It’s A Big Year for Willie Cauley-Stein

Willie Cauley-Stein has been equally mesmerizing and frustrating through his first 3 seasons. As #4 approaches, he finds himself at a crossroads with both his career and his team, the Sacramento Kings.

Though sometimes he seems unfocused or aloof on the floor, other times he appears every bit the athletic freak many saw coming out of Kentucky. One of his perceived weaknesses (defense), actually may not be as bad as some think:

Only 3 players 7'0" or taller who played at least 1,000 minutes last season graded out as a B or better in Perimeter Defense per our competency grading model:

– Steven Adams
– Kelly Olynyk
– Willie Cauley-Stein#NBAPlayerGrades

— BBall Index (@The_BBall_Index) August 19, 2018

Now sure, you can cherry-pick stats until the cows come home. But there’s no doubt Willie has the talent to do very good things in the NBA. With his contract year this season, the question is: Will he?

If he does, Vlade Divac will have a difficult decision to make.

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