Memphis Grizzlies Draft Picks Introduction Press Conference
well good afternoon everyone and welcome here to the don media center inside fedex forum our press conference today is designed to introduce you to the three young men that have been selected by the memphis grizzlies in the recently completed 2025 nba draft we want to welcome their families friends guests who are here in addition to our grizzly staff and also the media as a reminder once we complete the press conference we ask that you remain seated because we will be taking photographs of these young men with their jerseys here up on the stage and now by way of introduction up on the stage with me the grizzlies president of basketball operations and general manager zack kimman the 48th overall pick in the draft javon small as a senior at west virginia he was named to the all big 12 first team after ranking second in the conference in scoring and third in assists he’s a native of indiana where basketball rules he shot 87% from the free throw line over his four-year collegiate career with west virginia oklahoma state and east carolina javon we welcome you to memphis
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and then the 11th overall pick in the draft cedric coward a native of california said started at division 3 wamut university in salem oregon then two years at eastern washington and then finished last year at washington state over three years in division three cedric shot 59 and a half% from the floor nearly 39% from three and 83% from the free throw line also shot 72% from two-point range and sported a 66.8 effective field goal percentage a guy who knows where the shots are to be found cedric coward cedric welcome and the 59th overall pick in the draft jamai mhack now we need to tell you that the grizzlies have agreed in principle to acquire the draft rights to jamai from the houston rockets that trade is not yet final now while he is available today team representatives because the trade is not complete are prohibited from announcing terms of the planned trade before it is finalized and therefore cannot comment on the trade at this time jamai started all 38 games last season as a senior at rocky top and helped the volunteers to their second consecutive elite 8 appearance he’s a native of california and he is a defensive stopper he was part of the 24-25 sec alldefensive team averaging 1.7 steals per game and ranking fourth in the conference in defensive rating jamai welcome to memphis
thank you thank you and last but certainly not least the head coach of the memphis grizzlies who was named to the position fulltime on may 2nd tomas isilo and with that we have our pr representatives so raise your hand be recognized and they will get the microphone to you for your questions the michael cole um memphis commercial appeal here uh for the players if each one of them could answer this um just when you think of the memphis grizzlies organization i mean one uh what does it feel like to be here and just what comes to mind when you think of the grizzlies um as you know basketball players um well to start it feels absolutely amazing to be here you know this is our dreams you know and now we’re here center stage um but for me personally what i think about the grizzlies is a team that’s focused on winning team that’s focused on you know bringing guys here to continue the great culture they have i mean you guys know the slogan grit and grind that’s what they’re about they had the core four which i’m pretty sure all of us grew up watching and we just want to be you know a part of that as well and just have a positive impact no matter what um yeah and uh just like just like he said uh i’m super excited to join an organization that is um you know all about winning um and that’s been my whole motto my whole career um just like i said i think one of the key guys um tony allen is a guy i’ve always watched ever since i was little um and it might not be the most popular person to watch for a lot of people but for me it was it was something special so um just knowing that those ties and also being you know at rocky top is huge for the state of tennessee and all the fans there um but i’m excited because i’ve always been about i’ve always wanted to be and strive to be a winner and i think that fits what what they’re trying to do as well um just the same thing to piggy back off of them um it feels really good to be a memphis grizzly um something you always dreamed about as a kid um one thing i think about with you know memphis is a a really young core coming in um with a little bit of mixture of a few year guys already in the league um just ready to get in and compete i think that’s what everybody wants to do here doc holiday action news 5 to see you uh see you smiling as your as they as they talk man just tell me how you feel about you know who you all and what you all picked up because zach says you all need to go out and get some dogs and you definitely got your dogs
yeah we definitely did uh obviously very excited about all all three young men i think like everything they’re saying makes makes complete sense uh they fit in very well with what we want to do um each one of them has multiple developmental pathways how they can improve and and it was one of our goals get a little bit more athletic have length positional length and uh i think the one thing that sets these guys apart is also their character and how they want to improve and how they want to grow that that fits really well with us drew hill is for cedric i know a lot of people in memphis have rushed to try to get to know you a little bit you know playing all the way out on the west coast one of the things is that they’ve learned you love to cook so my question for you is if you were to cook for your new teammates what are you making and uh what sort of introduction do you think you can make uh via the food
