Willie Cauley-Stein ‘grateful’ for 10-day contract with Sixers and a chance to revive his career

MINNEAPOLIS — The 76ers’ search for a backup center is over — at least for now.

Willie Cauley-Stein officially signed a 10-day contract just ahead of the resumption of the Sixers’ season Friday at Minnesota, the team announced Thursday afternoon. His addition helps fill the void left after Andre Drummond was part of the trade package the Sixers sent to the Nets in exchange for James Harden.

Cauley-Stein has averaged 8.8 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 54.4% from the field in 22.1 minutes over 420 career games with the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, and Dallas Mavericks. He began this season with Dallas and played in 18 games before missing nearly two months for personal reasons. He was waived by the Mavericks in mid-January.

Cauley-Stein, who was working out in Dallas when he received the call from his agent with the Sixers’ offer, expects his role to be “the same as every other team: run the floor, protect the paint, play with a lot of energy, and play good defense.” Coach Doc Rivers added he likes Cauley-Stein’s rolling ability.

“I’m not trying to prove anything to anybody but myself,” Cauley-Stein said. “That I work hard, and good things happen when you’re living right. I’ve been living right and an opportunity came up, so just relish it. I feel like when I was younger, I was entitled to the game a little bit. And then having that taken away for the time it was — even minutes dwindling down year after year and then having no opportunity to play — now I’m just grateful to see my name on the back of another jersey. …

“I’m gonna sit on the floor [Friday] and just sit there and really take it in, almost like a trophy.”

Other internal options to back up All-Star Joel Embiid include veteran Paul Millsap, who also came to Philly in the trade and took those minutes in last Thursday’s win over Milwaukee, and Paul Reed, who held that role in the two games before Millsap arrived.

“We got three guys that are all completely different players,” Rivers said. “I think it makes us more versatile because against a small lineup, you can play Paul Reed or Paul Millsap. [Against] a big lineup, you can play Willie. But I don’t know how that’s gonna look yet.”

Harden’s insertion into the Sixers’ starting lineup almost surely means the end of a first unit with both Matisse Thybulle and Danny Green, who typically play the same wing position but have shared the court time in spurts this season — including after former starting shooting guard Seth Curry departed in the Harden trade.

Yet Green believes there will still be room for him and Thybulle to play together in stretches to present a rangy, defense-first look on the perimeter. And some key advanced stats agree with him. Of the Sixers’ two-man lineups that have played at least 100 minutes together this season, the Thybulle-Green combination entered Friday boasting the best defensive rating (94.7 points allowed per 100 possessions) and second-best net rating (plus-13.3 points per 100 possessions).

“We have maybe a little bit less offense,” Green said. “But I think it helps the spacing and the balance of the floor on offense for us when we don’t have everybody that needs the ball and needs to run pick and roll or needs to score. …

“But also, defensively, it makes us more versatile and able to cause chaos and talk to each other when we’re out there. We’re kind of really good at working [as a] tandem. We’re able to switch. It helps us, when the offense is not flowing, to get stops.”

Thybulle, a second-team NBA All-Defense performer last season, said playing with Green is similar to when he shared the floor with Ben Simmons because of both players’ defensive capabilities. He also commended Green’s “savvy vet-ness” as one of the league’s better 3-and-D wings for more than a decade.

“His voice defensively is huge,” Thybulle said of Green. “That’s something that most people don’t really know or get to account for. But as a player, playing out there with him is really nice, just to have his voice back there calling out plays, being able to see switches and reads before they happen.”

The biggest drawback of such lineups is the lack of ballhandling on offense, Rivers said. But against opponents with more size such the Cleveland Cavaliers, a potential playoff matchup, Rivers said after their Feb. 12 meeting that “you can get away with [Thybulle and Green playing together]. … They had one guard that was going to really get up and pressure, so we weren’t concerned about ballhandling as much.”

Sixers rookies Charles Bassey and Jaden Springer and two-way players Charlie Brown Jr. and Myles Powell will begin the post-All-Star stretch on assignment with the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats.

Bassey has appeared in 23 games with the Sixers this season but has played sparingly since Christmas. Springer has played in just two NBA games since being selected 28th in the 2021 NBA draft. Brown has played in 16 games with two starts, while Powell has played in 11 games.