Since the end of the 2024-25 college basketball season, nobody has seen their stock rise as much as Washington State wing Cedric Coward. At the NBA Draft Combine, Coward measured just over 6-foot-5 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and an 8-foot-10 standing reach. Coward was also the fourth-fastest player in the three-quarter sprint (3.06 seconds), and his 38.5-inch max vertical leap only added to the intrigue.
Those otherworldly traits had people talking, especially when paired with his 40.0% three-point shooting and tough perimeter defense. Coward is now viewed as a great athlete with good positional size and the potential to be a high-level role player in the league. The feedback he received in Chicago was enough for him to turn down a big-money deal to transfer to Duke. That surely means he has several teams promising his agent that he'll go in the first round, and there's a real chance he ends up being a lottery pick.
There is some risk in a player like Coward being hyped to this degree after the season he just had. While the 21-year-old averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 blocks, and 0.8 steals per game last year, he only played six games for the Cougars. In those games, Washington State played Portland State, Bradley, Idaho, Iowa, Northern Colorado, and Eastern Washington. That means he played one game against a major program—a November 15th date with the Hawkeyes. Coward only had nine points on 10 shots in that game against an Iowa defense that ranked 61st nationally in adjusted tempo and 167th in adjusted defensive efficiency. That was a winnable matchup, and he didn't show up.
On the surface, playing only six games as a senior shouldn't doom Coward's long-term prospects. Injuries happen. But what will raise some eyebrows is that Coward played two years at Eastern Washington before transferring to Washington State, and he was at D-III Willamette University before playing for the Eagles.
Coward simply hasn't spent much of his playing career in a competitive environment, and he'll be 22 years old when the 2025-26 NBA season tips off. Teams will have to be very confident that what they saw against lower-level competition will translate against the best athletes in the world.
Regardless of who Coward played against in college, he does some things that should scale up nicely. As a defender, Coward is sharp off the ball. He probably wouldn't have maintained his multiple blocks per game over an entire season, but he's a good weak-side shot blocker. He's also good at staying vertical and altering shots with his outrageous length, whether on or off the ball. Realistically, with a wingspan and standing reach as long as his, guarding positions one through four should be manageable for Coward. He just needs to add muscle, work on his foot speed, and improve at flipping his hips. All of that will go a long way toward him becoming a great on-ball defender, which is well within reason.
The jumper is also legitimate. While you never want to get too excited about a player shooting 40.0% from deep over six games, he did shoot 39.4% in a smaller role as a sophomore. Then, Coward became a starter in his final year at Eastern Washington, where he shot 38.3% from deep on 4.2 attempts per game. He also shot 89.5% from the free-throw line that season. In terms of pure mechanics, there might not be a player in the draft who has Coward beat. He has a picturesque high release, and the way he robotically gets the ball to the release point is why so many people want to compare him to Kawhi Leonard. That comparison is a massive reach, but there's something there when just looking at the shooting form.
Coward also has elite touch around the basket. Part of that might stem from him starting his college career as a back-to-the-basket big in D-III. Being a good finisher around the basket and having a serviceable floater package should come in handy at some point. While every NBA team wants spot-up shooters who can defend, it's always nice when there's additional upside. Coward has some tools to work with.
The question with Coward—outside of the competition level he faced—will be whether he has any on-ball scoring ability whatsoever. The jumper is solid and the ability to score at the basket is there, but will he exclusively need looks created for him?
For a team to invest legitimate draft capital in Coward, it would be nice to know there's some untapped potential as a scorer. One thing working in his favor is how much he improved from year to year in college. While the general consensus among front office executives is that players stop developing once they turn 23 or 24, that isn't true of everyone—especially tireless workers. Coward might be one of those players. As previously mentioned, he started his career as more of a traditional big man, then transitioned to a full-time wing at Eastern Washington. That transition went extremely well, which is why he's in the position he's in now. All of this makes it hard to bet against Coward continuing to grow as basketball becomes his actual job, working on his body and skills with some of the best coaches on the planet.
Coward is one of the most interesting prospects in the draft, as he's more theoretical than practical. People love the idea of what he might become, but nobody has really seen it against top competition. Still, there's a real path toward him having an Aaron Nesmith-like impact in the NBA, and that type of player is extremely valuable in almost any situation. If there's any additional potential to be unlocked, Coward could end up being a no-brainer starter—and possibly more.