The Mavericks officially acquired Willie Cauley-Stein from the Warriors yesterday, but it’s not clear when he’ll start playing, writes Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. Cauley-Stein will report to the team today in Oklahoma City, but probably not in time for an afternoon practice. He may see a few minutes Monday against the Thunder or Tuesday against the Suns, but coach Rick Carlisle isn’t committing to either game.
“We’ll give him the crash course and try to simplify things for him initially, get him going and see where we are,” Carlisle said.
Forward Ryan Broekhoff could return tomorrow from a fractured left fibula, which lessens the need to use Cauley-Stein before he becomes familiar with the playbook. Carlisle said he spoke with his new center, who is excited to be joining the team.
“We think he’s a guy that has some really unique abilities,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got to get him integrated and get him ready. He’s a rim-protector. He’s a rim-roller. His rebounding is good. We feel there’s areas that he can get better. I talked to him a little bit about those things. We’ll coach him hard, and with a lot of respect, and we’ll see where we can help his game go from here.”
There’s more from Dallas:
- The Mavericks received an A-minus grade on the deal from Sam Quinn of CBS Sports, who notes that Cauley-Stein is an above-average pick-and-roll threat who will benefit from a chance to play alongside Luka Doncic. He adds that Cauley-Stein is a better rebounder than Dwight Powell, who was lost for the season with an Achilles injury this week.
- Dallas received $800K in cash from the Thunder in a separate deal that sent Isaiah Roby to Oklahoma City in exchange for Justin Patton, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Patton was waived to open a roster spot for Cauley-Stein.
- Danny Green talked to ESPN’s Zach Lowe on The Lowe Post podcast this week about the Mavericks’ pursuit of him in free agency over the summer. Green signed a two-year, $30MM deal with the Lakers, but said if L.A. would have used that money to sign Kawhi Leonard, then Dallas would have been his next choice.
Jazz would have won by 10 plus had WCS played. Rudy kills that guy. Mavs without WCS are tough match up for Jazz, but clutch play stole a win.
Mavs should’ve won that game regardless.
Makes it much easier on a team when they’re allowed to goaltend.
Mavs would of won if they made their free throws…
Been a couple of those games this year…
bingo—if you cant make free throws, you cant win a close game—maybe this should tell people that shooting nd practicing the mid range jumper is maybe not such a bad thing after-all
Mid range jumpers are not really a bad thing.
Just ask DeRozan.
Better to make 2 than miss for three.
Ben Simmons is the extreme of that mentality. Better to make a layup or dunk than miss a 5 fter.
Goal tend? Your joking right? Rudy snatched that ball way before it hit the backboard and in turn snatched the game.
The backboard is irrelevant. It’s goaltending if the ball is on the downward arc.