I know you really like Cauley-Stein, bajaden. I don't really like watching Kentucky because their style of play doesn't appeal to me, but when I have watched them play over the past three years, I haven't been as impressed by Cauley-Stein as you are. I think he's a terrific defensive prospect but his inability to score on college defenders after three years at Kentucky is a legitimate concern. It also bothers me that I watched 2 games this season where I barely even noticed he was on the floor. For a player with his athletic gifts not to dominate every game as a junior, that's a red flag for me. Noel and Davis were never invisible on the court, even when they weren't scoring. I still have him ranked 8th at the moment, but that's more because he's a great fit for our team. If I'm being honest, I think there's probably 10 players in this draft who become better pros.
So, context here, I wasn't comparing Towns and Cauley-Stein -- just placing them in different tiers based on their relative risks/rewards. When I said Turner is closer to Karl Towns than Cauley-Stein I meant that I have Cauley-Stein in the 7-12 range for overall potential and Turner in the top 6. Towns has the right balance of college production and potential to be a top 3 pick. Turner has less college production, but the same amount of potential. For me that puts him higher on the list than Cauley-Stein, but then I've always favored potential over college production at the top of the draft.
It's true he shot 27% from three this season (17 for 62), but that's a pretty significant number for a freshman big man. Karl Towns took 8 threes all year and made 2 of them. Cauley-Stein hasn't attempted a three in any of his three years at Kentucky and probably won't in the NBA either. Noted senior sharpshooter Frank Kaminsky was 10 for 35 his freshman year. Also, with regards to Myles Tuner, he shot 40% in November and December (8 for 20). In the 34 game college season that represents the first 38% of the season. In January he went 5 for 19 so that's 33% three point shooting at the 2/3 mark of the season and he fell apart after that. Clearly there's a skill there worth developing further, it's not entirely untapped potential.
I also think it's worth mentioning that both PER and WS/40 place Turner as one of the top 2 players in the Big 12, as a freshman getting sporadic minutes so his overall production was still solid. In fact,
PER places him right at the top of the draft if you look at this year's freshmen and that's a stat that underrates defensive players.