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Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

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  • #1

    Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

    We kickoff the weekend on a gorgeous Friday in southern Indiana with an in-depth look at one of the most interesting players in this draft, the University of Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein. This report will be different than some, because I am going to give you some additional background/family history of WCS that I think you might find interesting, along with my normal breakdown of his game on tape.

    WCS measured in at the NBA combine at 7'0 1/2, weighing in at a rather wiry 242lbs. Stein has a very good wingspan of 7'3, and in some of the sprint drills that he has been put through, he measured exactly the same as another super athletic big man named Dwight Howard. While their games aren't that similar, their sprint times in the 5 minute sprint were.

    Born in the very small town of Spearville Kansas (population 813), Stein took a varied and strange trip to get this point....but here he is now, less than 3 weeks away from being a multi-millionaire NBA player. Stein is one of the older players in this draft, as he will turn 22 years old on August 18.

    Before we get into his personality and background story, let's put his on court game tape under the microscope down below.

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    No other way to say this: Stein is an athletic freak.

    Maybe more than any 7 footer I've ever broken down on PD, WCS is a fluid machine.....extremely agile and explosive, with a sprinter's gate and build. He is a long strider who can do things from an athletic standpoint that are very rare for players his size. WCS is as purely fast as the fastest bigs in the league in terms of running the floor straight down the middle as a rim runner. In time, he may very well develop the ball skills to be a top notch NBA wing filler on a numbers advantage situation, but as of yet he is a guy you have to wait on until he gets right at the rim.

    As a defender, he has great balance and technique as a perimeter defender in space. For the NBA game he will be able to switch onto smaller players after ballscreens and easily keep most of them ineffective. What makes Stein such a potential defensive demon (among other things) isn't the ability to not get beaten.....but it is the ABILITY TO RECOVER WHEN HE "IS" BEATEN. His recovery ability as an on ball defender at the college level was quite frankly awesome.

    Because of this, his best defensive skill is to guard smaller, quicker players. You can match Stein up on all of these perimeter based stretch 4 guys, most 3 men, and most if not all 5 men, giving you extreme defensive flexibility as a coach. And like I said, his unique ability to slide quickly at his size means you can switch many different screen actions with no fear of him being left on an island against the better 2 guards and point guards in the league.

    Stein has the defensive fundamentals down when he is guarding the ball on the perimeter. Better than anyone else in this draft other than perhaps Delon Wright (who is a point guard plus defender), Stein does a great job of keeping ONE HAND ABOVE THE BALL, while maintaining his space and distance away from the ballhandler/shooter. In basketball, you see a million times a game a shooter jump up and rise above a defender who is in good position to stop him, but who is playing with low hands.....Stein seldom falls victim to that defensive mistake.

    Stein will have much more value for a team who hedges hard on ballscreens, for teams who switch a lot, and for team in particularly who like to blitz them. If you are a team that primarily sags way back with your bigs, you are somewhat wasting WCS's unique athletic abilities, so scheme fit will be important for him....but Stein might be a good enough defender of ballscreens to change your scheme to suit his game no matter who picks him.

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    I think his major value is as a huge weapon as a tall perimeter defender who can guard multiple positions. As a true post defender, Stein is good but not great, as he lacks strength and can overpowered by the bigger more savvy veteran post guys. Lacking strength in both his lower and upper body, Stein is more fluid and quick than powerful.

    Stein doesn't like contact or physical play on either end really. So if you are a team with a powerful post guy who can score well, you can back WCS down, isolate him in the post, and try to go to work on him by getting such deep position that he can't use his athleticism and length against you as well. And if you are trying to face up and drive him, you want to get into his body as much as possible and then either spin by him or use an up and under move against him, using his physical weaknesses against him. Stein doesn't always play great defense until you actually get the ball, as he really gets "flat" to his man away from the ball, so he is vulnerable at times to either flash cuts in front of him or to backcuts behind him depending on how you have the floor spaced.

    Make no mistake, WCS is a major plus defender overall. But remember that at Kentucky he often didn't have to guard the opponents other biggest player, because Towns or Johnson played with him, enabling Stein to guard guys much smaller and weaker than he was usually.

