Pistons fan coming in peace, you have a baller in Cedric Coward. How do you guys like him? Whats his future on the team?

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  3. Like him a lot. His future is as the face of a franchise that wins seven consecutive rings in Memphis, and he retires as the greatest to ever wear #23. 

    In this photo he’s wearing #22 just to send a message to fans that it’s time to forget all about Bane.

  5. He’s a floor raiser. He’s calm, and consistent and has the most ridiculous proportions.
    He’s a starter for the next 10 years

  7. I get that you’re a fan of another team and you come in peace but that picture doesn’t help you. It’s less an olive branch and more of a shot fired to me but I can imagine a fan of another team might not have seen it as such.

    Desmond Bane played his entire career with the Grizzlies up until the trade. He stood up for his teammates —*I’ll never forget how he got in KD’s face for talking shit to rookie Cam Spencer last year*— and although he wasn’t a perfect player —*he faded away in the playoffs*— he improved every year and did it not to raise his stock to make him more valuable in a trade… he did it so that he could be a better Memphis Grizzly. The idea that we should **forget him** because of any one player is nonsense. Don’t care who it is. That’s no disrespect to Cedric Coward; that’s simply respect for Desmond Bane: a player who gave his all for us.

    Besides, there are better pictures of Ced. In his actual Grizzlies uniform.

    All of that said about Des… the future is bright for Cedric Coward. He’ll start for the Grizzlies one day, almost certainly this year. Whether or not that happens before ASB is a question that I don’t think is nearly as pressing as how often we will see him **close out** games with the starters. We’ve already seen it start to happen but as more players roll off of injury —*specialists who allow us to more dynamically adapt to a wider range of opponents*— whether or not he will still close out game with starters will be a question we get answered.

    Lots of fans in this sub seem really excited about his three point shooting. I am not. I’m whatever about it. What gets me excited about Cedric Coward is his midrange game because of how midrange shots change the dynamics of how things operate in the half court. Three point misses bounce too far out. They have to be corralled by the statistically worst rebounders on your team and chasing them requires you to run away from your goal while your opponent is running towards theirs. More three point shots mean more three point misses and more three point misses means more opportunities do your opponent to get out in transition. More transition opportunities means they put up points faster.

    The midrange changes all of that. It’s easier to follow your own shot if you miss and because they’re not bouncing that far, if you happen to have a guy who is 7’4” and 300 lbs of muscle, he has a better chance of getting it. The Thunder understand this; SGA and Jalen Williams relentlessly work the midrange. Even IHart has a middy floater he uses that’s easy to follow. They’re not shy about shooting threes, they’re simply not reliant on it (*like the Celtics*).

    His athleticism is exciting and his defensive potential is tantalizing but what will transform this team is his midrange game. We saw that in action against Phoenix, not so much with Ced but we saw Ja and KCP working the midrange more. This is intentional and I’m excited to see it.

  8. I keep thinking that they might arrest Kleinman because he stole Coward from the rest of the league. Last year he moved up to get Edey and everyone said he was dumb for doing that. This year he moved up to get Coward and people again were puzzled. He seems to know what he’s doing.

    He is solidly built, very active on the court and is a really good shooter. Hopefully, he continues to work hard and stays away from the injury bug.

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