Dallas Mavericks: Willie Cauley-Stein to sit out of NBA’s restart

Dallas Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein to sit out of NBA Disney

The Dallas Mavericks are one of 22 teams taking part in the NBA’s restart. They will all travel to Orlando in July to finish the 2019-2020 campaign. Each team will play eight seeding games before the playoffs begin. The Mavs are nearly guaranteed a postseason given the format.

They are hoping to find their rhythm quickly during training camp 2.0. They can move up in the standings significantly during the eight seeding games. That positions Dallas to make a postseason run. The Mavs want to make it out of the first round for the first time since winning it all in 2011.

Their roster is in flux right now. The Mavs announced Courtney Lee suffered a calf injury during the hiatus that is likely to keep him out of NBA Orlando. They are already without Jalen Brunson and Dwight Powell. Both men had season-ending surgeries. The Mavericks will be down another player too.

Dallas Mavericks center Willie Cauley-Stein to sit out of NBA’s restart

Shams Charania broke the news of Willie Cauley-Stein being out on June 25. See his tweet below.

The Mavericks traded a second round pick to acquire Cauley-Stein after Powell’s Achilles injury. They needed another big man. Coach Rick Carlisle shifted to playing Kristaps Porzingis and Maxi Kleber more minutes at the five. That will likely remain the plan in Orlando without Cauley-Stein.

The Mavericks appear set to replace WCS with Trey Burke. Fans can read more about that here.

Boban Marjanovic is the only traditional center on the Mavs roster at the moment. It will be interesting to see if Dallas attempts to sign another player before the NBA’s transaction window closes on July 1. Stay tuned to The Smoking Cuban for all the latest updates plus daily analysis on the Dallas Mavericks.