    What I am saying is, that in an ideal setting, you won't want to usually play a lineup with Stein and 4 other smaller players.....he needs another big to play next to him of some kind.

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    Another reason you need to play another big next to Stein is the possibility that he will lack defensive rebounding prowess.

    His lack of strength really shows up in this area, along wing a lack of fundamentals in blocking out the opponent. Most of the time, rather than getting low and really trying to physically box someone out, he will either just center himself in the middle of the lane and try to outjump people, out reach them, or just out run them to the ball. He is definitely NOT a blockout and hold type of rebounder.

    As most of you know I will not hold this against him as much as other scouts will. I think your team will rebound fine when he is on the floor playing for you, but he clearly isn't a dominant glass eater or anything. He is quick off the jump, and his 2nd jump is excellent too, so it isn't hopeless. And for Kentucky remember that he had another big stud in Towns scarfing up rebounds as well, hurting his numbers just a bit. I like how WCS can chase down offensive rebounds with his reach, and I think he will be a guy who can get his own misses well and can keep balls alive even if he can't get them himself.

    In short, not a monster rebounder, but I think he will do ok as long as he isn't matched up with another glass eater on the other team. If he is, you are running major risks, because Stein can pretty easily get muscled under the rim. Yet another reason why to win with WCS you have to play another big with him.

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    WCS on defense is a pleasure to watch, a strong NBA weapon with clearly translatable skills from UK to the NBA level. But what about offensively? Not the same at all!

    Stein is about as limited as a post player as you will ever see, which is yet ANOTHER reason you are going to need to play another big player with him, or at least have somebody out there who can score either on the box or set up some other unique ways to operate and score.

    WCS back to the basket post up game is nonexistent. He has no moves, no touch, nothing. So much so that my guess is that initially and maybe forever, teams won't even attempt to post him up at all. That presents issues, because teams will also easily be able to hide smaller players on him, due to the fact that he can't post anyone up and make them pay.

    WCS will be able to hit his highest ceiling point if he at least learns to be a post weapon against smaller players that teams try and hide on him. Can he do that? He didn't do it in 3 years of college, and I am NOT projecting that he ever really develops a back to the basket game. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it. That isn't a fatal flaw in the current game IF a team surrounds him with another big guy who is a post up weapon at some point, or who at least can score a lot in some fashion......WCS is a combination player like most bigs, meaning that his skills only help you win with they are complimented by guys who balance his game out.

    What WCS will be able to do offensively for you I think is be a ballscreener/roll to the rim guy, like a DeAndre Jordan type. That only works of course if you have a top notch point guard or other player who excels at making that pass. As an offensive coach you can also get super creative because you can have Stein sprint from one low block to the opposite wings to set what I call a "hammer" side ballscreen, because his speed will play in that way. A coach offensively will have to get creative in many ways to use WCS effectively on that end, because if he is such a drag on offense that his defense doesn't help you win, then you are beating yourself before you start.

    If I am coaching WCS offensively, in times I am not having him ballscreen or screen elsewhere, you have to put some thought in where to put him. For me, he is a nice player to play in the "back pocket", behind the rim just outside the paint, so you space the lane as best you can for your better players. If he even attempts to post up and gets in the way, that is a nice route for your halfcourt offense to head into the toilet. WCS also can't pass, so he really should only touch the ball so he can dunk it from 6 inches away, or in space outside so he can reverse the ball and follow his pass to screen.

    I would also encourage WCS to come up with a face up jumper of some kind, at least from a 1 or 2 "hot spots" you designate for him to master. I doubt he becomes a major weapon as a jump shooter, but if he could just be mediocre from a couple of different designated specific spots, that would be helpful for you if he accidentally gets a pass somehow.

    Basically, he is an offensive liability other than in a few specific ways, so you need to surround him with the right personnel and scheme it up well to get the most out of him, and so you can win with playing major minutes for you.

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    I told you I'd provide some background history on Stein, and some thoughts/opinions about his personality quirks.

