The Sacramento Kings continue to be a disappointment this season as they are 14-21 in a year where they had pretty high expectations. There have been several disappointments among the Kings players so far this season and you can count rookie Willie Cauley-Stein among them. Cauley-Stein has played pretty well when he has been on the court so far this season but he has missed time due to a finger injury and head coach George Karl is still not happy with his conditioning, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.
Cauley-Stein was the sixth overall pick in this past NBA Draft by the Kings and they had high hopes for him as a rookie. The hope was that Cauley-Stein would come in and be able to start alongside DeMarcus Cousins in the frontcourt at the start of the season but that did not happen. Karl was not happy with Cauley-Stein's conditioning in the preseason and he still isn't thrilled with it.
"I've not seen his conditioning, and I have a feeling it's probably behind a little bit to play as fast as we want to play. I think the thing that sticks in the back of my head is I didn't think he was in great shape in training camp, so I'm worried. Basketball conditioning is different from treadmill conditioning. It's a different energy, a different stress, a different tension. But in the same sense, I don't think I'm going to play him 10 minutes straight," said Karl.
As a result of Cauley-Stein's poor conditioning Karl hasn't gotten to use the rookie as much as he would have hoped. Through 22 games the 22-year old is averaging just 4.9 points, 5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 18.1 minutes per game. Cauley-Stein has certainly made an impact when he is on the floor this season but the issue is that Karl is hesitant play him more than 20 minutes per game.
While Karl has been critical of Cauley-Stein's conditioning not everything he said was negative. Karl did give the rookie credit for the hard work he put in while he was out with his dislocated finger and also said he has been working hard to get in shape. Karl is a coach that likes to play fast and Cauley-Stein seemed to be the type of guy that would fit his system perfectly but his conditioning has prevented that from happening so far.
