The Mavericks officially acquired Willie Cauley-Stein from the Warriors on Saturday, 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 on Sunday 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 Monday 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, $30M 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.
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