auburn. Really interesting sort of creative, fun, maybe six-man type guard. He’s going back to school. Might have been a nice swing in the second round. Boogie Fland, uh, who I’m a big fan of. Cool name, cool player. Probably not quite ready for the NBA. He’s going back to college. Really like him. Think it’s probably smart. He’s going back, but there’s another option off the board. Yakel Lindaborg, who we talked about, I think a couple weeks ago with Rich Stamon from Lockton NBA board. He’s someone who, you know, this big sort of bruising wing who very much has like Raptors dimensions. He’s going back. He’s going to play for Michigan and probably one of be one of the best players in college next year. Cool for him. He’s going to get a bag. Leberon Phylon from Alabama. Maybe a surprise. He was kind of projected as a lottery pick by some and he’s going back for another year. That’s a big deal. Like that’s another interesting potential first round talent off the board. Miles Bird from San Diego State. He’s another one. Kind of felt like this year’s Ryan Dunn. This sort of total defensive menace who racks up insane defensive counting stats who maybe can’t really shoot, but if he ever learns to shoot is an obvious NBA rotation player. He’s going back to San San Diego State. Alex Condan from Florida was a projected first round pick. They win the national championship. He’s going back for round two. Milos Uzan talking about guys from the national championship game from Houston. One of the best shooters in college this past year from a program that seems pretty adept at turning at NBA pros. He’s going back to the Houston Cougars once again to try and avenge that finals loss to Florida. Again, love this for college basketball. As someone who kind of didn’t watch a lot of college ball for 5, 10 years there in the late 2010s, early 2020s, I am so back into it because the level is just so much higher than it’s ever been because there’s just more guys sticking around. But you’re seeing this sort of change with how the draft is now set up where it’s going to be a lot of freshman, it’s going to be a lot of guys who are totally out of college eligibility and then not a whole lot of in between because there’s just such an opportunity to make money in college now that guys are smart to go back unless they really feel like they have a promise. You know, Cedric Howard, for example, feels like he’s probably got an inkling that he’s going to go pretty high in this draft, and that’s why he’s sticking in there. Same for a few other guys who decided to stick around. As for the Raptors, like, it’s going to require them to get pretty lucky at 39, right? Do we see them maybe go a route they haven’t in in recent years where it seems like they’ve been very into trying to get these more established college guys with their second round picks? Do we see them maybe go the Euro route, for example? You know, there are a few European prospects this year. There’s Ben Sif, the point guard who plays with Noah Asen at Ratio Farm. We’ll probably talk about him in more depth at some point in the next few weeks. Uh Mikel Rusich out of Croatia is one of these potential drafting stash guys. Uh there’s Aussie big man Roco Zakarsski who at one point was a pretty highly touted prospect in this draft. A gigantic man. I think he measured as the biggest guy at the combine at like 73, 74. Um you know, maybe he’s someone you take a swing on in the second round now. Um there’s not going to be those sort of established college guys who again the Raptors seem like they’ve coveted in recent years in that second round. And it’s been a while since they’ve gone the Euro route in the draft too. It’s you know something that was maybe more of a frankly a you know Brian Kangelo Maritzio Gardini thing back before Messiah Jiri took over. Obviously Messiah is not opposed to kind of casting a wide net in search of prospects but he’s not gone the Euro route a ton. Um and so may maybe we see a change in that this year. There’s a few guys who are sticking around who I think are worth noting as potential guys the Raptors could look at. Um, you know, Jir Watkins is one I talked about, you can go listen to an episode from last year talking about Jamir Watkins when I was talking about 19 and 31. I think it was early last May when I did this show. Uh, and I thought Jamir Watkins would be a totally fair guy to target with both of those picks, just as a dude who’s going to come in and has like a pretty obvious skill set as like a three and D wing type if the threes fall, which um, you know, bit of a a mixed bag for him in college from three. But, you know, he does a lot of other things, passing, defense, all that stuff to really pop as a