Report: Kings C Willie Cauley-Stein wants a 'fresh start' away from Sacramento
Willie Cauley-Stein is coming off arguably the best season of his four-year career with the Sacramento Kings. The restricted free agent still reportedly wants out.
Cauley-Stein’s agent Roger Montgomery of Roc Nation Sports released a statement to The Sacramento Bee on Saturday saying in no uncertain terms that the center would like to move on from the Kings.
Willie Cauley-Stein wants out of Sacramento
“I really think Willie needs a fresh start,” Montgomery reportedly said in the statement. “Based on how things have gone for him there in Sacramento, I just think it’s time for Willie to move on and we’d really like him to move on.”
“We’ve kind of hoped that things would change over the years and Willie would get a chance to expand his game, get a chance to get some consistency there in terms of the roster turnover and the coaching turnover and the things that have not been steady there.”
Montgomery added that he hoped the Kings would not give Cauley-Stein a qualifying offer, which would allow him to enter unrestricted free agency.
The Kings reportedly kept it brief in their response to the Bee.
“Willie is a great player who has shown he can fit our style of play,” the statement said. “Beyond that, we can’t comment further.”
Cauley-Stein just finished up his rookie contract and is set to hit restricted free agency. The Kings can try to keep him against his agent’s wishes with a $6.27 million qualifying offer, which would allow them to match any outside offer.
The end of an uneven Kings career?
The Kings drafted Cauley-Stein sixth overall out of Kentucky in the 2015 NBA draft hoping they were landing a versatile defensive anchor who could run the floor and eventually expand a very limited offensive game.
That’s more or less what happened, though the defense never quite reached the level some visualized when the 7-footer was coming out of Kentucky. Cauley-Stein never averaged more than a block per game in any season of his career and ranked only 18th out of 64 centers in defensive real plus minus last year.
Cauley-Stein did eventually carve out a nice role in the Kings’ up-tempo offense catching lobs from De’Aaron Fox, but he was still inconsistent and never had the floor-stretching ability that the league increasingly demands from its big men.
Despite those limitations, Cauley-Stein is still only 25 and could be an attractive option for a team that likes running the floor and defensive versatility and doesn’t mind a total lack of outside shooting. We’ll see if that team pops up for Cauley-Stein, and if the Kings make it easy to sign him.
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