As first reported by Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, the Sacramento Kings have selected Willie Cauley-Stein with the sixth pick of the 2015 NBA Draft!
The Kings will select Wilie Cauley-Stein with the No. 6 pick, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2015
Cauley-Stein is a seven-foot tall center out of the University of Kentucky. Cauley-Stein averaged 8.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in his third and final season with Kentucky.
Those numbers aren’t incredible on their own, but it’s important to remember Willie had to share the frontcourt with the first overall selection in this year’s draft, Karl-Anthony Towns. Having two talented players next to one another will result in a lot of winning, there’s only so many points and rebounds to go around, especially considering WCS averaged just under 26 minutes per game.
The best part of Cauley-Stein has never been his offense anyway, though. According to Kevin O’Connor over at SBNation, Willie is fully capable of guarding anyone on earth. As crazy as that sounds, I actually don’t disagree.
Cauley-Stein was the defense anchor on the best defensive team in collegiate history, and despite being fully capable of protecting the rim from other giants he is also able to switch onto guards and stifle their offense as well. He is definitely a future Defensive Player of the Year candidate, considering his athleticism and defensive instincts.
The best part about the Kings being the team to draft WCS is that his frontcourt mate in Sacramento will (hopefully) be DeMarcus Cousins. Boogie himself wanted the Kings to draft Cauley-Stein, so he could move over to power forward and leave Cauley-Stein to protect the rim on defense.
This should free up DeMarcus Cousins to create even more havoc on offense, which should be quite a sight to see. I’ve written before about why I think Willie Cauley-Stein is the best possible pick for the Kings, and I stand by that today.
Cauley-Stein isn’t just a great defender–he has the potential to be one of the best defenders in NBA history. Add that to his crazy athleticism and the fact that his offense may not be as bad as everyone seems to think, and WCS could have the highest upside potential of anyone in the draft.
And if you think that’s just my homerism talking, I’m a Milwaukee Bucks fan. I wanted the Bucks to find a way to snag Cauley-Stein. He really has the potential to become an amazing player in the Association, and I’m just happy I get a chance to cover him here at A Royal Pain.