Cedric Coward’s rookie year already gave the Grizzlies plenty to like. The 11th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, after Memphis traded up to get him, put together a strong first season by averaging 13.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists across 62 games. That production earned him All-Rookie First Team honors.
Now Coward is back in the mix at Summer League, where he has played in two games, and the early signs are encouraging. He looks stronger, his defensive activity has stood out, and his playmaking on that end has been noticeable. The one area that still jumps off the page, though, is his ball-handling.
That part of his game could end up being the separator. Coward already has a sturdy baseline because he gets stops, rebounds well for his position, and can score in multiple ways both on the ball and away from it. But if the handle takes a real step forward, he stops looking like just a dependable piece and starts looking like someone with a much higher ceiling.
At minimum, Coward should be a strong connective player alongside names like Cam Boozer and Zach Edey. The bigger swing comes if he becomes more comfortable creating with the ball, because that would raise the ceiling of the entire group.
There’s also no real reason to panic about what he’s doing this summer. Coward had one of the better on/off swings in the NBA last season because he kept making the right choices on both ends.
Some fans have been frustrated that Cam Boozer didn’t get more offensive touches against Darryn Peterson’s Utah Jazz, and Coward’s shot volume was part of that. But that doesn’t mean his decision-making is a problem in the regular season.
If anything, the summer is helping him in exactly the right way. He’s getting real on-ball reps, something the Grizzlies arguably didn’t give him enough of last season. And since he didn’t play in Summer League last summer, this stretch matters even more for his development.
So far, Coward has looked comfortable handling the ball in transition, but he still has room to grow in the half-court. That doesn’t take away from how much stronger he looks or how much his defensive impact has jumped. It just points to the next step.
If the handle comes along, Coward could move beyond being a winning player and into the conversation as one of the league’s elite wings. For a Memphis team building around Zach Edey, Cam Boozer, and Coward, that would be a huge development. The Grizzlies have plenty of assets and a young core with real upside, and Coward’s growth could help make that group one of the most promising in the Western Conference before long.
In Other News...
Grizzlies Young Core Faces Its First Real Vegas Test Tonight
Summer League in Las Vegas is where a young roster stops being a collection of draft-night talking points and starts getting judged on how it functions against real competition. For the Bulls, that means a first look at recent picks Caleb Wilson, Dailyn Swain and Noa Essengue under Tiago Splitter, with Memphis waiting at the Thomas & Mack Center as the kind of opponent that can quickly expose whether the pieces fit or just look promising on paper.
From the Grizzlies side, this is the sort of early test that matters because their own young core is still settling into roles and responsibilities, with a projected lineup that includes Javon Small, Cedric Coward, Oliver-Maxence Prosper, Cameron Boozer and Carson Cooper. The matchup also adds a layer of intrigue because Wilson and Boozer have already been tied together in draft conversation, and their previous college meeting left enough of a footprint to make this one feel like more than a routine July run, even before the ball goes up. [Read more 🡒]