potential NBA prospect. One of these more experienced guys, 23 years old, he’s staying in the draft. and uh he’s an interesting guy who played at VCU last year for being at Florida State the year before that. There’s Yanick Conan Nether, this near sevenfooter, big man out of Penn State, you know, graded out really well at the combine, big athlete, interior shot blocking, play finishing, that type of big man. Probably a nice backup, you know, kind of projectable going forward. He might be a dude there at number 39. RJ Lewis, uh from St. John’s, the sort of 67 wing who did a lot of creation for that St. John’s team this year. They weren’t a particularly fun offensive team to watch. Lewis is not my cup of tea necessarily as a player, but maybe he’s a guy who looks better in the NBA than he did in that brutal spacing environment. There’s Adutierro from Arkansas who’s staying in the draft, the sort of raw wing type. Um, but all these guys who you think would have been like obvious, well, they should all be there at number 39. They’ll have their pick of the bunch, a lot of these guys could go earlier, you know, late in the in the first round, early in the second round. And I think it’s interesting now with the Raptors having that 39th pick. What do they do? What do they do with it? like is this they just could take who’s on the board and see if they can turn a guy into something. Second round picks are usually not going to yield you much considering they got Jamal Shed and Jonathan Mo last year. You know, can you count on a second straight year of successful second rounders coming in and playing a lot of minutes for you? Probably not. But, you know, heat check while you can, I suppose. or do they find a way to trade that pick and maybe move into the back end of the first round to get a better pick, a better shot at one of these guys who might go higher than we thought because of the thinning of the pool. We’ll talk about that coming up next and get into the concept of the Raptors trading that number 39 overall pick and uh whether Oiabaji could be involved in such a trade as well. We’ll do that coming up in just one sec. Wrapping things up here on your Thursday edition of Locked On Raptors. Coming up on tomorrow’s show, by the way. Going to talk about R.J. Barrett, whose name has been circulated in some not terribly reputable uh quarters around the internet this week. But I do think a bit of a refresh on the RJ Barrett situation and what the Raptors could go and look for if they were to trade him this summer is probably a good thing to do. We’ll do that on Friday. You can look forward to that. Um, you know, still very much torn on the RJ Barrett thing myself, but we’ll we’ll dive further into that on Friday’s show. Let’s dive into another potential trade and it has to do with that 39th overall pick. Again, with NIL drawing so many guys back to school, there’s a real lack of depth to this draft. And I do think that 39th pick, which you know, when the Raptors traded for that pick last year at the draft, it was like, oh, they got the Blazers second rounder for next year. That could be the 31st pick in the draft. The Blazers are going to stink. the Blazes were all right this year and so it’s the 39th pick. Still not a bad place to be. Anytime you’re in that top 10 of the second round, you’re in a pretty good spot to get one of the more likely guys to hit in the NBA. Again, it’s pretty unlikely that anyone in the second round is really going to hit. Um you’re lucky if you get one of those guys every five to 10 years. It’s basically the Raptors clip they’ve been at since um you know, Messiah Jiri came into town. Second rounders are tough, but I do think there’s maybe an opportunity this year with that 39th pick to do something with it to move up a little higher in the draft. And it’s because all these teams that are, you know, really really capped out, super expensive, like there’s just going to be opportunity there to maybe grab a player here or there uh or swap a second round pick for a first round pick for financial reasons. For for some teams, you know, having a second round pick, especially in the second apron, is actually more beneficial than having a late first rounder if they think they can get a good guy where they’re picking just because of the the rookie scale that comes with a first round pick versus the less guaranteed money that comes with a second rounder. And it’s just uh you know, these secondary teams have to really get creative and you know, kind of make some concessions to make their teams make sense on the books. And so I think if you look around the league, you might be able to look at some teams that are expensive that have financial considerations this