Grant Afseth and James Piercey break down Cedric Coward's 24-point performance, GG Jackson's season, and where Memphis stands in the lottery race with a handful of games left.
The newest episode of the Grizzlies Roundtable podcast, hosted by Grant Afseth and James Piercey, gets into Memphis ending a five-game losing streak with a 125-124 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.
The win was a bright spot for a Grizzlies team that has gone 2-13 in its last 15 games. Memphis continues to play without Ja Morant, Scotty Pippen Jr., Zach Edey, Ty Jerome, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Brandon Clarke, all of whom were sidelined against Chicago.
Despite all of that, Memphis found a way against the Bulls.
Cedric Coward was a significant topic in the episode, with discussion of him as a key player to monitor as the Grizzlies play out the rest of the season. Against Chicago, Coward had 24 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and four steals on 10-of-19 shooting in just 24 minutes.
Grant and James broke down Coward's synergy numbers in detail, including his 91st-percentile efficiency in isolation situations and the areas, particularly pick-and-roll ball-handling at the 24.9th percentile, where he still has room to grow. The guys also discussed how the absence of a traditional rim-rolling center like Edey has complicated his development in those actions.
Elsewhere, Olivier-Maxence Prosper's 31-point, 29-minute eruption against the Houston Rockets (12-of-15 from the floor, four-of-five from three) gave the guys a lot to discuss about what he can offer going forward after barely factoring in Dallas.
GG Jackson's trajectory also came up, including his dunk on Victor Wembanyama and that now-famous "I'm the closest thing to KD on this court" quote. James reiterated his position from his recent article: the $2.4 million team option for next season is a no-brainer.
Rayan Rupert got some love, too, with Grant noting he's averaged nearly 11 points per game in March on 44.1% shooting from three. Walter Clayton Jr. remains a concern, shooting 32.1% overall and 27.8% from three this month, though both hosts acknowledged the challenge of his circumstances.
Memphis sits at 25-49 with the eighth-best lottery odds, a half-game behind New Orleans and a full game behind Dallas. The realistic range is somewhere between sixth and eighth-best odds, with Utah too far back to be a realistic target.