The Grizzlies trade up and draft Cedric Coward, plus select Javon Small and Jahmai Mashack

The Grizzlies trade up and draft Cedric Coward, plus select Javon Small and Jahmai Mashack

[Applause] mor with a running start element overdone gasol will turn his he is gone memphis on top 17 remaining and finally now a three count it a 15-point lead for Memphis and Blake Griffin gets into it on the floor with Randol hard to tell if there are any punches being thrown under there but Griffin took except Adams going long mor [Applause] insanity [Applause] you got to be kidding me welcome to Grits and Grinds a Memphis Grizzlies podcast my name is Keith Parish the Grizzlies traded up and drafted Cedric Coward in the first round of Wednesday’s NBA draft they also made a couple of selections in the second round so on today’s episode I’m going to go over the NBA draft and how it affects the Grizzlies i’ve been on vacation for a week so now I think I’m all caught up and now I’m ready to talk about the Grizzlies activities their drafting of Cedric Coward so let’s get right into it the Grizzlies traded up from 16 to 11 to get the player they wanted the player they had identified i think a lot of people when they were doing mock drafts and they were looking at where the Grizzlies were figured perhaps the Grizzlies were just a tear down from maybe where they wanted to be to get the talent they wanted in the first round so it made sense for them possibly if the opportunity presented itself to trade up also I think we as Grizzlies fans monitoring their salary cap situation and their desire to get a contract done with Jiren Jackson Jr we’ve been looking at this draft as a opportunity to trade away a salary you might need to trade away so frankly I was expecting a trade down and maybe moving on from salary being the most likely outcome the other outcome was either they stayed at 16 or they did what they did which is move up and get Cedric Coward and this Cedric Coward guy is a very exciting prospect and also of course as all of you listeners know the regular listeners know I’m not a scout i don’t watch college basketball if you’re a college basketball fan if you’re a NBA draft fan you know more than me about the player i’m just going to assess this based on the things that I’m reading and also I think for most of my analysis of the pick it’s just based on the slot where he got drafted i’m thinking about him as an 11th pick and I’m also going to of course talk about the trade to acquire him and I’m looking at that just as the value cost to get this guy but everything we’re reading about Cedric Coward especially when we come at it with the slant of being Grizzlies fans is the tantalizing upside and the fact that this guy was shooting up draft boards this guy had an unbelievable combine all of his measurables were very good this is the type of player whose stock increased when the basketball stopped which I guess if you want to be a skeptic about that you can but this is a player whose college numbers were absurd when it comes to his shooting percentages this is one of those guys where you have the super smart people who cover the draft the draft nerds the the folks from NBA Twitter uh many of whom now work in successful front offices in the NBA including the Grizzlies front office they use these specific models to understand that hey certain stats translate pretty well in the NBA usually and you look at a guy like Coward and his effective field goal percentage those numbers are especially bonkers he shot 72% on two-pointers in his three years in the NCAA also 39% on three-pointers so those are eyepopping numbers then you combine that with his great free throw shooting numbers and then he goes to the combine does excellent in all the shooting drills and also measures with this preposterous wingspan everybody getting so excited about his 7 foot2 wingspan this is on a 66 guy so because of that he’s a player many people had targeted as being a sleeper of being a guy that smart teams are going to target you had David Thorp from True Hoop saying he should go second behind Cooper Flag so this is the guy that I think can excite you as a Grizzlies fan for being a three and D guy hopefully on day one also being athletic enough with that wingspan eventually can become a plus defender like his steel and block numbers were pretty solid so that’s the reason you see the Grizzlies trade up to get Coward the prototypical 3 and D guy hopefully can guard multiple positions and of course can space the floor for John Morant and Jiren Jackson Jr and Zack Edy i mean if you want to think about player comps is he Contavius Codwell Pope newest Grizzly Contavius Cowwell Pope with much greater wingspan i saw one somebody dropped it in the Patreon Slack channel over at patreon.comfastbreak uh one draft expert called him Vince Williams Jr a Vince Williams Jr who can shoot with more consistency that’s pretty good so this is a promising defensiveminded shooter as best I understand it even if the defense still needs a