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Willie-Cauley Stein will sign a deal with the Dallas Mavericks, per Shams Charania of the Athletic.
Free agent center Willie Cauley-Stein has agreed to a two-year, $8.2M deal to return to the Dallas Mavericks, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 22, 2020
Charania also says the second year of the contract is a team option.
Team option on second season, sources said. Mavericks quietly received strong consideration from Marc Gasol since the start of free agency, but moved to re-sign Cauley-Stein today. https://t.co/OV8CcREFgP
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 22, 2020
Cauley-Stein originally had a player option worth $2.2 million heading into this offseason, but decided to opt out of it.
The Mavericks are looking to beef up the center position which makes sense considering the injuries that group has suffered lately.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported earlier this month that the target date for Kristaps Porzingis to return to on-court activities would be January 1st. This likely means it will be at least another few weeks before Porzingis is able to see in game action. There’s also reason to believe Porzingis will have a good dosage of load management for the upcoming season, which features a game every other day.
The Mavs have targeted Jan. 1 as the date that Kristaps Porzingis will be cleared for on-court activity, president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson tells ESPN. Nelson revealed on @1053thefan today that Porzingis (knee surgery) will be sidelined to start the season.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) November 16, 2020
Dwight Powell is also coming off a ruptured Achilles. Despite reports that he will be ready to play by the time the season begins, it would be smart of the Mavericks to add more depth to the position.
Cauley-Stein does just that. In 13 games with the Mavericks last season, he averaged 5.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game.
Here’s our podcast which we recorded this evening, a few hours after the news of the signing. If you can’t see the embed below, click here.