Former NBA center Willie Cauley-Stein appeared on the Out The Mud Podcast recently, where he reflected on a big career decision he made in 2019. Cauley-Stein had been offered a $9 million contract by the Charlotte Hornets at the time, but signed with the Golden State Warriors instead for less money.
"I didn't get the extension [from the Kings], so I'm scrambling to find a job," Cauley-Stein said. "It was like between the Warriors and Charlotte, and I really needed to get to the playoffs. That was the whole like era like we don't know if he's a playoff guy. Do you help a team in the playoffs? So I was like, well, s***, I'll take the minimum with the Warriors, instead of taking nine mil with Charlotte.
"Go get in the playoffs and then… try to get my s***, try to get on," Cauley-Stein added.
Cauley-Stein's thought process was simple. If he could be a key contributor to a winning team, then it would increase his value around the NBA. That, in turn, would allow him to get an even better offer than the one the Hornets had put on the table.
So, Cauley-Stein signed a two-year, $4.6 million deal with the Warriors in 2019. Now, he wasn't joining the same team that had made the NBA Finals in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Kevin Durant had left for the Brooklyn Nets , while Klay Thompson had torn his ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals and was out for the season.
Still, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green were there, so surely the Warriors would be a playoff team, right? Well, no. Curry broke his left hand four games into the season, and any playoff hopes the Warriors had were dashed with that.
So, Cauley-Stein was going to be on a losing team yet again. The dysfunctional Sacramento Kings had selected him with the No. 6 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, and they didn't win 40 games in any of his four seasons with them.
Cauley-Stein had averaged 11.9 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Kings in 2018-19, but putting up those numbers on a losing team wasn't going to impress teams around the league as much as one would hope. It would have been the same story with the Hornets as well, so a move to the Warriors did make sense. Unfortunately, things wouldn't work out.
Cauley-Stein averaged 7.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game for the Warriors in 2019-20. With the team not really going anywhere, they were willing to trade him, and the Dallas Mavericks came calling in January 2020.
Dwight Powell had ruptured his right Achilles tendon, and the Mavericks needed a replacement. So, they sent a second-round pick to the Warriors and landed Cauley-Stein.
The Mavericks weren't some juggernaut, but they were a playoff team. Cauley-Stein didn't quite take advantage of this opportunity, though. He remained a backup with the Mavericks, and by the time the 2021-22 season came around, his life was spiraling out of control.
Cauley-Stein had developed a drug addiction in 2019 after witnessing one of his good friends shoot another, resorting to consuming what he believed were Percocet pills . They were actually laced with fentanyl, and it's somewhat of a miracle he is still alive.
It was after his grandmother passed away in 2021 that Cauley-Stein entered rehab. The 32-year-old is fortunately in a much better place today. It doesn't seem like we'll see Cauley-Stein in the NBA again, though. He last played for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022 and has spent time in the G League and overseas since.
