It's (not) a parade inside my city, yeah... Der Memphis Grizzlies Thread 2023/24

[Shakey Lo]

He did it! He did it again

Zach Kleiman, auch bekannt als Zach "Wenn ich nicht mehrere Picks pro Draft ausgeben kann war es ein verschwendetes Jahr" Kleiman. Und ich kann mir in etwa vorstellen wie das wohl gestern im War Room der Trailblazers abgelaufen ist:

Portland FO-Person 1: "Hey, die Grizzlies haben gerade angerufen, die wollen 5 Plätze hoch und unseren Pick."
Portland FO-Person 2: "Eigentlich keinen Bock den Pick abzugeben... sag denen, die sollen uns einen First Round draufgeben. Halt, nein! Ein First Round Pick und 2 Second Round Picks. Das machen die nie!"
PFOP 1: "Warum nicht gleich 2 zusätzliche First Round Picks?"
PFOP 2: "Wir wollen die ja nicht vollkommen offensichtlich trollen, kann sein dass wir die noch in Zukunft brauchen."
PFOP 1: "LOL"
PFOP 2: "LOL"
....
PFOP 1: "Hey, du, erinnerst du dich noch an dieses Memphis-Ding?"
PFOP 2: "Ja, was ist damit? Sind die sauer?"
PFOP1: "Ne, die haben zugesagt."



Okay, Spaß beiseite Immerhin war es diesmal wohl tatsächlich der Fall, dass Zachs Wunschkandidat zwischen 11 und 16 weg gewesen wäre (im Gegensatz zu vorherigen Jahren). Es ist trotzdem erstaunlich wie er es jedesmal schafft, sich auf bestimmte Spieler zu versteifen und dann alles dafür tut, dass die kein anderer bekommen kann. Hoffentlich geht es diesmal gut.

Ich hab mir vor dem Draft schon einige Scouting Reports über Cedric Coward gegeben, hauptsächlich natürlich über die körperlichen und spielerischen Voraussetzungen. Dass er trotz seiner fast 22 Jahre quasi keinerlei Erfahrungen auf höchstem College-Niveau hat, dafür aber einen soliden Wurf, lange Arme und eine enorme Athletik. War schon durchaus interessant zu hören, auch wenn ich jetzt nicht umgehend auf den Hype Train draufgesprungen bin.

Jetzt im Nachhinein höre (und lese) ich nicht etwa von Cedrics Basketballskills, oder seiner Athletik.

Sondern von seiner Persönlichkeit, seiner Work Ethic, seiner Einstellung.

Womit er in den Pre Draft Interviews wohl durchweg großen Eindruck hinterlassen hat (hier auszugsweise 2 Stellen aus der CBS Sports Draft Reaction):

Und hier noch 2 Artikel, einer davon wurde im oberen Video bereits erwähnt:

Cedric Coward's path to the NBA Draft shouldn't be possible

Coward's inconceivable rise from D-III obscurity to lock first-round pick is a journey basketball's never seen.

www.cbssports.com

"If I'm going against you on the court, I'm trying to kill you. I'm trying to take your head off. That's all it is," he said. "When I step on the court, now it's go time in between those four lines. It's a battle. And you don't win battles by being friends."

Coward would tell you he's not here without the support of so many coaches over the past four years, but the one who put in the most hours and had the most belief is Pedro Garcia Rosado. In the spring, summer and fall of 2023, Coward and Rosado practically lived in the team facility. There would be three-a-day sessions with a variety of intense drills and skill work, with Coward morphing from an off-the-bench power forward to a dynamic, perimeter-capable wing.

"Whatever I asked him to do, he did it," Garcia Rosada told CBS Sports. "He never complained about anything. He never doubted himself. He's a person that, once he believes in you, he's all in with you. Doesn't matter what you tell him. He's a person that always has a lot of questions, is very intrigued, very curious, and once you get it, he's all-in."

The next morning, he woke up and his arm was dead weight. Immense pain. His season was over. He knew it when he walked into the office and saw Riley, Garcia Rosado and team trainer Hailey Haukeli waiting for him. Coward would need surgery; imaging showed a shredded rotator cuff and partially torn labrum in his left (non-shooting) shoulder.

"He was very stone-faced," Riley remembered. "Then it flipped within two minutes of, 'How I can make the most of it and find the silver lining.' And it's 'the plan's not going to change.'"

He was soon back home, recovering from surgery on winter break for a few weeks, watching his teammates in every game, not even allowing the channel to be changed during commercials. When he returned to Washington State, Coward became an unofficial coach. He lived in the facility more than before, sitting in on practice plans, offering up opinions, sponging up everything.