um well yeah i do like to cook and i make one of two things you know i guess whatever is acceptable because we still are athletes and we got to you know eat right um either chicken wings which is my favorite food or tacos you know i think there’s something quick and easy to make and you can like you know be rangeful with it you can do any type of flavor or anything like that um honestly i think it was just like when it comes like introductory to the team i think it’s a really good way to get together you know like when you are around people in a group or you’re at a gathering the main thing always there is food and i think me to be able to do that shows not only like i have skills i’m also like all about the team and all about you know bringing guys together and really just getting to know each other and what better way to do that you know rather than eat and chill at somebody’s house uh zach right here in the back you you mentioned at exit interviews that you recognize that the team maybe need some more dogs and those are the type players that really resonate here in memphis how do you feel like these three guys fit that bold in that regard in adding to the dog at the team i guess
yeah i mean i i think you don’t have to have to look too far you know to see what what stands out as a as a clear through line you know with with what these guys bring to the table you know i i could go on and not going to you know give a full scouting report on each guy but i i i think you can see that each of each of the gentlemen you know that are joining the memphis grizzlies you see that you see that mentality there’s a tenacity that they embrace defensively um you see it on ball defense you see a disruption you see them generating turnovers uh but i so much more than that it’s to me it’s the mentality that you could see in sitting down talking to them getting to know them uh that they said it i think these are three guys who are very much about winning and they go about it in a way that i think has a you know there’s a multiplier effect of that when when there’s a collective you know buy into going out and imposing our will you know on a game i think you see that quite a bit from all three guys here colin cody wrg news channel 3 two questions starting with you cedric obviously um i think everyone in this room has heard your story u we know what the work it took to get here but as a person that seems like you know you’re just a hard worker what is it going to take for you to remain here
the exact same thing that got me here i think like coach and zach you know pertain to it like we got here by being ourselves you know by being dogs by being guys that weren’t afraid to you know put the work in weren’t afraid to live in reality and knowing what we had to do to get better i got tons to get better at i just want to be a sponge and you know really soak up as much and developmental skill to make my game as good as possible to help the team win you know honestly when it comes to staying that’s the hardest part that’s why i say i only achieved half my goal with being drafted the other half is getting uh staying here you know making a meaningful impact on not only the team but even the city you know what i mean the city begs for a winner and like you said i think all three guys and even zach and coach up here we all care about winning and that that’s all that really matters and javon uh with your start being in east carolina you played against memphis you’ve been in this building several times what do you know about the city what do you know about the grit and grind and you know just what it means to be a mey
um well it’s definitely not an easy city to play in uh when you’re the opposing team um crowd is really good um everybody’s just really into the game um i can’t necessarily say too much about the grizzlies because like you said i played against memphis but um like know the city was just really it was really hype um it was a lot of people that always came out to the games um very rowdy uh they talked a lot of trash even when i was playing here so um i’m just ready to get started abc 24 a braxton uh for the players you hear zach say you know they were looking for dogs throughout the draft i just want to know from each one of you what about your play in your own words uh embodies being being a dog um i i i think for me personally uh it’s it’s something that i’ve always done um it’s not something that uh you know a coach asked me to do and i i decided to kind of buy into that it’s something i’ve been doing since i was 12 13 14 years old um when i told my dad that i wanted to become a great basketball player um you know he sat me down he told me that you know it’s not going to be through making the most points or or having the flashiest passes or looking at highlights it’s going to be being the hardest working dog that you can be um and i embraced that ever since i was high school in high school and college and um i don’t plan on doing nothing different now um i know what got me here um i know it works as far as winning um and i know how to improve my game and i know being a dog is is number one on that list so um there’s no reason to change it now um it’s the formula that i’ve always worked with and i feel like if i can grow that and mold that into something special i can end up being a great winner in this league and help memphis um you know continue to evolve i think you know kind of piggy backing off what jama said like that’s what got us here but at the same time i think all three of us we’re not afraid to be different like not everybody gets that dog title and you don’t give it to everybody for a reason i mean to be able to hear zach say that we have that title and you know all our job is to continue that you know even elevate upon that so now instead of calling us dogs we’re you know the memphis grizzlies 2025 draft class that’s what that’s what you call it but at the end of the day that’s what got us here that’s going to keep us here and like jama said you don’t got to be the highest scorer or you know do the best dunks or whatever to be the best player on the court and to make the biggest impact all you got to do is go out there and play you know 110% all the time and that’s what makes us um i mean basically the same thing they said you know just sticking to whatever got us here um just playing with that chip on your shoulder uh me personally i never really been picked first second probably not even third so always kind of feel like i got something to prove on the court and um you know if i got to show a little bit emotion on the court sometimes and uh yelling somebody face or you know get a little rowdy hype myself up to get in that dog mode that’s what i’ll do it’s kind of a quick turnaround for y’all getting here and learning the organization just what have been your impressions going through this process and too have you heard from any other players yet and how’s that going
