‘Altruistic’ is the only positive way to view the Sacramento Kings’ decision yesterday to trade away DeMarcus Cousins.
There were two small-market NBA franchises floundering despite having a superstar big man, and now there is only one.
Both Sacramento and New Orleans were in purgatory, but the former, in sending itself to hell has given the latter a shot at heaven.
Cousins in a top-10 player in the NBA, the most imposing big man in the game, a rare marriage of wrecking ball and violinist. Cousins is a brawler, someone who crushes his way to the hoop and rampages over the little humans that get in his way.
But he’s also an artist. Once he’s conquered lands and burnt them to the ground on his way to the hoop, he’s every bit as likely to sing softly with a delicate pass or a graceful finish as he is to roar in violent triumph with a thunderous dunk.
The argument for trading away Cousins is that he was never good enough to make Sacramento anything resembling a basketball kingdom, and instead lapped it up as the best dressed of the court jesters in California’s capital the past seven years. Only once in that time did Cousins get to 30 wins, quietly one of the most improbable stats in NBA history, unprecedented for a player of his talent.
The argument for not trading Cousins, especially for what the Kings received, is everything else in life. The haul for Boogie ended up being Buddy Hield (who may or may not be good), Tyreke Evans (a free agent to be), Langston Galloway (sure), a top-three protected 2017 first round pick and a second round pick this year too. For the layman, this is the equivalent of one starving man trading a ham sandwich to another starving man and accepting in return a broken plastic bag.
If this is the best offer the Kings had for Cousins (and at this stage I’m not giving Vlade Divac the benefit of the doubt that he has Danny Ainge’s number correctly keyed into his contacts), then you have to keep him. Cousins is a generational talent, and while giving a $200-million extension to someone who might always be poisonous to a team’s culture is a bitter pill to swallow, it’s a higher percentage play to hope Cousins figures it out than it is to start again from below nothing.
For years the NBA has wondered who’s to blame in Sacramento: the organisation or the malcontent superstar. Does Cousins do the things he does – set a horrible example for teammates, obliterate referees and reporters, generally behave like an unstable human being – because that’s the way he is, or because that’s the way Sacramento made him?
The simplest answer is always to blame the individual. Often our expectations are unreasonable – we sometimes think of NBA superstars as somewhere on the spectrum between cultural revolutionaries and Gods – and we believe that players should be able to thrive independent of circumstance.
But the more time passes, the more ‘playing basketball in Sacramento’ seems to feel like an untenable existential crisis. Management is incompetent, run by a general manager who doesn’t know the league’s rules and an owner who makes James Dolan look statesmanlike and astute in comparison.
Outside of a couple gems – getting a first round pick for Marco Belinelli was a steal (but also, brilliantly, not a substantially better return than what they got for Cousins) – the Kings have been a catastrophe at the trade table and the draft, with moves so bad you half expect Adam Silver to jump in and yell ‘STOP THE FIGHT’.
Whether it was trading a first round pick to Philadelphia to create the cap space to sign Rajon Rondo, Kosta Koufos and Belinelli, letting Isaiah Thomas walk for nothing, firing Michael Malone for reasons unknown to man, or drafting 27 players who play the same position as Cousins, the Kings have spent the Cousins era drifting between tragedy and farce.
Trading Cousins away was a fitting exclamation mark on the era, a final roar of stupidity. Ultimately, it ended not with laughter but with pure calamity. This is just sad.
The Kings are a 14-year-old who’s watched three episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent and thinks he’s a better lawyer than the other men in the room who have all gone to Harvard Law School (except for Dolan, who’s seen 12 episodes, and thus has the slight edge on Vivek Ranadive). If this were a bad movie, the Kings fans would have gone to court by now and triumphantly removed the organisation’s management for demonstrating a lack of mental fitness.
DeMarcus Cousins, though, gets to walk away from this burning franchise. He gets to go to another one, and his arrival in itself puts the flames out for a little while. Will he mesh with Anthony Davis? Who knows, but for the Pelicans this trade was a no-brainer – when you can get a top-10 player in the league for 15 cents on the dollar, a calibre of player who hasn’t been traded since James Harden, you do it and figure the rest out later.
At best, they have the league’s most dominant frontcourt and a pathway to basketball’s next revolution – away from small-ball. At worst, they have a tremendous asset and hope for a bright future, one that seemed bleak and impossible just 24 hours ago.
That’s the only silver lining in the grim playbook of the Sacramento Kings – at least others are allowed to profit from their profound cluelessness.
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
Yep Mushi
Swampy
Guest
Haha!
Mushi
Guest
His FT % was bad in college which was always a worry for his upside as a shooter.
Jay Dunbar
Roar Guru
Actually, they have a previous deal which allows Philly to swap picks with them, so unless Philly ends up with an even higher pick, they won't even get that.
Swampy
Guest
Effectively Sacremento are elevating their draft position as well by trading away their best player. There is a chance they could collapse completely to snag position 2 or 3 in the draft lottery which could even get them the no.1 pick. NOT THAT THEY DESERVE IT!!!