little bit of a ways to go with that wingspan and with the way he measured very very exciting pick now importantly I think when we assess this draft pick of course if he if he turns out to be great you say it’s an absolute home run but there is the further context that I think we need to appreciate which is the acquisition cost what it took for the Grizzlies to trade up and get their guy at 11 and again you understand why they did this coward probably would not have been there at 16 drafting at 16 the Grizzlies were right behind the Spurs and Thunder teams you probably don’t want to be right behind when drafting so they were aggressive they made this deal with the Trailblazers and they sent two future second round picks and that 2028 Orlando unprotected first to go from 16 to 11 if you want to divorce yourself from thinking about Cedric Coward just look at it on paper in a vacuum moving up from 16 to 11 or using an unprotected first even if it is from a presumed maybe good team in a few seasons that’s a lot that is a hefty price that is an expensive deal whether or not it was the right decision of course we won’t know for many many years but it does continue the pattern of Zack Kleimman trading up in drafts frequently this is a thing he does it also is another time where the Grizz have used one of those valuable future picks to move up in the draft same thing happened with Jake Laravia i’m going to get a little bit more into all of the Zack Kleimman trade-ups in a second but this was a premium price paid by the Grizzlies to move up and perhaps that was something they knew they were going to do when they made the Desmond Bane deal i think it’s also helpful maybe to look at this draft day trade to move up and combine it with the Desmond Bane deal because they moved two of those four first round picks that they got they used two of them to get Cedric Coward now if you want to look at it overall you could say the Desmond Bane deal was Desmond Bane and two second round picks for the draft rights for Coward for Catavius Cwell Pope and Cole Anthony and then that 2026 Orlando Phoenix swap that’s very valuable and the 2030 unprotected first round pick from the Magic and also the 2029 top two protected first round pick swap from the Magic like does that change your opinion of the Desmond Bane trade at all if you trade Bane plus a couple of seconds and again I don’t care that much about second round picks i mean at times you don’t want to waste second round picks but they’re somewhat funible you can acquire more second round picks so like if you think of a second round pick as something you can just get and it doesn’t mean that much to you great i I I don’t have a big argument against that but Desmond Bane and a couple of second round picks four let’s say two first round picks the rights to Cedric Coward and then KCP and Cole Anthony that’s the overall transaction now as excited as we can be about Coward there are some maybe question marks about him he’s a little bit older he’s going to turn 22 in September he only played six games last year if you’re like me and don’t know much about these draft prospects that’s probably uh a bullet point that could have gone higher up in the show he has a significant or he’s recovering from a significant shoulder injury he tore his labum he is not currently cleared for contact sounds like there’s a very good chance he won’t play in summer league so we have all of summer possibly to keep dreaming about what he could be this is a guy who again his draft stock went up when the basketball ended he played six games last year at Washington State second straight year the Grizzlies taking a guy from Washington State and hoping he steps right into the rotation following in the footsteps of course of Jaylen Wells but this is a guy a little bit older only played six games last year has those injury concerns so you think is this worth all that stuff is this worth those two first round picks that 16th pick that you got from the Magic in this year’s draft in the Bane trade and then that 2028 unprotected pick my takeaway I would say of course I’m agnostic about the pick as far as coward being a basketball player or a prospect i probably tend to be optimistic about it probably like many of you are i’m like sounds good sounds like a good decision my question would be the price as far as not putting any protections in on that 2028 firstrounder it seems like the Trailblazers might have accepted this trade if you’re like listen that 2028 first from Orlando let’s say top six protected what’s what’s the holdup there like I don’t know if that was a deal breakaker but it does feel like a lot to give up an unprotected pick even if we think the Mags are going to be good with Desmond Bane we’re talking about the 2028 draft we don’t know what’s going to happen fron Vagner and Paulo Ben Carro both tore oblique muscles last year who knows if they’re going to have injury issues suggs of course has injury issues desmond Bane sort of known for missing games so I don’t