25 Points And A Cloud Of Dust

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DeMarcus Cousins

With a little more than a month left in the NBA’s regular season, the Sacramento Kings are in the midst of wrapping up their 10th consecutive losing season. And it has also been a decade since the Kings qualified for the postseason which is second longest active streak in the NBA. In 2010, the Kings used the fifth overall pick of the NBA Draft on center DeMarcus Cousins who was looked at as a potential building block for the organization. Cousins is a legitimate post player and his numbers have increased in each NBA season. This season Cousins is averaging 27.2 points and 11.4 rebounds per contest while he was named to his second consecutive All-Star Game. Cousins is also a prime candidate to represent the United States this July in the Summer Olympics in Rio where his presence in the front court could be coveted. But once you put all of the personal accolades aside, Cousins has been unable to help the Kings in the most important category which is the win column.

This season could be the first one for the Kings with Cousins on the roster that they could win 30 games which is something that isn’t going to get them any closer to making the playoffs. Cousins hasn’t become the leader that the Kings envisioned him developing into while there’s also been a revolving door at head coach in the state capitol of California. Since Cousins came to Sacramento, the Kings have had five different head coaches with the majority of them having issues with him. And the most recent head coach to cross paths with Cousins is the Kings current head coach George Karl.

Karl became the Kings head coach last February and from the first day on the job, his old-school approach has clashed with Cousins.

George Karl

Prior to the 2015 NBA Draft, Karl wanted to trade Cousins, but he was rebuffed by Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and team general manager Vlade Divac. Things would reach a boiling point when as Ranadive was on the verge of firing Karl before cooler heads prevailed. In actuality, the Kings have threatened to fire Karl on several occasions while they also refuse to trade Cousins. And the end result is a team that continues to bring up the rear in the Western Conference.

Make no mistake about it that Cousins is an immensely talented player, but his inability to become a leader while he has also failed to make his teammates better is beginning to show much more now that he is six-year NBA veteran. This year Cousins has had 23 games in which he has scored at least 30 points which was highlighted by him scoring 48 points against the Indiana Pacers on January 23 and 56 in the Kings next contest versus the Charlotte Hornets. But in those games where Cousins has gone off, the Kings record is just 11-12. And at the end of the day, if a guy like Cousins is going off for 35 points and his team loses, nobody really cares.

Cousins issues go far beyond Karl as he clashed in college with his head coach John Calipari during his time at the University of Kentucky, while he also chased his first head coach with the Kings in Paul Westphal out of town. Westphal had success as an NBA head coach which included taking the Phoenix Suns to their last appearance in the NBA Finals in 1993 while Calipari is a Basketball Hall of Famer and only four men have won more games as a head coach in the NBA than Karl. These men obviously know a thing or two about basketball and if Cousins has had issues with all of them, then maybe he is the problem.

The Kings may not want to trade Cousins, but it is a move that makes the most sense for the organization in the long term. The Kings are not going to win anytime soon with Cousins on the roster and the best thing to do would be to trade him in order to get as much value possibly back.

I understand that Karl still had the itch to coach in the NBA, but he should have held out for another gig that would have given him a better opportunity to succeed. With the Kings threatening to fire Karl on several occasions due to his inability to get through to Cousins, it sends the wrong message to the rest of the players in the locker room in Sacramento as their head coach seems powerless. The Kings front office finally allowed Karl to suspend Cousins earlier this month for conduct detrimental to the team, but it could be too little, too late in regards to this situation.

The best move for the Kings could be to part with both Cousins and Karl once the season is over in order to start over. If the Kings were to decide on keeping Karl while trading Cousins, they could succeed with him, but would they want to admit that they were wrong about Cousins? But if the Kings were to keep Cousins while parting with Karl, it would be very tough for the organization to convince another quality head coach to come to Northern California and work with Cousins. However the longer that the Kings allow this issue to be the most important headline for their franchise, it will symbolize how much longer that it will take them to once again become relevant in the NBA.

 

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