"It's a literal blessing in knowing that, although it was a super devastating thing that happened, it allowed me to elevate my game and my mind and body in so many ways," Coward said. "It allowed me to understand the process, like, not everything's gonna go how you want it to. Not even if you're doing great things, you're not always gonna get the result you want, and staying the course really is the biggest thing."

Coward double-dutied with rehab and being a player-coach. He reported to Garcia Rosado on defensive scouts, even stopping a team walkthrough at one point to quiz everyone about the actions they were running.

"It was still his team, he still wanted to win," Garcia Rosado said. "A lot of players don't want to do all that stuff. A bunch of NBA scouts and GMs realized that. They see Cedric on the bench celebrating, supporting. The reality is, everyone can see his body and measurements, that's obvious, but it's the other things that are impressive. Someone who works that much, that hard, for so many days. He's a great role model. Some players are good leaders by the way they talk to the team, but Cedric was our leader because of the way he works. No one worked with more quality."

"The guy went from a post player as a D-III kid to this," another NBA source told CBS Sports. "It might be Jimmy Butler-ish. He's got big-time upside potential, and the worst case is he's a solid rotation player."

Und hier der andere Artikel:

Draft Cedric Coward second overall

Thorpe sees MVP potential

www.truehoop.com

HENRY: David, you’re hung up on the fact that over three seasons of Division I NCAA basketball, Cedric Coward made 236 of his 328 2-point shots, which is 72 percent.

DAVID: That's amazing. And he's a guard. He's. A. Guard.

HENRY: Is there any way to know how that stacks up, historically?

DAVID: Are you by a computer? Can you look up what Zach Edey shot?

HENRY: Edey, the biggest man in the NCAA last year, made 64.8 percent of his 2-point shots at Purdue.

DAVID: There you go.

HENRY: What does that tell you about Cedric’s game?

DAVID: He's a really tall guard, so he's obviously got a lot of advantages. But it’s about a lot more than that. 95 percent of the players in college basketball won't make 72 percent against a coach, with a stick, in drills.

Just from watching that one workout, I did not think Cedric should stay in the draft, because I did not see any pop in his game. It was just an old man's game. Very fundamental. He walked like Michael Jordan, looked like him in a lot of ways too. But he didn’t play like Michael Jordan. He’s got the seven-two-and-a-half wingspan, the enormous hands, and he's got just that strut. But he was not going to impress teams without a lot more athleticism.

His agents asked me to talk to him, and I said “you play like an old man, and you're trying to play in the most athletic league in the world.”

This past May, I saw him at another pro day, a year after the first. Cedric was just hammer dunking everything. Super athletic. I asked him, “what's going on with that?” Keep in mind, anyone who's heard Cedric talk knows it sounds like you're listening to a CEO of a big company. He's got a really deep voice and a real command.

And he said, “you embarrassed me last year.”

I felt terrible.

And he said, “no, no. I mean, you embarrassed me to myself. I’d been so focused on my skill game that I forgot that I used to be an athlete.”

Ich mein, ich will jetzt nicht zu sehr hypen... es gibt sicherlich jedes Jahr haufenweise Gründe, warum Spieler X, Y oder Z trotz allem Potential in der NBA scheitern, aber... dammit, ich verstehe warum Zach Kleiman (und andere GM's) von diesem Jungen so beeindruckt waren

Bin gespannt was er in seinem Rookie Jahr aufs Parkett bringen kann. Wenn es irgendwo in der Region von Jaylen Wells' Rookie-Saison ist (offensiv wie defensiv), dann wäre ich schon sehr zufrieden.


Trotz alledem muss sich der restliche Kader natürlich noch verbessern, gerade in diesem hart umkämpften Westen.

Die Arbeit hat also gerade erst begonnen

(Aber mit Cedric Coward im Kader ist schonmal ein erster Schritt getan...)

 

[Angliru]

Berichte zu Coward sind schon ziemlich geil, die Grizzlies haben ja schon mehrfach gezeigt, dass sie ältere Rookies sofort sehr gut integrieren können und man kann die Lücke von Bane direkt (teilweise) schließen.

Die 5 Positionen hochzutraden klingt wenig, tatsächlich wäre man an #16 definitiv niemals an Coward gekommen und hätte eher einen Long-Term-Project nehmen müssen. Von daher schon nachvollziehbar, auch wenn der Preis natürlich hoch war. Aber der Fit und die Idee hinter Coward ist schon sehr, sehr gut bei Memphis.

Spitzname Collin Coward ist auch schon klar, nachdem er bei ESPN beim Pick so genannt wurde