love giving away an unprotected future first round pick for a draft prospect also this goes back to the Grizzlies using their draft assets not on proven NBA players using them on rookies and winning with rookies is hard i mean you commend the Grizzlies on winning 48 games last year in the regular season while starting Zack Edy for a lot of it and for starting Jaylen Wells most of it but getting the Grizzlies where they want to go which Zack Kleimman has reemphasized is a championship you know they are not closer than they’ve been in a while they’re actually I think further than they’ve been in a while i think the on paper fit you can dream about it you can dream about having these three in D wings jaylen Wells plus Cedric Coward plus Kavius Cwell Pope if he sticks around plus Vince Williams Jr if he bounces back from last year those guys filling in the gaps between Jarant and Jiren Jackson Jr and also Zack Edy that sounds pretty exciting maybe a clear-cut hierarchy of Jaw and Jiren being your big scorers maybe Edy can take a step forward offensively next year we’re all hoping for that and expecting that he should get better there but also is that better than the team you had with Desmond Bane i don’t think Edy can pick up that slack necessarily offensively i think a lot of people are penciling him in for being like “Oh yeah third score he’s a long way from being a third score.” I mean last year he was something like 15 points per 36 minutes that’s like Nick Richards territory that’s less than Brandon Clark scores so I see an on paper fit where you dream about maybe a higher upside ceiling if Jaylen Wells takes a step forward if Cedric Coward can fulfill his potential and if Jarant can turn it back to 2022 2023 Jaw then you have a very very good team in the West but there’s still a lot of work to be done and of course there’s a lot to talk about with this Grizzlies roster and the work that remains to be done but the big takeaway is this was an aggressive move i think it was partially an aggressive move they made because they don’t necessarily want to take a step back after the Desmond Bane trade they are trying to compete they just specifically continue try to compete in my mind with draft picks and of course they did trade for Marcus Smart they used assets there two first round picks but that trade didn’t work out for them and now we’re once again back to all right let’s let’s use these picks on getting Cedric Howard getting a guy higher up in the lottery getting into the lottery when we were outside of it and then maybe seeing how it goes i think the big question which we’re not going to know for a while is how much uh more work remains to be done zack Kleman was asked that in his media availability after the first round and didn’t really give us much of an answer like is this going to be the team like right now under contract might as well go through it uh this second right now under contract well we have 13 players that’s including Coward you got Jaw and Jiren and then Jaylen Wells Zack Edy Contavius Cwell Pope Scotty Pippen Jr Vince Williams Jr Cole Anthony Brandon Clark John Kchar still here gigi Jackson Jay Huff and Cedric Coward that’s 13 players santi Alama free agent i mean that would be your 14th player um and then who knows about Cam Spencer there was a time we thought they were probably going to give him a standard contract but who knows um and then of course there’s the second round picks those guys with the 46th pick they drafted Javon Small excuse me the 48th pick was Javon Small a undersized guard from West Virginia all Grizzlies fans will immediately be reminded of Javon Carter another West Virginia product small a four-year college player so he’s a bit older he’s 6’1 without shoes chris Harrington has reported that he’s expected to get a two-way contract with the Grizzlies so he will not be on the regular main roster so right now it looks like we have Javon Small and Zion Pullan on two-ways of course they could always get off that Zion Poland 2-way not a big deal to drop guys on two-way contracts and add another one um interestingly at least interesting to me ESPN The Athletic and Yahoo Sports all had small going to the Grizzlies in their mock drafts so good job there everyone involved with their second second round pick they took University of Tennessee product Jamai Meshack a four-year player a defensive specialist with a limited offensive game and again you guys are going to know way more than me about these players so they get a defensive project again a little bit older four-year college player um Chris Harrington’s reporting he is not necessarily going to get a two-way he’s going to play summer league be around compete for a roster spot in training camp or for a two-way spot maybe we see him on the hustle this year and they just keep his draft right so that means in the draft they got Coward who maybe projects one day to be a starting three or a starting two alongside Jaylen Wells and then they get a small guard to go on a two-way they