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The Brooklyn Nets head into the 2025 NBA Draft with four first-round picks to use, meaning that they will be bringing in a lot of talent from this class. Brooklyn has three picks outside of the Lottery and with the team needing as much of a talent infusion as possible, they could consider taking a player that is taking full advantage of the predraft process.
Forward Cedric Coward, who came into the Draft with the intention of maintaining his college eligibility after agreeing to transfer to Duke, has decided to stay in the Draft, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. Coward’s draft stock has risen to the point where Bleacher Report NBA Draft expert Jonathan Wasserman projects the San Antonio Spurs to take Coward with the 14th overall pick.
“NBA teams learned that the injury wasn’t a setback,” Coward said, per Givony. “I got better and became more profound in all the different details of my game. I improved tremendously in aspects that I needed to work on, which showed in my athletic testing and shooting. I’m stronger mentally, physically and emotionally now.”
Coward, listed at 6-foot-6 and 213 pounds, is coming off a senior season at Washington State where he averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 55.7% from the field and 40.0% from three-point land. While the 2024-25 season was his senior season, Coward did have another season of eligibility given that he had to redshirt this past season due to a shoulder injury.
With Coward not going back to college, he will be entering the Draft was one of the players looking to take advantage of the momentum he has built since the Draft Combine in Chicago earlier this month. “Scouts at the combine were acknowledging the fact that Cedric Coward could go first round based on his Kawhi-Leonard-like measurements, convincing shooting stroke and the tantalizing highlights from his brief six-game season,” Wasserman wrote on Coward.
