Kings select Willie Cauley-Stein with 6th overall pick

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The Sacramento Kings selected Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft on Thursday night.

The Kings' defense just got a heck of a lot better. That's the individual impact Cauley-Stein stands to make as a potential Defensive Player of the Year. At 7-feet with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, 9-foot-3 standing reach, and incredible lateral quickness and agility, Cauley-Stein is the prototype for versatile, positionally amorphous defensive anchors.

That should allow him to play capably alongside DeMarcus Cousins, at least on the defensive end. The presence of "Trill" could stand to lessen the load on Cousins, who is an effective defender but carries such a large offensive burden it doesn't make sense to task him with being the defensive linchpin. It's no surprise, then, that Cousins was reportedly on board with the Cauley-Stein pick, and their Kentucky connection surely didn't hurt.

Then again, Cousins and the organization are in a contentious spot, so it may be best to evaluate the pick outside of the fit with Cousins, at least for now.

In any case, short of rumored concerns about a 2014 ankle injury (which may or may not have been leaked in the hopes of pushing him down draft boards), there's little doubting Cauley-Stein's abilities on the defensive end of the floor.

"Nothing's wrong with (the ankle), it's just healing," Cauley-Stein said. "It's 95-percent healed."

The questions come on offense, where Cauley-Stein is relatively limited. He'll be able to finish in the pick-and-roll and has a better mid-range jumper than he's given credit for, but he remains raw for a junior, and can do little to create his own offense. He shot 57.2 percent and averaged 8.9 points last season, but a lot of those buckets were scraps, and his 61.7-percent free-throw mark suggests he could be a liability without improvement.

Cauley-Stein stands as a nice test case for defense-first players. Teams will look past defensive concerns for a singularly talented offensive player, but Cauley-Stein sliding to No. 6 suggests at least one team is willing to do the same for a defensive star.

Emmanuel Muiday was believed to be a strong possibility here but refused to work out for the Kings.

You can read more about Cauley-Stein in our scouting report.