Sacramento Kings: Grading The Offseason

Drafting Willie Trill

Unfortunately for the Kings, their offseason peaked before free agency even started. With the sixth overall pick, Sacramento could’ve very easily blown it and drafted a shooting guard for the third year in a row to join Jimmer Fredette and Nik Stauskas (but hopefully not Ben McLemore) in the category of disappointing top-10 selections who never panned out.

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Instead, they went with a major boom-or-bust candidate in Willie Cauley-Stein. Willie Trill is by no means a sure thing, but you can at least see the reasoning behind picking him.

For starters, Cauley-Stein is an incredibly athletic seven-footer who can defend all five positions and in time, might bolster a Kings defense that badly needs improving if Sacramento ever wants to climb back into the Western Conference playoff picture. WCS is a rim protector, he can defend on the perimeter and he’d allow the Kings to more easily switch pick-and-roll sets because of that versatility.

His shot blocking prowess was certainly on display at NBA Summer League, where he averaged 2.8 blocks per game — third-most among all competitors in Las Vegas.

There’s also the matter of his relationship with franchise cornerstone DeMarcus Cousins. The two bigs are friends and former Kentucky Wildcats, and even if Boogie’s defense has improved over the last year, WCS gives the Kings the rim protector and imposing paint presence they need alongside Cuz.

In the event George Karl eventually wins this internal power struggle and the Kings do something stupid like trade DeMarcus Cousins, Cauley-Stein represents some form of big man insurance as well.

However, we need to take off the rose-colored glasses for a minute in order to make out all the red flags, especially since the Kings could’ve solved their need for a point guard upgrade by drafting Emmanuel Mudiay instead.

For starters, Cauley-Stein is a pretty poor offensive player with zero range on his shot. That will likely clog things up for a frontcourt featuring one of the league’s best offensive centers in Cousins.

There are other off-court concerns as well. Cauley-Stein doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to his work ethic, he’s sort of an odd personality and he’s walking around on an ankle that needed a metal plate and three screws inserted last year to stabilize it.

If his ankle does not become a major issue, WCS has Defensive Player of the Year potential and fills a definite need for the Kings, making this (potentially) one of their best picks in quite some time. But this is not a perfect selection either, and Sacramento’s track record for fostering development hasn’t been stellar over the last decade.

Grade: B

Next: One Giant Dump