Willie Cauley-Stein can make an impact if he wants to
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Willie Cauley-Stein joined the Mavericks last season after advanced-stats-hero Dwight Powell was lost to a torn Achilles. His playing time was brief; he appeared in 13 games before Covid cut the season short.
The birth of his first child prevented him from joining Dallas in the bubble, but the front office apparently saw enough from the athletic big to bring him back on a 2-year, $8.2 million contract. In a small, but not minuscule, sample size he did have some bright spots last year. In those 13 games, 1.46 points per possession as a roll man place him in the 93.5 percentile. In transition, he was elite; his 1.67 PPP was good for fourth in the league. Again, small sample sizes, but you can see the gaps in this roster a player like Cauley-Stein could fill.