Sean Cunningham: Marvin Bagley III will start for the second time of his NBA career tonight for the Kings in Minnesota, joining Fox, Hield, Barnes & Cauley-Stein.
Willie Cauley-Stein Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: C
Born: 08/18/93
Height: 7-0 / 2.13
Weight:244 lbs. / 110.7 kg.
Salary: $4,696,874
Born: 08/18/93
Height: 7-0 / 2.13
Weight:244 lbs. / 110.7 kg.
Salary: $4,696,874
Jason Jones: Kings improve to 30-26 by beating Phoenix, 117-104. Career-high 32 points for Marvin Bagley III to go with 7 rebounds. Hield 18 points, Fox 17 points, 9 assists, WCS 10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks. Kings never trailed. Booker led PHX with 27 pts, 8 rebs, 6 asts.
Jason Jones: Making the team better didn’t erase the emotions of seeing Shump and JJ leave. WCS: “Who’s the first people that you hear when you walk into our locker room? Shump and J.J. That energy is gone and it ain’t going to come back. … It’s going to be weird.”
If Cauley-Stein doesn’t rack up a lot of rebounds in those games because he has to focus on boxing out, he’s fine with that. “It be like that,” Cauley-Stein said. “It’s like that when we play all the best bigs in this league. I’m not worried about that stat. I’m just more worried about is somebody else going to cover me for that. I’m going to do everything to keep him off, always have a body on him. I think for us we do a really good job of crashing down and the guards coming back and getting them.”
The Kings are willing to talk about Cauley-Stein separately, sources say. He’s a restricted free agent this summer. Sacramento could bail if the market goes above a certain price point. (He shouldn’t have that kind of market, but you never know.) In that case, they should search out what they could get for him now. Marvin Bagley III and Harry Giles are coming.
Acquiring Kanter might make the Kings more willing to part with center Willie Cauley-Stein, who could become a restricted free agent this summer. The Kings have pursued Washington Wizards small forward Otto Porter Jr. in free agency and trade talks over the past couple of years. Cauley-Stein could be a key player in a deal for Porter.