get a smaller defensive player and notably to me they don’t get a big man i still think when we look at the roster and we wonder how much more work there is to be done you got to say uh we still probably need a big man because even if you pencil in let’s say we’re keeping Contavius Cwell Pope let’s imagine they don’t make another trade they don’t trade for anybody else they keep roughly the same team uh let’s say Jaw and Jaylen and KCP starts or you could say “Hey let’s go and say Cedric Coward starts KCP off the bench.” All right that seems presumptuous but let’s just say your two and three minutes they’re basically going to be absorbed by Jaylen Wells Cedric Coward Contavius Caldwell Pope and Vince Williams Jr and then your front court you know Jiren Jackson Jr of course Zack Edy who’s injured Brandon Clark who’s injured then Santi Dom was a free agent jay Huff is still here all of that screams you got to have more in the front court you have to start the season in my mind even if you bring back Santi Alama I feel like you need to start the season with a little more depth in that front court and then of course you get to you know what is Scottie Pippen’s role if Cole Anthony is still here i think we’re guessing Cole Anthony probably going to be used to to to reshape the roster in a trade possibly but that remains to be seen now um let’s take a quick break and then we’ll come back and I’m going to run through the summer league schedule and do a quick recap of Zack Kimman treading up in the first round also go over what’s next for the Grizzlies roster [Applause] [Music] all right so of course the Grizzlies traded up from 16- 11 to get their guy in Cedric Coward this of course is just par for the course for Zack Kimman who loves himself a tradeup the Zack Kleimman tradeups it all started I think it all started with Brandon Clark they used a future second round pick to go from 23 to 21 and grab Brandon Clark after that they traded up in one of the best trades ever they used two future second round picks to move into the 30th pick and get Desmond Bane the Celtics were cutting money they were cutting payroll they’d already drafted Pton Pritchard so the Grizzlies pull off a heist get Desmond Bane remember kids a first round pick can be anything cedric Coward could be anything even if we’re lucky Desmond Bane but Desmond Bane with a super long wingspan um the Grizzlies traded up for Xavier Tilman they used a future second round pick to move up five spots in the 2020 draft from 40 to 35 and get Xavier Tilman um they traded up for Zer Williams this was a little bit murkier because it was the Steven Adams and Yonas Valentunis swap the Grizzlies also got a pick coming back from the Pelicans to take on Eric Bledso’s money so they went from 17 to 10 and get Zyra Williams unfortunately 17 was Trey Murphy um whoops and uh that future first round pick they got was owned by the Lakers and it actually never conveyed although it did turn into Vince Williams Jr drafted in the second round uh in 2021 the Grizzlies traded up for Santi Alama they traded the 40th pick and two future seconds to go up 10 spots and take Santi this move shocked people because no one had ever heard of Santi Alama it seemed like uh then the Grizzlies traded up for Jake Laravia in the triple down on youth summer the Grizzlies packaged their 22nd and 29th pick to move up to 19 perhaps a reach on Jake Laavia but again Jake Laavia still in the NBA unfortunately not on the Grizzlies but the Grizzlies traded up for Jake Laavia in the same draft not really a trade up but they traded into the first round again they traded away my guy DeAnthony Melton to draft David Roddy with the 23rd pick also arguably at the time people called that a reach take David Rody with the 23rd pick they even traded up to get Kennedy Chandler that’s right they weren’t done trading up in the 2022 draft they traded a future second round pick in cash to get this pick from the Spurs uh fun fact the Grizzies were still paying Kennedy Chandler last season they of course had to wave him at the end of his rookie year to give Kenneth Lton Jr a standard contract as they went into the playoffs because of course Steven Adams and Brandon Clark were hurt of course the 2023 draft they sent their first round pick for or as part of the Marcus Smart deal the 2024 draft they stood Pat drafted Zack Edy at nine reminder that also was thought of as a reach that was on the higher end of where Zakiti was projected to go zaki of course put in a very nice rookie season made all rookie first team and now in the 2025 draft the Grizzlies trade up to get their guy Cedric Coward so say what you will about Zack Kleimman when he has his eyes on the target he goes and gets the target although sometimes rumors emerge after the fact that the guy he traded up for wasn’t the guy he was trying to get this is like the Zyra Williams thing the accepted retrospective history now is that isn’t the guy they were hoping to get at 10 but anyways uh Cedric Coward like I said shoulder