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
Yes you are right in that he is too early in his development to judge him, and a team could regret trading him. And by all reports from the Lakers he has a good work ethic and wants to learn and improve. But he has struggled shooting the ball whenever I have watched them and hasn't looked like a superstar. Interesting. He could well develop into a great player, but I'd be surprised if he is a genuine superstar one day. I'd love to be wrong
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
That is part of the issue, the lack of consistency within the organisation. They always seem to be built around back locker room guys. Hopefully in NOLA they can surround him with good people to get the best out of him
OJP
Guest
pretty much agree with all that Arky; despite it being worth nothing, my fictitious money is on Boogie playing well in NO and generally being on best behavior until his free agency; everyone knows Sacto was poorly run so it gives him a 'fall guy' for his prior behavior, which people will readily accept if he doesn't act up now and plays well. As for Vivek, you could be onto something Arky..... Hield = the new Stauskas
OJP
Guest
fair question about the cancer in the locker room aspect; but plenty of 'problem children' in the NBA have been won over at some stage in their career (other than Kobe, how about Zach Randolph as an example) by a combo of maturity, quality teammates and good coaching. Who exactly has Boogie played for in Sacto and how long did each of those coaches have to sell him on their vision and then implement it ? Anyway, I'm excited for the boogie era in NO
Jay Dunbar
Roar Guru
To be fair Josh I haven't seen near enough of Ingram to warrant a valid opinion and would need to defer to you. But elite length and shooting ability is a pretty rare commodity, and I have been pretty impressed by his feel for the game thus far. I just think he is far too young and early in his development to pass judgement- could be one of the guys you look at in 5 years and say 'why on earth did we trade HIM?'
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
Absolutely lol
Arky
Guest
By all reports Sacramento asked and the Lakers told them no. And they were right to do it. I wouldn't want Cousins on my team. Don't want to risk that awful Sacramentro stench rubbing off. Maybe if I was really desperate for relevance (like, say, the New Orleans Pelicans!) and had to find a big star, any big star, to put on my team to try and keep another big star happy (like, say, the New Orleans Pelicans!).
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
I'm not too convinced. Tyreke Evans despite being a free-agent at the end of this season was good for the deal, and Langston Galloway is underrated too. I just don't think that Ingram has shown enough to be get that deal done for L.A The deal with the Pelicans was bad for Sacramento in my opinion also.
Jay Dunbar
Roar Guru
It's so funny Josh, I was actually half way through an article about why NO should consider trading AD before the news broke! I should do a revisionist history and finish the article.
Arky
Guest
Sacramento is a mad house, and pretty much everything that has come out of there says that the problems begin and end with ownership. Just goes to show that being savvy in your field of business doesn't make you an expert on everything, and being praised in a Malcolm Gladwell book for your approach to coaching your daughter's junior basketball team does not translate to managing NBA talent. Maybe if Ranadive bought a team which was already stable and successful it wouldn't matter, but he bought the dysfunctional Kings and inherited Boogie Cousins. Truly a match made in hell. Ranadive should have kept Mike Malone as coach, the one coach who was really getting somewhere with Cousins (they've had 3 head coaches since, in less than 3 years, I mean, come on) and reportedly just didn't like Malone's style, which is like a starving man turning down roast beef because it's cooked slightly too long for his palate. Ranadive should have traded Cousins at any time in the past 3 years and rebuilt from scratch. Ranadive should have taken one of the better offers reportedly tabled to him. He did none of these things, and then took the New Orleans deal because he personally rates Buddy Hield way higher than the NBA community in general does. He was only trading Cousins if he thought he was getting a new superstar back, and lucky for New Orleans he landed on Hield as the guy. One suspects Vlade Divac went through with the deal because it's pretty much his only chance to finally get rid of Cousins and start a rebuild, even if he's starting with Buddy Hield. This was the only deal Ranadive would sanction. As for Cousins, we've seen other superstar big men drag bags of spare parts to passable records, and Cousins can't even get close, which strongly suggests he's overrated by raw numbers (and has an intangible negative effect). On the other hand, Sacramento has been SO incompetent and had such a coaching revolving door and such a lack of veteran leadership for so long, it's entirely possible Cousins will take a step up from being merely All-Star good to being all-NBA first team good given a better environment. We don't know. And New Orleans is frankly not the best place to find out, but it's got to be a step up on Sacramentro.
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
Agreed OJP. I don't think it would be a great fit for Boston, as tempting as it would have been. Word around the league is that they are going hard for Jimmy Butler though, but are unwilling to part with both of their Brooklyn picks, especially the 2017 one.
Jay Dunbar
Roar Guru
I absolutely think that Ingram and Mozgov, even without picks, is better than what they got, basically Heild, a pick around 12-16 and pick 35ish. Surely you could get LA to front up a 2nd rounder or 2, which they could EASILY get if they trade Lou Williams, right? Would the Lakers trade Heild and pick 14 for Ingram? No effing way. The biggest thing they are getting from this trade is they get to keep their pick (or Philly's) if it falls in the top 10, so they need a mini-tank for that. Make Ingram the point forward for the rest of the year and they'll lose plenty enough!
Justin Ahrns
Roar Guru
Add in Dragan Bender when he develops plus Alex Len and Brandon Knight off the bench, and you have one heck of a team!
OJP
Guest
unlike my earlier clearly satirical remark about Tiger, I have actually heard that with the C's it was concern about 'fit' with the other pieces that the C's already have. Isiah Thomas and Boogie are not friends. Al Horford and Boogie are not friends.
Jay Dunbar
Roar Guru
Phoenix baffles me on this one. Surely a package of TJ Warren, and their 2017 1st (top 3 protected) and 2nd round picks is a better deal. Boogie, Bledsoe and Booker (all former Kentucky alumni) is a pretty exciting core.