    Stein had an interesting family dynamic. His father, a junior college basketball player in Dodge City Kansas (yes, that Dodge City) and his mother (who also played basketball) were never together, and his father had no involvement in his life. A struggling single mom, his mother took classes and eventually married and moved to Oklahoma.

    A bi-racial child, Stein and his step-father didn't get along, so at age 9 he moved back to his mom's hometown of Spearville Kansas....a town with a population of 813, deep in the SW corner of Kansas, where he lived his elderly white grandparents. Stein grew up a shy kid, but eventually began to live that idyllic old fashioned small town life of yesteryear, the kind where you play sports all day or run around in a safe neighborhood with little discipline or oversight needed. Spearville definitely has some "Mayberry" type of qualities.

    His favorite sports growing up were basically everything except basketball. He was a baseball pitcher as a kid, and played football from an early age. Basketball, even by his own admission, was far down the list of things he liked to do. Even when he began to grow rapidly, basketball never was really his passion, although by his early teens he was at least playing on an AAU team. Basically growing up without a father figure in a somewhat undisciplined household, WCS was drifting along and going nowhere, and academically failing after his first 2 years of high school basketball.

    If what happened next hadn't happened, then Stein wouldn't be here today.

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    His AAU teammate Shavon Shields, who lived in an affluent Kansas City suburb, wanted Stein to move 3 hours from Spearville and in with his family. Ambivalent about the idea and not wanting to leave his friends and hometown, he rebelled against the idea but eventually agreed to do it to appease the wishes of his aging grandparents and involved though far away mother.

    Shavon was the son of NFL legendary lineman Will Shields, and he and his wife gave WCS the type of parental and homelife he never really had, along with a major dose of discipline. It was a major sacrifice for the Shields family, who already had 3 children of their own in total, but they did it and it obviously made a huge difference in Willie Cauley Stein's life. Senia Shields arranged for tutors, prepared him for college, pushed him to achieve what he was capable of, and delivered the structure and tough love that he had never experienced before. Without that move to Olathe Kansas and into the Shields home, you likely have never heard of WCS at this point, as he was on a path to nowhere academically.

    Incidentally, the Shields family has a foundation called "Will to Succeed" that is worth reading up about, as they have helped many people in that Kansas City area for over 20 years now.

    This was not exactly a situation like "The Blind Side", but it proves once again that sometimes good fortune and good people helping a kid can make a major difference for them.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Some rumors are out there about some teams being concerned about Stein's rather unique personality. Those questions are, among others:

    1. Does he really love the game? Even by his own admission, basketball is not exactly his only passion in life. He loves clothes and wants to have his own clothing line someday. He is somewhat obsessed with Zombies and Zombie movies and has shown an interest in film making. To this day, he says football is by far his favorite sport and that playing high school football was the favorite thing he has done. That will bother some people.

    2. How will a somewhat sheltered poor kid from a town with 800 people react to living on his own and being a millionaire in a strange city? Some teams will be concerned about that....will he stay stagnant, or will he love the game enough to be driven to climb the mountain 82 games a year or more?

    3. He is definitely quirky. He dyed his hair blonde for no apparent reason at Kentucky for a while. He rode a skateboard to class at UK, even in the winter. He changed his middle name to "Trill" at the last minute just because that was a nickname he was given. (his given name at birth was Willie Durmond Cauley Jr....he added the "Stein" to honor his grandparents)

    None of those particularly bother me, but they do make you realize that you are dealing with a unique personality with this kid, and not everyone in the NBA will totally be comfortable with that.

    Stein is well spoken and intelligent, and has responded to hard coaching in the past, so he seems coachable....but will he be driven enough to improve and prepare how you have to excel?

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    So what do we have in Willie Cauley Stein?

    I think we have a limited player offensively, perhaps fatally so if he isn't in the right atmosphere and system. But we also have a major defensive weapon and unique athlete that in the right situation can be a nice cog for a top level team. As long as he is handled correctly from a personality standpoint, and if he gets the right teammates around him that can accentuate his skills, I think he is an NBA starter or rotation guy at worst. If he gets in wrong spot, he wont have much success...but if he lands somewhere conducive to his game, there is no reason why he won't be a 10 plus year NBA player.

