Sacramento Kings: Cauley-Stein’s Huge Night Leads to First Post-Cousins Win
Willie Cauley-Stein’s career night led the Sacramento Kings to their first win in the post-Cousins era over the Denver Nuggets.
On Thursday night, the Sacramento Kings took the court for the first time since the trade that shocked the NBA world. After the All-Star Game on Sunday, they sent their superstar center DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans, along with Omri Casspi, for Tyreke Evans, Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway, and two 2017 draft picks.
Thursday was the beginning of something. Depending on which side you fall on after the Cousins’ trade, it was either the beginning of the healing process after losing an incredibly popular and insanely dominant player, or it was the beginning of a new era without the distractions that Cousins brought to the court. Either way, it was the beginning.
For Willie Cauley-Stein, the Kings’ second-year, 23-year-old center, it may have been the beginning of a breakout. In the Kings’ 116-100 victory, Cauley-Stein was a big catalyst while taking the majority of the minutes without a three-time All-Star ahead of him on the depth chart. Cauley-Stein had a career night against the Denver Nuggets, as he played 35 minutes, a total he has only eclipsed three times this season, and scored a team-leading 29 points while making 14 of his 22 shot attempts, setting career-highs in all three categories. He also added 10 rebounds, marking his fourth double-double of the season.
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Cauley-Stein’s production this season had taken a step backward, as his minutes have fallen well short of where they were last season. He averaged seven points, 5.3 rebounds, and a block per game while playing over 21 minutes last season, but has been on the floor for just 13 minutes per game over 50 contests this season. As a result, his averages (5.8 points, 2.7 rebounds) have dipped hard even while his shooting percentages remain largely the same.
Without Cousins, Cauley-Stein will get an opportunity to learn in the best possible way: by doing. He will get to play more, and as a result, can develop faster than he would watching someone else get a lot of minutes. Maybe the trade wasn’t great for the Kings, but it could turn out to be a big stepping stone in Cauley-Stein’s future.
Kings’ fans also got their first look at Buddy Hield, the rookie guard from Oklahoma that owner Vivek Ranadive has apparently been obsessing over for quite some time. Hield scored 16 points in 26 minutes, shooting an efficient 60 percent (6-10 from the floor) and adding six rebounds. Ranadive seems to think that Hield is the next Stephen Curry, and while he’s probably way off on that assessment, this was a nice introduction to the Sacramento fanbase.
Another rookie, the 28th overall pick in last year’s draft Skal Labissiere, was also given a chance to show what he can do. He played 13 minutes, only his second 10-plus-minute game out of nine as a rookie, and scored a career-high 12 points, hitting five out of seven shots.
Evans came off the bench in his first game with the Kings since 2013, and scored 15 points while grabbing four rebounds and adding three assists. He also turned the ball over four times in 26 minutes.
Next: Was Trading Cousins the Right Move?
Meanwhile, on the other side, the New Orleans Pelicans lost in their first game with their new big man. Cousins poured in 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Anthony Davis added 29 points, but the efforts of the two colossal men weren’t enough against the third-ranked team in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets. Casspi broke his right thumb in his New Orleans debut, and will miss nearly two months recovering.