i mean i was here on monday you know i worked out on monday so that was cool um i’m glad i’m back but honestly first impressions is great the biggest thing i noticed is just the people like the people are super caring super personable like everything is natural it’s not like oh i’m meeting somebody for the first time and i was like pulling teeth to make friends or pulling teeth to talk to somebody like talking to zach talking to coach talking to everybody around whether it’s media janitors whatever it may be these people are super personable super nice and you know are my kind of people i guess is what i can say even though i’m a cali kid i feel like you know memphis is is home and uh that’s been my first impression um i i’ll say for me just being a cali kid too but actually being in tennessee for four years um you know getting to know a lot of the people today and you know getting to talk to them it’s very family oriented and i think that’s important for me um you know it’s not transactional i think that’s a that’s a big deal in player development and um not just on the court but off the court as well um i think um all three of us can improve um if we have that uh that connection off the court as well and we know that they’re bought into our development i think you know the sky’s is the limit for guys like us because you know i you know i’m getting to know these guys even more i know for me personally i’ll run through a wall for anybody that’s going to have my back and they know that i’m 100% going to have theirs um so you know just getting to know these people getting to know um their character what they’re about it’s been special um and you know growing up you know sounds wild but you know i watch memphis a lot growing up um and i can you know tell just from the mentality and how they went about things that they’re about business they’re about winning but they’re also about team camaraderie and having your teammates back um and that’s been something i pride myself on ever since i was little so it’s gonna be easy to buy into something that they’ve been doing for a while um the process as far as you know uh making it here is it was a really long process um a lot of workouts a lot of traveling um just you know a lot of nights you sleeping in a hotel you don’t even got a a crib yet but um yeah the process was really long it was a good process though definitely blessed and then you know my first impression like these guys said the people uh first time i worked out here um i kind of feel the same vibe from when i uh introduced myself and talk to everybody today uh the people are really nice uh really good people like cedric said family oriented or jama but yeah really good impression javon doc holiday again hey man your granddaddy got us man i see everybody make it to this point for a reason man but just talk about the emotions of having your family behind you but a lot of times when you all make it to this you you feel more happiness and fulfillment because of everybody that supported you like granddad man so talk about what your granddad has meant to you because i know how it is traveling and having to support children and people you love
yeah no um yeah i’m really big on family i’m a really big family person um but my grandfather he has always been there um ever since i picked up a basketball um he’s been the one person that took me to like i said almost every single game you didn’t miss a game i remember when i was playing at oklahoma state you see a 67 68 year old guy sitting in the student section like who does that but um no yeah my granddad is really important to my life um just you know when i got drafted it was kind of like he got drafted um like all the sacrifices he has made um for me to get to this point and i definitely wouldn’t be here without him just for you zack coach when would memphis get a chance to see these guys play i know summer league start next week so when would these guys play and you have any nuggets of who else might be on that roster from the current team yeah we’ll we’ll have an update and i would say not too distant future on on the full summer league roster uh with the pending trade uh jamai as soon as that trade clears he would then become available um cedric at the moment tbd cedric as i as i explained the other night um participated in one workouts in the pre-draft process nearing the end you know of of his recovery from the shoulder uh procedure uh back from last season so still tbd at the moment and javon’s a full go as far you full go all right good man good man two for you to if you don’t mind first of all uh there have been some changes to the roster since we last spoke to you um what do you make of the trade that involved desmond bane and uh where the roster stands now
well first of all want to want to acknowledge everything that dez did for the city for the organization and also our our professional relationship and and uh i think we were in the same room when people uh one of the journalists asked me what do i think about him and i said a+ human a+ athlete a+ basketball player so those were my feelings uh towards dez and obviously very very difficult decision for the franchise to make and and uh now we we have a different direction and and we have a little bit youth we have flexibility with the guys here and and super excited about that how has the process been filling out the rest of the coaching staff since you were named uh head coach
