The only major transfer the Duke basketball team has landed this offseason is Washington State guard Cedric Coward and despite a lack of experiencing playing against elite competition at the Division I level, he has become one of the fastest rising prospects of the spring.
Coward picked the Blue Devils over Alabama but there was always one caveat in the potential of him playing college basketball next season, he would continue through the NBA Draft process.
While some expected the 6-foot-6 guard to get a 2nd round grade and play for the Blue Devils, he is quickly rising up draft boards days before the start of the NBA Draft Combine.
“They’re all going to be mad that I say the name because they all thing they are the only ones on it, but they are not,” NBA insider Zach Lowe said regarding the draft prospectus of Coward on his podcast, The Zach Lowe Show.
“If all of these scouts are on him like this…I think he’s going to get picked higher than [No. 29 overall] just based on my conversations.”
Coward played just six games due to injury at Washington State last season but started his career at Division III Willamette before transferring to Eastern Washington for two seasons. He currently slots in the projected starting five for the Duke basketball team next season but the chance to play in the NBA might be too much to pass up.
“The conversations shrunk to a whisper,” Lowe recalled of his chats with front office executives in the league. “They were afraid someone, maybe Zach’s on an Amtrak train and there’s an NBA scout on the Amtrak train that’s going to overhear this conversation.”
Duke had six players on its roster invited to the NBA Draft Combine, including freshman wing Isaiah Evans who announced his intentions to return to the Blue Devils but will still go through the process of auditioning for teams.
Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Tyrese Proctor, and Sion James also all landed invites.
The results of the NBA Combine as well as individual workouts with teams for Coward and Evans will have the biggest impact on the Duke basketball offseason how Jon Scheyer and his coaching staff need to proceed if either, or both, of the players opt to remain in the draft.