Willie Cauley-Stein: Phoenix Suns 2015 Draft Profile

Strengths

I think the best way to begin this section is with a couple of quotes, both from Cauley-Stein’s ESPN NBA Draft profile. The first comes from Chad Ford, while the second comes from one anonymous NBA general manager:

“NBA teams, almost universally, believe he has the chance to be a transcendent defender in the NBA.”

“He could be the best defender in the league someday. He has the abilities, both physically and the way he reads the defense, that I’ve never seen in a prospect.”

Those are some pretty strong statements to make, and for all intents and purposes, they appear to be spot on.

Cauley-Stein’s biggest strength as a prospect has to be his defensive versatility. In his draft evaluation, Ford credits Cauley-Stein with the ability to defend all five positions on the floor, and while I’d normally criticize a comment like this for being overblown, it’s actually not that far off in Cauley-Stein’s case.

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane…

Exhibit A:

Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant sees Cauley-Stein switch on to him, and thinking he has the matchup advantage, he tries to drive. Cauley-Stein easily uses his length to stay in front of Grant, who I might add is among the best four or five point guards in the draft, according to pretty much every analyst and database.

And to take it a step further, Ford, who ranks Grant as the fourth best point guard and 17th best player in this year’s draft, says that one of Grant’s biggest strengths is that he “excels at slashing to the basket.”

However, in this case, Grant isn’t able to shake Cauley-Stein, and he passes the ball, asking for it again to try and create a shot more time.

When Grant gets the ball back, he tries another approach, dribbling twice to his left, before hitting Cauley-Stein with a pretty sweet step-back move to pop behind the three-point line. And he needs every bit of it, because if he’s standing any closer to the three-point line, he probably doesn’t even think about taking the shot due to Cauley-Stein’s ridiculous length.

Either way, it didn’t matter. If you re-watch the play, Cauley-Stein actually anticipates the move and shot so well that he’s in the air at the exact second Grant goes up, and is able to swat the shot away.

But this wasn’t the only time he was able to cover a lot of ground on defense. Far from it, actually.

Exhibit B:

Now this play is simply ridiculous. Yes, Cauley-Stein blocks the dunk attempt, but that’s not even the most ridiculous part of the play.

Cauley-Stein runs back down the floor and defends the first shot in transition, just four seconds into the shot clock. Less than one full second later, he’s over at the rim rejecting the Arkansas player (Alandise Harris) at the rim.

For reference, look at how far Karl-Anthony Towns moves in those pictures. He doesn’t exactly cover a whole lot of ground. Then compare that to what Cauley-Stein does.

Simply ridiculous.

Exhibit C:

Finally we come to this. Kentucky is up by two points with six seconds left, looking to make it to the Final Four for the second straight year.

Cauley-Stein starts out guarding the inbounder, before switching on to Grant, and remarkably, he stays within two-or-so feet of Grant all the way down the floor. That is, until the very end, when he cuts off Grant’s drive and lets the help defense finish him off.

How many seven-footers can do that to a point guard?

Not many.

Now, other strengths of Cauley-Stein include his athleticism, both in getting up and down the court in transition and meeting players at the rim.

Even on offense.

Even against other NBA-level talent.

And while he’s had a ton of poster dunks, several times on multiple defenders, I think this next dunk is the one that really tells a big story. Cauley-Stein breaks down the floor, beating four UCLA defenders, and slams it home to put his team up 41-7.

Forty. One. To. Seven.

That was kind of Kentucky’s season in a nutshell, until they reached the Elite Eight, that is. And while it didn’t quite have the storybook ending, there is a very, very good chance that both Towns and Cauley-Stein will be selected with one of the top seven or eight picks.

For the Suns, that possibly almost certainly means they’d have to trade up in order to take him, but if he slips a few picks to the point where trading the 13th pick and the Morris Twins is able to propel the Suns far enough forward, there’s no doubt in my mind they should at least strongly consider it, especially if they can get another asset (like a later pick to add a shooter) in return.

Next: Weaknesses