Willie Cauley-Stein has not had the best of luck since his college career ended with reports of a health problem from 2013 surfacing and now a potential setback from an injury he suffered over a year ago. It's the foot injury that ended his season short before the Wildcats made it to the Final Four in Arlington in 2014.
Jonathan Givony of Draft Express broke down some of the concerns about that old foot injury that Willie Cauley-Stein sustained:
Cauley-Stein suffered a stress fracture in his ankle on March 28th of 2014 in Kentucky's NCAA Tournament victory over Louisville, and had a pin inserted via surgery to repair what Cauley-Stein described then as a "cracked bone or a stress fracture."...
Five separate NBA teams we spoke with all indicated varying degrees of concern after consulting with their team doctors this week, with some saying it may cost the Kentucky big man a few spots on draft night. "There is some maintenance that needs to be done there, as it's not completely clear whether the injury healed in a proper way. The pin that was inserted is supposed to be sitting at a 90 degree angle, but instead it's at 45 degrees. That, plus some question marks about his background that came up could cause him to drop a few slots."
Granted, Cauley-Stein did come back for the 2014-15 season and had a great season without missing a single game. With the relationship between the Pacers and Roy Hibbert deteriorating there is a good chance that the Pacers will take their chances on a player of Cauley-Stein's ability and it would spread around more offense for guys like David West and Paul George.