we’ve been very diligent about that we’re making progress there and and things are looking pretty good there but but overall we want to make sure that we have full alignment we want to have a a staff that sees basketball in the same way and and this is also one of the reasons why i will be coaching in the summer league too we can use it as a a test run or a ramp up in uh for the coaching staff and also to invest in these young guys cedric right here in the back three calendar years ago you were just wrapping up a season of division three basketball i know you’ve had a couple stops since then that maybe set you up for this but when you think about the journey is it almost hard to believe that you’re sitting in this room today lottery pick ready to make an impact in the nba
um i won’t say it’s like super hard believe because like me personally i always believed in myself um i might have been crazy or delusional to some people uh three years ago but at the same time this was always like the end goal in terms of like where i wanted to play last which was the nba um and that was just the start of a new goal the new goal is to like i said make an impact in winning and become the best possible player i can you know not only for myself but for the grizzlies and ultimately like when i look at the journey it’s special and my journey it’s not anybody else’s it’s something that i had to go through um and then the people that believed in me and cared about me like javon said with his grandpa it’s kind of like they got drafted too because they went through the journey with me question for jamai obviously you played for the volunteers on the other side of the state i just kind of want your thoughts on what that east west rivalry is kind of like and if you know you might be the great unifier between memphis and and knoxville yeah that’s what i’ve been hearing i’ve been hearing them um that’s my job i guess uh but no it’s it’s always great to have a rivalry like that um i think it’s healthy i think it uh it you know provides competition um and you know i obviously don’t shy away from any type of competition um but you know playing for both sides it is kind of wild and it’s kind of weird but you know all i’ve gotten is love and support and and you know they want me to go out there and be successful no matter where i was um and for them to see that i’m staying in tennessee it just gives them that much more passion and love for me and what i’m going to do um everybody there they know what i’m about um they know what type of human i am they know what type of basketball player i am um they know what i represent um and they know my values and i think that’s what i really wanted to take it away from being a kid from cali and going to tennessee and creating a name like that and being known as a mr tennessee type guy it’s not something that happens very often i you know i definitely uh wear that proudly um they know that i’ve i’ve come from um not being the most highly ranked or not being the guy that’s going to put up 45 50 points um you know like i said they they already call me mr relevant because i was the pick at the draft so um but i i love it man like that that’s what creates my passion man that’s that’s what creates my drive and and i i i love when people feel like i can’t do something and i go out and do it anyway and i keep on proving it wrong and wrong proving myself right um and and i and i love that feeling man and i feel like that’s something i’m going to do there and i think if you ask a lot of people that know me and seen my journey through tennessee they have no doubt in their mind that i’m going to do whatever i can to be successful in being the winner that i know i can be parker fing first off welcome to memphis um this is for the players is there a part of your game that you feel like is underrated or or slept on to i guess most people that have been observing your game uh over the past several years um i would feel like the the part that’s slept on honestly is my um my playmaking ability i would say that because uh you know on my team last year i had to do majority of the scoring um but like i told uh coaches and you know maybe even zach but i feel like i’m a pass first guard and um you know i like to get my teammates involved but i had to do a little bit more scoring last year um so that’s probably the most uh underrated part i would say i would say the same thing like it was real tough because i only played six games so you know i wasn’t able to show a complete 35 to 40 game resume uh but at the end of the day like i don’t i don’t think there’s one piece of my game where i can say it’s like this is super underrated or not i got to work on everything whether it’s playmaking being a point of attack defender i mean i can shoot the ball pretty well but i still got to shoot better you know there there’s so much so many parts of my game that i will say are underrated for the nba level because i play the nba game yet so it’s just getting in the gym and putting in the work to do so um yeah i i’ll say for myself and it may be a surprise to a lot of people but i put in ton of ton of hours in that and i felt uh confident in it is probably my shooting i think a lot of people um look at you know the amount of shots that i had at tennessee and um kind of put that on you know the value of my shooting but um i think when you see me in a different system in a different light in a different setting um you can kind of see a lot of those hours that i’ve been putting in going to show um you know honestly i think for me was the attempts um and you know being that i didn’t have a lot of attempts and a lot of volume um but i know what i’m capable of i know that i’m a solid shooter and i know i’m growing to be even better and i know if i can get that to my game i’m going be able to be a great complete player in this league um so you know just focus on my shooting but like i said i feel like it’s underrated but it’s something i’m definitely looking to grow even more
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