{"id":742659,"date":"2026-05-24T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742659\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T10:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T10:00:20","slug":"southwest-notes-coward-mosley-m-brown-mavericks-coaching-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742659\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Notes: Coward, Mosley, M. Brown, Mavericks’ Coaching Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cedric Coward<\/a> was among the biggest surprises in a talented rookie class, earning First-Team All-Rookie honors<\/a> after being selected with the 11th pick in last year\u2019s draft. In an interview with Mark Medina of R.org<\/a>, the Grizzlies forward talks about the constant need to improve, which is why he\u2019ll be returning to the Las Vegas Summer League in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, I want to keep growing my game,\u201d Coward said. \u201cTwo, I want to let the team know that no matter what I got to do, whether it\u2019s play in Summer League or in training camp, I\u2019m going to be there to do it. It\u2019s something that they wanted me to do. It\u2019s something that I didn\u2019t have any problem doing. For me, it allows me to maximize my game, too, and work on things that I didn\u2019t do as much this past season. I\u2019ve been working on that this summer. Also, I\u2019m trying to win. It\u2019s the competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coward addresses several topics in the interview, including his encounters with veterans on other teams, the recent death of teammate Brandon Clarke<\/a> and the public perception of Ja Morant<\/a>. Coward calls Morant \u201cone of the best people that I know personally\u201d and says he provided a lot of help with making the adjustment to the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed me different things in the game that I can take advantage of that can help him,\u201d Coward said. \u201cHe provides the most gravity on the court when he\u2019s playing. So for me, it\u2019s about being in the right spots offensively and defensively. I remember one day, I grabbed the ball and they took it out and passed to me. I looked for him. He came up to me and said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you dribble the ball up?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Yeah, I got you.\u2019 It\u2019s certain things like that where he\u2019s making sure he can make the game easier on both of us. At the end of the day, if we\u2019re successful, then we can help the team be successful. Then if the team is successful, we win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from the Southwest Division:<\/p>\n

In becoming the Pelicans\u2018 new head coach<\/a>, Jamahl Mosley accepted the same challenge he took on five years ago in Orlando, Rod Walker of NOLA<\/a> writes in a subscriber-only piece. The Magic were coming off a 21-win season when they hired Mosley, and he built them into a consistent playoff team by placing a strong emphasis on defense. New Orleans has won 21 and 26 games the past two years and is hoping for the same type of transformation.
\nLouisville guard Mikel Brown Jr.<\/a>\u00a0has a combination of size and talent that appeals to new team president Masai Ujiri, making him a possibility when the Mavericks pick at No. 9, suggests James Piercey of Dallas Hoops Journal<\/a> (subscription required). Piercey notes that Ujiri has emphasized length and defense with his previous teams, sparking speculation about Brown, who is 6\u20195\u2033 with a 6\u20197.5\u2033 wingspan.
\nChristian Clark of The Athletic<\/a> looks at five potential candidates in the Mavericks\u2018 coaching search, starting with Spurs associate head coach Sean Sweeney. Considered one of the NBA\u2019s top assistants, Sweeney spent four years on Jason Kidd\u2019s staff in Dallas before leaving for San Antonio last summer. Clark also examines the cases for Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Duke head coach John Scheyer, Trail Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter and South Carolina women\u2019s coach Dawn Staley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cedric Coward was among the biggest surprises in a talented rookie class, earning First-Team All-Rookie honors after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,3522,3377,294,178,2684,6833,293,177,4070,11783,29026,6,11784,15840],"class_list":["post-742659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-basketball","tag-cedric-coward","tag-dawn-staley","tag-grizzlies","tag-ja-morant","tag-jamahl-mosley","tag-masai-ujiri","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-micah-nori","tag-mikel-brown-jr","tag-nba","tag-sean-sweeney","tag-tiago-splitter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116628974710839094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}