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    Should Indiana take him if he slips to #11?

    Wow, that is tough.

    If he slips that far, I'd have to know the reason why, because likely it would be for some personality or background issue. If there are no super red flags, I can't see him slipping quite that far. From a current personnel standpoint I don't think Indiana is a particularly good fit for him, since we lack the kind of players around Stein that make him playable in my view, at least for a good team. Stein can start for a bad team of course, but we aren't planning to be a bad team.....Stein in my opinion offensively needs to be viable:

    1. A low post scoring 4 man who gets extra touches OR
    2. A great pick and roll ball handler he can screen for and get lobs from OR
    3. A team with great spacing and unconventional and creative ways to slash and dump the ball to him

    And defensively:

    1. You need a scheme that aggressively traps or hard hedges ballscreens AND
    2. Personnel who can switch a lot defensively
    3. A beefier guy who can play occasionally and guard big strong dudes so he isn't exposed to doing that much
    4. A coach who can handle his somewhat unique personality

    As a franchise, we only have about 2 of those currently....so I hope Stein for his sake doesn't end up here in Indiana....and I doubt he will. So for those of you asking, no I wouldn't trade up to get him.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    WCS has a perfect spot to land ahead of us, which is Sacramento at #6. He is an almost perfect fit there with their scheme, staff, city, and with Demarcus Cousins being the ideal player almost to play next to him. I have no idea what the crazy Kings will do, but they should take Cauley-Stein I think without question for their style of play and team around him. I don't want WCS to end up in NY as is rumored.

    He would also be a reasonably good fit with Orlando at #5, but not perfect. Miami and Oklahoma City are also really good landing spots for him, and I suspect there would be trade possibilities for us with OKC and others if he falls to us, and I'd rather explore those offers before adding Stein here.

    I like Stein, but I am not in love with him and I don't think his ideal fit is Indiana.....we need a slightly different player I think, one who isn't so offensively limited. I'd trade out or pick someone else most likely if he somehow gets to #11.

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    So who does Stein remind me of?

    Is he Joakim Noah? If he was, I'd say take him.....but Noah is better than Stein is I think.

    Is he Tyson Chandler? If he was I'd say probably take him.....but Chandler is tougher and stronger I think than Stein is.

    Is he DeAndre Jordan? I think that's closer, but Jordan is on the exact perfect team for him like I described above.....he has an ideal point guard, ideal high volume PF, and a great coach.

    I think my favorite comparable when you factor ability, weaknesses, personality, and everything else into the equation for Stein is:

    NBA comparable: Chris "Birdman" Anderson

    A quirky but effective rebounder/defender who looked much better on the exact right team in Miami than he would playing for us or others.

    As always, all of the above is just my opinion.

    Tbird
    Last edited by thunderbird1245; 06-05-2015, 05:46 PM.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

    WCS is my favorite player the pacers realistically have a chance at getting
    Last edited by PacerPenguins; 06-05-2015, 05:40 PM.

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    • #3
      Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

      Hmm...the lack of defensive rebounding skills concern me, but I'd still take him if he fell to 11, to either trade or keep. The Pacers may not have that big this coming season, but they may get one at some point. I still think someone falls to 11 that either I really want to keep or someone else is going to want in trade and Pacers will get too good of an offer to pass. Larry I don't think is ever a guy that makes promises to draft picks unlike other teams ahead of the Pacers (which is partly why those teams stay in lottery). I would not trade up to get WCS either, I'd much rather get Winslow.
      "It's just unfortunate that we've been penalized so much this year and nothing has happened to the Pistons, the Palace or the city of Detroit," he said. "It's almost like it's always our fault. The league knows it. They should be ashamed of themselves to let the security be as lax as it is around here."

      ----------------- Reggie Miller

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      • #4
        Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

        One part of this has me confused.

        He doesn't like contact on the basketball court, yet playing football was his favorite thing?

        I can only assume that means he was the only 7' kicker in the game's history? 😀

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        • #5
          Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

          Originally posted by Tom White View Post
          One part of this has me confused.

          He doesn't like contact on the basketball court, yet playing football was his favorite thing?