injury probably not going to play summer league or actually it’s up in the air well I don’t actually know right now maybe we’ll find out more in the next couple of days also we might find out just more stuff from Zack Kleman on Friday June 27th they’re doing another press conference with the um with Cedric Coward and also with Javon Small uh Tomas Eelo is going to be part of that press conference so we’ll get some information about that later on Friday night as far as the summer league schedule that we have of course the Grizz are playing in the Utah summer league that schedule is not out as far as I can tell as of 1:00 Central time on Friday June 27th but the Vegas Summer League schedule came out their first game in Vegas is going to be Friday July 11th the first game of the day 100 p.m local time 300 p.m central they play the Celtics then they play the next day unfortunately a back-to-back which means if you go out to Vegas Summer League uh they’re probably going to rest guys in either one of those back-to-back games they play at 7:30 Pacific time against the Trailblazers then on Tuesday July 15th we have a game against the Warriors and then Thursday July 17th a game against the Hawks and then they’ll enter whatever tournament occurs after that so that will be a fun time uh to get a new look at the very least we’re going to see I guess a lot of Javon Small i assume he’s going to be heavily involved in the Grizzlies summer league team and now again the draft’s over the the what next I think for the Grizzlies and maybe the thing that’s most interesting to me is what are they going to do about Jiren’s contract because by moving up in the draft they actually added to their payroll for next year meaning they once again slightly decreased the amount of cap space available we all think they’re trying to work out this renegotiation and extension with Jiren so they need to shed money i don’t know how you do it the most clear-cut way is just dumping John Kchar’s money to a team that gives you no money back and I don’t really see exactly how that would happen another way would be to trade Cole Anthony or Contavius Cowella Pope trade away one of those guys and bring back a player making six or seven million less that would get you there a more drastic way could be uh waving and stretching Cole Anony’s contract please don’t do that another way could be if Santiama moves on if the Grizzlies work out a sign and trade with Santiama and send Santiama somewhere else that would open up the requisite cap space maybe that’s a potential option i don’t know but that all needs to happen basically that needs to happen first because the Grizzlies have to maintain that cap space before doing anything else like once they let’s assume they get an extension a renegotiating extension done you have to have cap space to do the renegotiation once you use up the cap space on the renegotiation then the Grizzlies can sign somebody with the room exception then the Grizzlies can trade players and bring back more salary which is something I hope they do so that’s going to be the thing that allows them then to make the I think necessary roster moves they need to make i mean I still would like to have a proven bigger wing i mean I know I know I know Coward has this awesome wingspan but rookie and still want more bigger players i want all kinds of big players and I still think they need front court help especially with Zakit’s injury with Brandon Clark’s returning from injury you got to have something else in the front court to start the year and with that I think we’re done oh actually there’s one more one more quote I thought was interesting this is from Zack Kimman’s media availability after the first round he was asked because this is the first time he had done a public press conference this is the first time he’s done one since Iselo was named head coach where the interim tag was removed and he was asked if the Grizzlies interviewed any other candidates and he said no they were impressed enough by what Iselo had done with the team in his time as interim head coach that was good enough for them so I thought that was notable thought that was interesting anyways that is now all for today if you want more from me if you want to join the listener slack I have been active in the listener slack even while on vacation so if you want to join that you’re going to get some extra bonus content you can get all that at patreon.com/fastbreak a huge thank you to everyone who supports me over there anyways hope you guys have a great weekend i’ll talk to you soon go Grizz [Music]

The Grizzlies made an aggressive trade to move up in the 2025 NBA Draft and take Cedric Coward, who hopes to fill a crucial role on the wing for Memphis. This episode discusses the draft pick, plus the second round selections of Javon Small and Jahmai Mashack, and looks at the roster as it currently stands.

Also included on this episode: a brief history of Zach Kleiman trading up!

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