Trading Yang Hansen s bargaining chips to achieve a triple jump from the third-level league to the Lotto, Coward s counterattack!

He was the Trail Blazers who got Yang Hansen's bargaining chips. The Trail Blazers took Cedric Coward at the 11th pick and traded to the Grizzlies, which was then exchanged for Yang Hansen plus 1 28-year first-round pick and 2 second-round picks. However, Coward is by no means an ordinary person. He achieved a triple jump from the NCAA third-level league to the lottery show, and his counterattack path is also legendary.

In high school, Coward never appeared in the field of scouts. First, his ability was not so outstanding, and he did not officially join the school team until his senior year; second, he did not pay attention to the AAU league at all. The full name of AAU is the Amateur Sports Federation, which organizes youth competitions across the United States and is an important exposure platform. For example, James entered the AAU national finals at the age of 14, thus gradually becoming famous; for example, Davis, the AAU highlight was uploaded by scouts, and then became a hot search.

And Coward only played a little AAU small league games intermittently, and even quit the AAU directly during the summer vacation before his senior year, mainly because he had no chance to play in the NBA. So he went to help his grandfather build a house.

From hammering nails to shoveling sand to building walls, working for eight or nine hours a day under the scorching sun. After a few weeks of hard work, Coward finally realized that this was not the life he wanted, and he was still more enthusiastic about basketball. Only then did he rejoin the AAU game in his senior year.

But soon the world ushered in the epidemic in 2020, the game was cancelled in various ways, and university coaches and scouts no longer went out for inspection, which made Coward stunned. He was not exposed and eventually joined Willamut University, so he won 1 win and lost 29, and was at the bottom of the NCAA third-level league.

Fortunately, he met the noble man in his life in his freshman year: Coach Riley. Riley is the head coach of East Washington University in the first-tier league. Because of his limited talent, he only played in the third-tier league where Coward was in his student days, so he paid more attention to the grassroots level. In the game Riley watched, Coward scored a game-high 24 points as a substitute, which made Riley's eyes shine. At the end of the season, Coward was elected Rookie of the Year in the Division 3 with 19.4 points and 12 rebounds per game and was selected for the All-Squad first team. This led Riley to decide to take him to Eastern Washington University for training. In his sophomore season, Coward contributed 7.3 points and 5.6 rebounds with only 21 minutes on the bench, with a three-point shooting percentage of 39.4%, ranking third in the first-tier league in offensive efficiency, helping Eastern Washington University win an 18-game winning streak. In order to desperately catch up with the footsteps of high school, Coward almost lived in the stadium for the whole year of 2023, and finally reaped returns in his junior year, becoming the All-Series League team in the first-tier league with an average of 15.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

At this time, Riley received a better position as the head coach of Washington State University. Coward, who is about to be a senior, is also willing to follow Riley to transfer to Washington State University. At this time, many schools hope to intercept Coward during the transfer process and provide him with generous scholarships and endorsements, among which the amount given by Texas Tech University even reached six figures. But Coward resolutely followed Riley and refused the invitations.

He performed extremely well in the six preseason games at Washington State, one game 30+ and two games 20+, but unfortunately it happened. He tore his left rotator cuff and labrum while fighting for rebounds in a training session, causing him to require surgery and reimburse him for the entire season. He did not participate in the 5v5 confrontation during the joint trial, but achieved the top 5 results in fixed-point shooting, three-pointers, sprinting and other events. The Grizzlies just traded their main player Bain to the Magic, and they were in need of a forward swingman who could attack and defend. Coward, who was 1.98 meters tall, became the target of their lottery, and leaped from the third-tier league to the lottery show. "He might become the next Jimmy Butler," said a scout!