Can Cauley-Stein become a top 10 pick in next year’s NBA draft?
Week of: October 20 – October 26
We get it. Kentucky has a loaded roster this year; it’s almost to the point where it’s not even fair how much talent they have. Between Aaron Harrison, Andrew Harrison, Julius Randle, Dakari Johnson, Alex Poythress and Marcus Lee, it’s easy to see why the Wildcats are the unanimous number one team entering college basketball this year.
One player being lost among the fold is returning sophomore center Willie Cauley-Stein, who spent a large portion of last season in Nerlens Noel’s shadow. I’m here to say it right now though: with a strong sophomore season, Cauley-Stein will be one of the highest drafted Wildcats in the 2014 NBA Draft.
For starters, Cauley-Stein has great size and length. Standing at 7’0” and weighing in at 245 pounds, this dude is massive and takes up a lot of space, plus he’s also extremely athletic. This alone makes him a very intriguing prospect, but his already advanced defensive and rebounding abilities are what finish the deal and make him an elite one.
Like so many young centers today, Cauley-Stein’s strengths are his shot-blocking and rebounding abilities. Last year despite only playing 23.6 minutes per game, Cauley-Stein was third in the SEC in blocks, second in block percentage and blocks per game, sixth in offensive rebounding percentage and tenth in total rebounding percentage. Cauley-Stein finished with a staggering PER of 22.1.
Thanks to his incredible athleticism, Cauley-Stein has tremendous lateral quickness which makes him a very disruptive perimeter defender. He also possesses the ability to run the floor at a very high level which is a very valued skill for a big man. Cauley-Stein’s quickness and athleticism on the defensive end make him very bothersome in passing lanes.
Cauley-Stein brings a ton of aggressiveness and energy to the floor. He’s very competitive, and that’s a good thing. Most teams would be elated to have Cauley-Stein as their starting center, but at Kentucky, he’s actually going to have to FIGHT for minutes (this is another testament to how loaded they are). The Wildcats have two five-star freshman centers who want to be on the floor just as badly as Cauley-Stein does. Since he’s so athletic, Cauley-Stein can also play PF if needed for UK, but if he has a stretch of bad games or gets off to a rough start, he could see his minutes decrease.
Cauley-Stein’s biggest overall weakness is how raw he is offensively. He knows his limits as an offensive player right now and normally doesn’t put up many bad shots; he’s also a good passer for a big man. Cauley-Stein’s abilities on mid-range jumpers and back-to-the-basket opportunities have a long ways to go. Cauley-Stein is also a dreadfully bad free throw shooter, as he only shot 37.2% from the charity stripe last season.
Another one of the big knacks on Cauley-Stein is he plays “soft” at times. He needs to add muscle and get stronger; thanks to his massive frame, he should be able to do this rather easily.
The good news is that Cauley-Stein is so young and loaded with potential. It’s not hard to see why some NBA Scouts are drooling over him. He’s not even beginning to reach the surface of his immense abilities. However, it is reasonable for us to expect to see some improvement out of him this year after a freshman campaign in which he averaged 8.3 PPG on 62.1% shooting and reeled in 6.2 RPG.
It’s so early, but as of right now, I would project Cauley-Stein as a late lottery pick who has a chance to sneak into the top 10 if he has a really strong sophomore season. Almost any NBA team would be ecstatic to bring a young big man with so much potential into the fold, but right now, I could see somewhere like Dallas, Portland or Boston making sense as a potential landing destination for Cauley-Stein. Cauley-Stein’s full potential as an NBA player is as a guy who is a dominant defender and great rebounder who will also score double-digits on most nights.
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By Brian Emory
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