The pre-draft process has been more than kind to WSU guard Cedric Coward.
Coward left the Cougs after a tough end to his season, tearing his labrum after playing just six games. His performance in those six games, where he averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 40% from three on five attempts per game, put him on the NBA draft radar, but Coward was always far from a lock to even be drafted.
An early ESPN mock draft in January put Coward at No. 52 on the big board, a spot he would hover around for the next couple months. But all of a sudden, post-NBA draft lottery, Coward would jump to No. 35, then No. 30 post-combine and then to No. 22 just two weeks before the NBA draft. Coward’s sudden rise, came in large part to his combine performance, where he silenced some concerns and confirmed his greatest strengths despite scouts working with a small sample size from last season.
The former Eastern Washington transfer showed out in the physical metrics, measuring in with a 8-foot, 10-inch standing reach and 7-foot, 2-inch wingspan. Both measurements were first among guards and his wingspan was also tied for eighth among 75 combine participants. The combo guard’s official 6-foot-5, 213-pound frame also made him one of the biggest and strongest guards to participate.
Coward also demonstrated himself as a potential threat in transition, running the three-quarter sprint in 3.06 seconds and 32.5-inch standing vertical leap. Coward has speed in the open court and has a solid ability to get high in the air whether to flush down a dunk or to block a coast-to-coast layup.
Shooting, always a highlight of Coward’s game even since his time at EWU where he shot 39.4 and 38.3% in his sophomore and junior years respectively, was also put on display at the combine. Coward shot 23-30 (tied for No. 3 overall) in off-dribble shooting drills, 18-25 on spot-ups (T-No. 2) and 17-25 in the three-point star (T-No. 2). Coward also put up solid performances shooting from the wings and at the free throw line.
It was not even certain if Coward would declare for the draft until May 24, when he decided to forgo the opportunity to play for the Duke Blue Devils, a team that made the Final Four just last season and were four points away from making the national championship game. Coward had originally committed to transfer to the Blue Devils in late April, but decided to keep his name in the draft at the same time until he officially declared a few weeks later.
Coward’s list of transfer portal destinations narrowed down to Duke and Alabama right before his decision, but also included the likes of Florida, Kansas and Washington. With major blue-blood teams in the running for Coward’s talents, it is clear some of the best college programs thought highly of Coward’s game.
With his combine performance and momentum building among scouts, Coward is now being projected as high as a fringe-lottery draft pick. Bleacher Report draft analyst Jonathan Wasserman is projecting Coward at No. 15 in his latest mock, while Sports Illustrated has him at No. 17 and CBS at No. 24. All signs point to Coward being top-20 material in NBA circles, but nothing is guaranteed at the NBA draft.
Coward still carries some notable weaknesses that may stunt his hype and his perceived potential. For starters, he is 21 years old and experienced very little high-level Division I competition. He is on the younger side for his class, but the competition with Eastern Washington in the Big Sky was far from top-tier, and his first year was at a Division III program. In six games with WSU, he did not play a single team higher than No. 63 (Iowa) in the final NET rankings. Power 4 programs may think highly of him, but his lack of significant competitive experience makes it hard to project if he’s ready to contribute right away.
His 1.36 assist-to-turnover ratio over three years at the D-I level is nothing to praise either and he also committed 2.2 turnovers a game in both his junior and senior seasons. Coward has a long way to go as a playmaker and being a consistent primary ball-handler in an offense. Currently, Coward is likely not the type of player that most teams would want to treat as a project, so if his shooting holds up, he can likely serve as a solid role-player in the NBA within his first couple of seasons.
While his physical traits popped off the charts at the combine and his shooting prowess is a major positive, there are many bigger names and players with higher potential that will likely go in the lottery ahead of Coward. Outside of the lottery though, Coward’s options for a proper fit grow exponentially.
Oklahoma City, Orlando and Minnesota all sit right outside the lottery, and are contenders who could always use more shooters. While both the Thunder and Timberwolves are deep at the guard and wing positions already, the Magic have been in desperate need of shooting for some time, with the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signing doing little to fix their NBA-worst 31.8% shooting from beyond the arc. Orlando could be a great fit for a potential catch-and-shoot weapon like Coward, who could also enter with no expectations for his ability to produce for himself as a scorer.
Teams like Atlanta, OKC, Indiana and Boston are all contenders in the 20s-range of the first round, with the latter two being popular spots for Coward to be mocked too. Even a non-contender like Brooklyn, which has a whopping four first-round picks in this year’s draft, could take a chance on Coward.
Realistically, high first-round and lottery projections are likely a bit ambitious for Coward. If selected in the lottery, Coward would have one of the most meteoric rises of any prospect in this draft or any the of past few drafts. Look for Coward to head to a contender as a potential catch-and-shoot option on the end of the bench, who could also turn into something greater with the right coaching and development. Coward has the makings of combo guard or 3-and-D wing at the NBA-level, and deserves that kind of projection given his combine performance, but still has more to prove.