summer that maybe that 39th pick becomes attractive to and maybe if you attach like some more future seconds which are pretty valuable currency for these really expensive teams, maybe that can get you into the back end of the first round. You know, I’m not totally sure if it’s like the greatest draft board to go and accomplish this. So many of the picks in the back part of the first round do not belong to the contenders that originally owned them. I look at I’m looking at this now. The last oh my god the last 16 picks in this draft 14 picks. I’m bad accounting. Last 14 picks in this draft only two of them are owned by the teams that originally had them. Um there’s a lot of moving a lot of Brooklyn Nets in the back part of this draft. And I’m not sure you’re trading the 39th pick to the Brooklyn Nets for anything sexy. So, you’re going to be looking at contenders probably who are looking to cut money, looking to um sort of reimagine their books a little bit. And a couple teams come to mind. The Boston Celtics for me really come to mind here at number 28 is a team you can maybe try to take advantage of that is clearly going to have some sort of sell-off job this summer. Um, you know, they not going to have Jason Tatum next year as he’s up with the Achilles injury. They’re a second apron team. They play an exorbitant amount of tax and there’s a very real chance they try to get off of Chris Taps Porzingis or Drew Holiday, these guys who might not be at full form when Jason Tatum is back at full form as they kind of reimagine the post Tatum injury version of the team. And I’m not saying you go get Drew Holiday or you go get uh you know Chris Abs Porzingis or anything like that, but I do think with their financial concerns and considerations if there’s a move where you can offer them a cheap player and that 39th pick in order to get that 28th pick into your books, you know, a guy who, for example, Oiabaji, who maybe they get a look at next year, he’s cheaper than Drew Holiday, who I assume they try to dump off and and you know, cut some money in that deal. Um, you know, you have Oayabaji to kind of fill in some rotation time. You get that 28th pick if you’re the Raptors and you, you know, take another swing on a first round talent and then the the Celtics get a look at Oi and see, hey, can this guy be part of the post Tatumatum injury version of the Celtics? If not, maybe he walks next summer. They still get the 39th pick. They don’t have to pay that first round uh rookie scale and they get that second round more flexibility with that pick. Um, you know, again, this is just spitballing. This is by no means remotely sourced or anything. thing is just kind of looking at tea leaves, looking at the way these teams are situated and seeing maybe is there something there where you can optimize uh you know this 39th pick plus potentially a player. Maybe it doesn’t have to be a player, right? You could always just do the 39th pick plus a couple of future seconds to try to land a first round pick from one of these teams. Could you do 39 plus two future seconds to get the 24th pick from the Thunder? Maybe. Like they don’t have room to throw all these first round picks out of their team. They are uh like stock with picks, more picks than anyone knows what to do with. Sam Prey loves extra second round picks. He’s like it’s his favorite thing in the world. Maybe 24 is a little too rich to get in on the board, but maybe not. Maybe make the call. You know, 39 and a couple of seconds for the future that like I don’t care about future seconds. Throw all the way. I don’t give a damn. Um can you get that Thunder pick at 24? Maybe get a second guy who falls out of the lottery, falls a little bit, and you feel like you can go and optimize that draft slot. you know that that that’s that’s a possibility, too. Um, another team that comes to mind that could be like an ochi plus 39 team is the Indiana Pacers. The only other team outside of Boston that has their pick in the back 14 picks of the first round. This team is going to have to pay Miles Turner this summer. I don’t think they’re going to let him walk after likely making the finals. They’re going to, you know, like they have a lot of dudes who got who’ve got to make money. They’re going to be a tax team probably. That’s not usual for the Pacers. Is there a way that you can help them optimize their roster by giving them Oiabaji, a guy who would be a rotation player for them? Surely like he would get minutes on that team, you know, probably be maybe ahead of Ben Shepard in the rotation, that type of thing. Can you turn Oiabaji plus 39 into pick 23 and Jarus Walker, a guy who maybe doesn’t have much of a future on that team? Does that