If you’re going into this video expecting Jokic- or Gasol-level passes from Willie Cauley-Stein, you might be slightly disappointed. He’s not throwing baseball passes or bounce passes or behind-the-back passes. He is, however, showing more court awareness than he was credited with coming out of college, so that’s the real prize of this video. The blocks are expected for somebody with his defensive potential, and the buckets he scores are a result of hustle, tallness, luck, and some skill thrown in there too, but the passing is something extra that nobody ever really expected him to develop.
WCS also had four steals in this video but I don’t usually show steals unless they lead to something else that he does (an assist or score). Add in his eleven rebounds and we’ve got one of the closest things to a 5×5 in recent memory. It seems unlikely that the stars will align for WCS in such a way any time soon, but who knows? If he’s truly become a more active passer and this isn’t just a mirage caused the Suns’ utter lack of defense, he could be adding his name to the “dudes who got a legit 5×5” list sooner rather than later.