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The pair has combined for a wild 116.8 defensive rating this year, which is worse by far than Denver’s league-worst mark.
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When he shares the court with Cousins (whose own individual defense grades well compared to the Kings’ team numbers), though, things get ugly. Over the life of the season, the Kings are basically even on defense when the sophomore is on the court, but they actually improve defensively by a few points per 100 possessions when he’s on the bench. In short, Cauley-Stein has become a more regular part of Joerger’s rotation as a direct replacement for Gay. If we expand to include Kosta Koufos in that equation to count all minutes in which Cousins shared the court with a “traditional” big man, we find that he did so for about 41 percent of his total minutes before Gay went down compared to 58 precent since the injury. Since that night, Cousins has played 11 percent of his minutes next to his fellow Kentucky alum. Read More: Russell Westbrook leads the league in every categoryįrom the start of the season until Gay’s injury, only five percent of Cousins’ minutes came with Cauley-Stein on the floor. 19, Kings coach Dave Joerger has leaned back into the double-big lineups that better suit Sacramento’s roster makeup (in case you missed it, the Kings have lots of big men). But after spending most of the season bouncing in and out of the lineup and playing for short spurts even when he did find the court, Cauley-Stein’s mere presence in the lineup is enough to inspire intrigue. When he and franchise star DeMarcus Cousins share the court, that margin balloons to almost 14 points in the negative. However, the team’s offense is almost six points worse per 100 possessions with him on the court, per NBA Wowy. The young big man is up almost a half a point from last season’s Real Plus-Minus, and he looks better overall. These are the numbers of a complementary offensive piece, but considering that was probably his offensive ceiling all along, the numbers are workable within the context of Sacramento’s team. He’s still only playing 17.4 minutes per game and hovering right around a usage rate of 20 percent, which is what one would expect for a player occupying one-fifth of his team’s lineup. If his last two weeks are to be taken seriously, Willie Cauley-Stein is the latest example, and he could become the first of the Sacramento Kings’ big man prospects to find their footing with the team.Ĭauley-Stein has averaged 9.3 points and 4.2 rebounds on 59.7 percent shooting over his last nine games. Yet from Joakim Noah to DeAndre Jordan (and on and on), the league’s smartest and most athletic bigs continuously find ways to provide enough value on offense that their defense can stay on the court. Overall, the NBA consistently underestimates a defensive-minded big man’s ability to improve to at least a passable level on offense. By Brendon Kleen 5 years ago Follow Tweet