FA: Willie Cauley-Stein to DAL | 2 yrs, $8.2M (2nd year team option)

[HanspardsShowerVoice]

With cow saying WCS was so dire with the Kings

Except I never said that.  I know it's all fun and games to trade barbs, but please don't put words in my mouth.

You didn't use the exact words "so dire," but you did say that 1) you had watched him consistently throughout his Kings career (are you a Kings fan, or do you just watch all of the NBA games, the way Roger Ebert used to watch "all of the movies?"), and 2) that he was a bad basketball player.

I'll go back and find the posts for you if you want. I'm pretty close to 100% that you said those things.

When I play fantasy basketball I have a bad habit of watching every game my teams or opponents are involved in.  I've watched more terrible basketball teams and games than I care to even admit.   

My narrative with WCS is pretty simple, unfulfilled potential because of his mentality and commitment to basketball.  The reason I had no desire to have him on the team is that there is no long term future for him.

I specifically remember listening to a Zach Lowe podcast with Kevin Arnovitz and they were dogging on WCS for his lack of effort and being mentally checked out about as severely as I can ever remember those two with a player.    And those are two guys who I feel really try to avoid being Hot Take-y with hyperbole and try to be fair with players and give them the benefit of the doubt.    When the Mavs acquired him I was thinking "Well, can he just do Dwight Powell things?" and then went back and checked some Kings boards and old articles about him, and the answer is he can do those things but he doesn't want to because he thinks it is beneath his talents. Offensively he gets bored just being a rim runner. He wants to be KP and do pick and pops. He thinks he could have been Porzingis if the Knicks would have drafted him.   Defensively he just doesn't protect the rim like you would expect someone of his length and talent (is the fact that he can guard out on the perimeter hurt him in that regard?).  And he'll go through stretches where he's motivated and raises his game, but it dissipates over time because he's not a naturally self motivated person day after day. Seems like every season with the Kings he started off hot because he wanted to show it was the New WCS and then as the season goes along he turns back into the Old WCS. The fact that Steve Kerr and Bob Meyer, who know what a winning organization and culture looks like, couldn't wait to basically give him away after he had been in their building for half a season isnt exactly a ringing endorsement either.


Now, people do sometimes change ... and nothing is more of a wake up call than becoming a father.   And maybe the 2 consecutive offseasons with a lack of much of market has opened his eyes that his NBA career is hanging by a thread.  Last season was about much of a worst case scenerio as you could imagine for him. He joined the Warriors because he thought he was joining this great culture and organization that he thought would get the most out of him. Then he gets injured right before training camp and misses most of the preseason and a chance to gell. The Steph gets hurt in Game 4, Draymond essentially checks out and they start a tank process. Then he gets traded, then COVID hits. A more resiliient person can fight through this stuff, but that's not him. Maybe the stability with the Mavs will be a great thing for him. But most likely he'll start out motivated to start the season but it will be temporarily peter out and he'll go back to old habits over time.   But maybe by that time Dwight Powell will be healthier and KP will be back and we wont need him to provide much.

Here's some choice WCS quotes ...

“If you trust your player and you give him the ball and you’re allowing him to make those choices himself instead of like ‘You don’t post up’ because I’ve been told that before, ‘We’re not posting you up.’ Then it’s like shit, what am I supposed to do?”

He doesn’t want to be just a rim runner on offense, even though he excels at it. He’s not shy about his desire to be a go-to guy on that end of the court, either.

“I’ve read that I’m playing to my strengths now but shooting the ball is one of my strengths, folks just haven’t seen it,” Cauley-Stein said. “I just haven’t shot the ball a lot — the last two years is the first time I really shot a lot.

“I’m still getting to the point where I’m open but I think I can just go past this guy (instead of shooting a jumper). I have to get to a spot mentally where I’m like ‘Damn I’m open, shoot it.’ Like when I get to that point that’s when the shit gets real serious.”

“I just want to hoop freely,” Cauley-Stein said. “That’s kind of the biggest thing for me, just going somewhere, whether it’s here or anywhere else, just taking that next evolution to the game where you’re not just a rim runner. You’re a pick-and-pop guy sometimes. You can get rolling with what the defense gives you. I wanna be that dude.”

After facing KP

“I think I just gotta get more selfish,” said Cauley-Stein, who hit 2-of-6 shots, and is averaging 8.9 points this season. “Offensively, I gotta get to the point that I’m just going at dudes like him. Guarding him, and then watching his game, you take away, oh, this is what he’s doing. I have the same body size, the same skill-level, just transfer it over to a game now. But being behind in the race, he’s been doing it for a while.”

“This league’s all about situations,” Cauley-Stein said. “I went to a situation where I’m playing behind the best center in the league [DeMarcus Cousins], or I could’ve gone to somewhere where they don’t have a guy, and now you’re the guy, and you’re getting all the touches. That helps a lot."

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/will...55631.html