The questions followed Willie Cauley-Stein with as much persistence as an aggressive defender determined to knock him out of his game.

They went beyond NBA teams wanting to know how the Kentucky junior center could boost their rebuilding fortunes. Or what went into the 7-foot, 242-pound Cauley-Stein producing a prolific season as a pick-and-roll player and defender that prompted various NBA analysts to compare him to Dallas’ Tyson Chandler. The questions Cauley-Stein faced last week at the NBA pre-draft combine in Chicago also involved the trivial, such as why he dyed his hair blonde before one regular-season game.

“Young, dumb, you live and you learn,” Cauley-Stein said, laughing. “It was cool for 30 minutes, but I’ll live with it for the rest of my life.”

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Cauley-Stein also had to live with answering why he sports an array of tattoos, or if he really loves art. They represented two talking points teams raised, implying uncertainty if he devotes enough time to basketball.

“I don’t enjoy art. I never studied art like that,” said Cauley-Stein, though he has taken art classes. “But it got put on you early and talk. Talk spreads. People talk. So the spreading of it makes a wildfire. Now they have to ask the questions. ‘Are you interested in all of these other things?’ No. My life revolves around the ball. At the University of Kentucky, you have one hour or maybe two hours to yourself to do something. I was sleeping during those hours.”

Despite the questions about some of his quirks, few are sleeping on Cauley-Stein in the 2015 NBA Draft. The Lakers marked one of several NBA teams that interviewed Cauley-Stein, while the New York Knicks hosted a workout for him this past weekend before the NBA Draft lottery on Tuesday. The reasons seem obvious. Cauley-Stein became the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 8.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks on a star-studded Wildcats team that will feature seven players in this year’s draft.

The Lakers (21-61) finished with the league’s fourth-worst record last season, giving them an 82.8 percent chance of retaining their top-five pick otherwise owed to Philadelphia as part of the Steve Nash deal. That makes it uncertain if Cauley-Stein would join the Lakers. Most NBA mock drafts project Cauley-Stein landing anywhere between the sixth and 10th overall pick.

But Cauley-Stein exudes one significant quality that would revamp the Lakers after ending the 2014-15 campaign with the worst record in the franchise’s 67-year-old history. With the Lakers finishing 29th out of 30 NBA teams in total defense, Cauley-Stein’s rebounding and shot-blocking presence could change those results.

“They’re trying to build a team that can rally behind the guys they already have and fit into a role of playing defense and doing all the little things,” Cauley-Stein said. “That’s all effort. If you want to be a good shot blocker, you’re going to be a good shot blocker. It’s simple.”

If only it were simple for the Lakers to rebuild quickly enough to win a 17th NBA championship soon.

Question marks persist on whether Kobe Bryant can stay healthy for his 20th NBA season after suffering three season-ending injuries in consecutive years. The Lakers have enough cap flexibility to sign one free agent to a max-level contract as well as add nine new players to their roster. Yet, that opens too many unpredictable variables.

All of which made Cauley-Stein roll his eyes.

“They’re going to be good no matter what,” Cauley-Stein said. “They have a down year. But they’re the Lakers. They’re going to get to the top somehow.”

Cauley-Steins viewed a former teammate at Kentucky as one of the primary reasons.

Julius Randle fractured his right tibia only 14 minutes into his season opener, souring his promise as a bruising and versatile forward after the Lakers selected him seventh overall in the 2014 NBA Draft. But Cauley-Stein argued Randle benefitted from what he called a “unique situation. The Lakers’ rookie watched lots of film, learned the mental aspect of the game and willingly learned under Bryant how to tackle his recovery. Cauley-Stein also argued he and Randle would “complement each other in many ways” because of their versatile skillsets and past experience playing with each other.

“The dude has a will to win. So when he’s healthy and ready to go again, you’re going to see a different level,” Cauley-Stein said of Randle. “To learn under Kobe and really dissect what’s going on there, now that he’s healthy he can put it in his game. It’s going to make him one of the elite players.”

Cauley-Stein predicted he will follow the same path.

“I understand the game. I understand the process,” Cauley-Stein said. “I understand what it takes to be an elite player in the league. I didn’t know that a year ago. If I came in and got thrown to the wolves, who knows what would’ve happened.”

Perhaps some bad things.

Cauley-Stein believed he would have become limited in his rookie season since he suffered a left ankle injury his sophomore season that eventually required surgery. He would not have practiced against freshman Karl Anthony-Towns, whom NBA mock drafts peg as either ahead or behind Duke’s Jahlil Okafor as the top overall pick. Cauley-Stein also conceded he needed seasoning both with his confidence and embracing the added expectations at Kentucky that even entail NBA scouts watching practice.

“By going to Kentucky,” Cauley-Stein said, “you have to prepare to grow up real fast and pay attention to detail.”

And, of course, that involved Cauley-Stein learning that some NBA teams care about trivial matters, such as the color of his hair or his previously stated appreciation for drawing. So even if Cauley-Stein skipped the competition portion of the pre-draft combine to prevent injury, he sounded eager in giving teams a new impression of him.

“I like thinking and being able to answer questions that are tough to answer. You have to try to figure out how to get a good answer and look intelligent,” Cauley-Stein said. “I don’t imagine not playing the game. It’s never entered my mind not playing the game of basketball. If I didn’t want to play, then I wouldn’t play.”