Scout’s Notebook: Breaking Down Willie Cauley-Stein’s performance vs. Jazz

The Sacramento Kings lost to the Utah Jazz on Sunday by a final score of 108-99. The Kings’ offense looked anemic for three quarters as the Jazz jumped out to a 20+ point lead for most of the game. Even though they made a spirited comeback in the fourth quarter, the Kings lost more footing in the Western Conference playoff race with 8.5 games now separating them from the No. 8 seed.

It was a relatively uneventful game all in all, headlined by a very strong Derrick Favors performance (28/14/4 on 10-16 shooting). It did, however, provide a nice scouting opportunity with Kings rookie Willie Cauley-Stein getting 29 minutes and showcasing where he’s at in his development. WCS posted 10 points, seven rebounds, a steal, and a block, and finished +4 in a game the Kings lost by nine.

Offense

Cauley-Stein had 10 points on 4-6 shooting, and to no one’s surprise those four makes all came within 10-feet of the basket.

Cauley-Stein shoots 59.9 percent from the field on the season, and a majority of those points come on putbacks, cuts, and pick-and-roll finishes. However, recently the Kings have experimented with giving Cauley-Stein more opportunities to score of his own creation. His lone attempt outside of 10-feet came on an off-the-dribble pull-up from the free throw line, and he scored on a nice crow-hop off a brief post-up on the right block:

In theory, it’s easy to see how this is a good way for WCS to evolve. He moves fluidly, both when running the floor and attacking the basket, and he has a surprisingly good handle for a young guy of his size. He may not have much touch from beyond 10-feet (he’s only taken 14 shots outside of that area this year), but with his combination of mobility and ball-handling, it makes sense to try to get Cauley-Stein to develop more of a face-up game.

One area where WCS struggled was on screen-setting. He doesn’t use his body well and defenders have an easy time going over screens, especially when he and Rajon Rondo attempt a high screen, because of Rondo’s lack of shooting threat. To improve this, he needs to establish position earlier and better attempt to direct opposing guards a certain direction with his positioning. That will come with time, especially as he fills out in his gigantic frame, but neither he nor DeMarcus Cousins is particularly strong in this capacity, and that’s a big reason Sacramento doesn’t really rely on the pick-and-roll much.

Cauley-Stein also hit just 2-6 from the free throw line, knocking his percentage down to 61.4 percent from the line for the season. It’s not a huge problem as of yet, but Cauley-Stein’s hesitation prior to his release seems to really affect his shooting, and that’s another facet of his offensive game that he will need to work on.

Defense

Cauley-Stein only got two chances defending the rim, per SportVU data, and the Jazz went 1-2 with him defending there. This makes sense, as Cauley-Stein shares the floor for a majority of his time with Cousins or Kosta Koufos, and all three are around the same level as rim protectors. But Cauley-Stein is the most mobile of the three, and he therefore gets more time away from the basket.

That was the case again in this game, since Cauley-Stein spent a majority of his time on the floor defending Derrick Favors or Trevor Booker. Cauley-Stein showed he’s more than capable of that, getting switched onto Gordon Hayward or Shelvin Mack on multiple occasions and fairing pretty well — opponents went 0-3 from beyond the arc and 1-5 from 6-10 feet, per SportVU. Cauley-Stein’s physically imposing stature and mobility have always done a lot for him, and he’s comfortable switching onto smaller players and containing penetration or rotating out to contest shots.

Cauley-Stein did have some lapses defensively, and that’s been a season-long complaint about him. A lot of this is likely innocuous, as he’s both a rookie and a rotation player on this Kings team, they of the poor body language, poor effort, and 23rd-most efficient defense in the league. Even this defense of a Shelvin Mack iso, which WCS defends well initially, shows Cauley-Stein back up too far, and then hesitate a split second before offering up a lazy (but still effective) contest of Mack’s jumper:

Cauley-Stein also did a decent job on a frontcourt trap of Mack with Rondo late in the game, forcing the Jazz into a timeout out of an ATO play without fouling. He also did a nice job on the pick-and-roll, stopping Gordon Hayward on his one switch onto a driving ballhandler. Cauley-Stein’s versatility on the defensive end came through in the second half, and was a big reason that the Kings had a defensive rating of 101.2 with him on the floor, even though they had a defensive rating of 111.7 for the game.

Rebounding

Cauley-Stein flashed solid positioning on both ends when it came to rebounding and came away with seven boards off of 10 rebound chances, per SportVU.

Cauley-Stein uses his mobility around the basket well, filling space and judging shots coming off the rim well to create uncontested chances. 59 percent of WCS’s rebounds this season have been uncontested, and he’s good at creating a seal underneath, followed by jumping out to the ball. Uncontested rebounds get a bad rap at times, but in Cauley-Stein’s case, he’s done a solid job at establishing position for both contested and uncontested boards, and he uses his mobility and length well in order to create second-chance opportunities and defensive rebounds for his team.

This has been a primary role for him this season, especially in sharing the floor with Cousins, and it’s an area he should continue to have success on both ends as he continues to develop.

Overall Impression

Cauley-Stein remains a fairly limited offensive player, but Sunday’s game showed that he’s adding a little bit of diversity and creating more opportunities for himself off the dribble. He also showed some mild defensive lapses, but you could also see the potential he has as an all-around defender, especially when he switched onto a perimeter player.

Cauley-Stein showed plenty of potential as a defender and rim finisher coming out of college, but it’s encouraging to see him already building on that. With the burgeoning face-up game and rebounding skill he showed against the Jazz, Cauley-Stein may be starting to show that he deserves a starter’s role. In what was an otherwise characteristically ugly showing for the Kings against the Jazz, Willie Cauley-Stein was a definite bright spot.