matter? Like, do you care about Jarus Walker? I’m not sure I do. I think I’d be in that for the 23rd pick more than anything else. But, um, these are just kind of ideas like if I’m in the Raptors front office, I’m kicking around these concepts just to see, can you get out of that 39th pick, which might not be super sexy for the Raptors at this point, um, might be sexier to a really expensive team where that second round pick is valuable and not paying a rookie scale is a little more, you know, sort of amendable. These are teams that aren’t going to be getting their rookies who they draft this year into the lineup probably much anyway next year because they’re expensive and they’ve got a lot of, you know, roster spots and minutes spoken for already. you know, the Celtics maybe just take that pick at 28 and hope they can turn him into a guy for the post Tatamera. That’s totally possible, too. But, um, if they can get a look at Ochi and say, hey, like, hey, maybe you’re a guy we pay to keep around as like a cheaper version of Drew Holiday. Obviously, a much less good version of Drew Holiday, but a similar guy who can take a bunch of threes and defend for us. Like, you know, I I could see that being like a line of thinking the Celtics buy into. Um, either way, like I I think there is a, you know, a few options here for number 39. If the Raptors want to try to get back into the back part of the draft, attach a couple second rounders to it for the future to get into that back part of the first or attach a guy like Ochai. I know I’ve talked about Jaylen Williams and OKC. Can you use that pick at 39 to land a guy like Jaylen Williams? Maybe that’s not sexy enough. Maybe there’s got to be more picks attached to it, but as your backup center, maybe it’s just Ochai for Jaylen and you throw in 39 to make it happen. I think I’d probably prefer Ochai than Jaylen Williams at this point. I know he had moments against the the Nuggets in the playoffs, but I’m not quite sure Jaylen Williams is like a playoff level big man. He’s not playing in the conference finals or didn’t play in the conference finals. Um, you know, there’s options there, right? I just think it’s interesting to keep an eye on that 39th pick now that there’s so much less talent in this draft. It could be something the Raptors used to trade. Hey, maybe they trade nine and 39 for another mix of picks in this draft. Like that’s also possible, too. I just think the news yesterday of guys going back to school puts that 39th pick into play in a way I don’t think it was before. So, we’ll leave it there. Thank you so much for rocking with the show. We’ll be back again tomorrow. Talk about RJ Barrett, of course. And uh yeah, we’re getting close now. We are well under a month now until the draft and just a few weeks of content to go before uh we’re fully into that mode. So, yeah, looking forward to it and uh thank you for rocking with the show. Hope you’ve enjoyed the draft stuff. I’ve actually really really enjoyed draft talk this year. It’s been quite nice. It’s a fun class. It’s a lot of cool players, including my guy Cedric Coward. Either way, we will talk to you again on Friday. Please follow, subscribe, rate, review, tell a friend, all that good stuff. Talk to you very soon. Thanks for hanging. Bye-bye.

Washington State wing Cedric Coward is one of the fastest risers in this year’s pre-draft process, and he might just be working himself into the Toronto Raptors range at 9th-overall. In Episode 1877, Sean Woodley goes solo to talk about Coward’s impressively well-rounded game and absurd shooting touch and why it’d fit beautifully into what the Toronto Raptors are looking for on the roster, as well as the implications of so many potential first or high-second round prospects opting to return to school and pull out of next month’s draft. Off the top, Sean details why Coward’s blend of size, shooting and connective passing would be right at home within the Raptors’ system, and why he’s nudging his way into serious consideration to be the Raptors’ selection at number nine if guys like Khaman Maluach and Jeremiah Fears are off the board by the time Toronto picks. Next, Sean looks at the second round pool thinning out as a number of college players opted to return to school this week, why it’s changing the makeup of the second round talent pool, and why the change is ultimately good for the sport at multiple levels even if it stings teams drafting in the early second round. Lastly, Sean examines whether or not the Raptors could move their second round pick (39th-overall) in an effort to sneak into the back part of the first round, or take advantage of a cash-strapped contender.

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