          I can only assume that means he was the only 7' kicker in the game's history? ��
          I'm pretty sure he was a wide receiver in high school. While I really like TBird's articles, I hope he is wrong about WTCS's lack of offensive talent. Would still like to see him with the Pacers at 11, but if TB is right, we'd be better off with Kaminsky or maybe Lyles, Johnson or Portis.

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          • #6
            Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

            Roy Hibbert and David West are likely not going to be here in the next 3 years. Picking WCS and adding the needed personnel around him is a possibility . We have yet to see what Vogel and Bird's new offense looks like but WCS seems to be a good fit in a new faster paced offense.
            Last edited by Pacersalltheway10; 06-05-2015, 06:45 PM.

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            • #7
              Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

              Tbird, you made me sad. I had really hoped that WCS would turn out to be Noah pt 2. There are so few really athletic big men, it would be nice to get one. But, I hear what you are saying about his lack of offense. That runs against one of the basic principals of Pacer team design. Everyone needs to be able to score and defend their position. At least score if the other guys put a poor defender on them. If WCS cannot score against a weak defender that is smaller than him, there doesn't seem much reason to draft him #11. Sigh.

              So far, Kaminsky is the guy for me.

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              • #8
                Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                I still think he has potential as a pick and pop threat. He has a smooth shot and while his free throw shooting was not pretty he has pretty good mechanics. At Kentucky, he shot so few times that it isn't really possible to declare him offensively inept. He had to share the ball with roughly 10 other NBA players throughout his UK career. Coaching could have a major role in this.

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                • #9
                  Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                  Legit question, when was the last time someone this big and athletic didn't turn out well? It seems like lately this type of player just fits in better in today's NBA than more "skilled" guys that come out of college.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                    Originally posted by Goyle View Post
                    Legit question, when was the last time someone this big and athletic didn't turn out well? It seems like lately this type of player just fits in better in today's NBA than more "skilled" guys that come out of college.
                    Players I can think of with similarities Whiteside, Sydney but bot of those guys have mental things going on, I could add the guy that payed for denver and got traded to the 76ers then got cut to the mix.
                    Why so SERIOUS

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                    • #11
                      Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                      Originally posted by Pacersalltheway10 View Post
                      I still think he has potential as a pick and pop threat. He has a smooth shot and while his free throw shooting was not pretty he has pretty good mechanics. At Kentucky, he shot so few times that it isn't really possible to declare him offensively inept. He had to share the ball with roughly 10 other NBA players throughout his UK career. Coaching could have a major role in this.
                      Well he has to share the ball now with 14 other NBA players...
                      "It's just unfortunate that we've been penalized so much this year and nothing has happened to the Pistons, the Palace or the city of Detroit," he said. "It's almost like it's always our fault. The league knows it. They should be ashamed of themselves to let the security be as lax as it is around here."

                      ----------------- Reggie Miller

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                        If WCS falls to the Pacers I don't see anyway they don't take him. Bird would have gone out of his way to compliment a player to pass up on him. I say he's a guy you fit into your sytstem because these type of players are unique. WCS reminds me more of Javale McGee who even with his antics is still a good player.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                          Originally posted by Cactus Jax View Post
                          Well he has to share the ball now with 14 other NBA players...
                          I'm saying because of how talented Kentucky was Coach Cal probably gave players certain roles more so than other coaches. Why have WCS shoot jumpers when you have the Harrison twins and Booker shooting it enough.........
                          Last edited by Pacersalltheway10; 06-05-2015, 08:12 PM.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                            He is risky imo. If he was a gym rat I would overlook his weaknesses. But I don't think he loves basketball. I think he could have a Rondo effect on a team. Be exceptional in a few areas and grow with great players around him. But the minute you expect more(and pay him more) he will flip out and be disinterested.


                            Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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                            • #15
                              Re: Tbird 2015 NBA Draft Analysis #6: Willie Cauley-Stein

                              I'm not as high on him as others. Wouldn't be mad I guess if he "fell" to us, but I'm looking at other players, personally.
                              There are two types of quarterbacks in the league: Those whom over time, the league figures out ... and those who figure out the league.

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