Brooklyn Nets: Evaluating Willie Cauley-Stein’s potential fit

Market

Willie Cauley-Stein is part of a free-agent class deep with talented bigs.

DeMarcus Cousins, Kristaps Porzingis, Nikola Vucevic, Al Horford, Julius Randle, Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, Jonas Valanciunas, DeAndre Jordan, Enes Kanter are among 10 other bigs, all of whom are more established in the league.

All are household names. And there are still other veteran bigs who can give quality minutes (JaVale McGee) and younger bigs who can fit a youth movement (Bobby Portis).

This will no doubt have an impact on the market on WCS, who has other factors that’ll impact his desire for a pay day.

Could this present the Nets with an opportunity to try him out in Brooklyn for a year or two?

Consistency

The other thing that will probably have a negative impact on Willie Cauley-Stein’s market is his issues with consistency. He’s had four years in the league now and his being consistently inconsistent is well documented at this point.

He has stretches where he plays high levels of basketball. He’ll shoot extremely well from the field, rebound well and play like the player people expected him to be when he was the sixth overall pick out of Kentucky in 2015.

Then he’ll have lows where he tries to out-do himself and struggles from the field. And once that happens it seems his game will struggle in its totality. Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac told the Sacramento Bee recently he’d like to keep Cauley-Stein, but … .

"“We would like to keep Willie in terms of his talent potential, but he still needs to show us the consistency that we are looking for.”"

To be fair to WCS, his consistency issues aren’t all on him. The Kings have struggled to develop and unlock the potential of a lot of good players that have walked through their doors. One that comes to mind off the bat is Tyreke Evans.

It just seemed like he never got better after being drafted and soon after declined before becoming a journeyman. Now such a talented player is out the league altogether as he sits out a two-year ban for violating the league’s anti-drug program.

And WCS’ agent wasn’t lying; during Willie’s tenure, there has been a lot of turnover in Sacramento. It’s hard to be consistent as a player and grow under a multitude of different coaches and their philosophies.

As far as stability, the Kings only now seem to be getting it together, but it may be too little, too late.

Brooklyn on the other hand, can offer WCS that consistency and stability. Kenny Atkinson is the coach. There are no if and or buts about it. Kenny isn’t on a hot seat. He isn’t looking over his shoulder in fear of losing a job. For the foreseeable future, he’s the man in charge.

WCS wouldn’t have to constantly change or worry about things changing around him. He can focus on becoming the best version of himself and fitting into Kenny’s schemes.

But does he fit in Brooklyn?