Yup. We are way closer than last season's W/L would indicate. Give us a shooter, a defender, and coaching consistency and we are looking at at least a 15 game improvement over last season.
Cousins is a legit #1 on offense, and an anchor on defense. There is not one other big man in the NBA right now that you can say that about (Davis will probably get there in a season or two). And therein lies the simple answer to the stupid question of "why don't you see more teams built around a big like Cousins".
One would have to go back 5-10 years to the era when Shaq, Duncan, and KG were all in their primes to see a big impact the game like Boogie does on both ends of the court. One thing those guys all have in common? Rings. Lots and lots of rings.
All those guys also had supporting casts which included one or two other allstars and a ton of roleplayers. Rudy and DC are decent wingmen. They can help Cousins get us back into the playoffs, but if we want to contend we will probably need to upgrade one of them. It is the lack of roleplayers that has killed us. All we need are a couple defenders and a couple shooters, and we are right there pushing for .500 or better.
PDA, Bratz, and Mully were/are idiots. They had THE ULTIMATE cornerstone, nothing is easier to build around than a two way big. And what do they do? They want to get all fancy smanshy with "Pace". They ignored both the strengths and weaknesses of our roster in favor of high scores and highlights. I don't know how well Vlade will do in his new role, but I can guarantee that at the very least he is an upgrade over those three stooges.
When Vlade said Cousins is untradeable, I think he meant it. When you have a big like Cousins, you build around him. The only thing more ridiculous than Demarcus Cousins' meteoric skills and impact trajectory is the fact that somehow, he still has doubters.
Anyways, whenever I post after Bricklayer I feel like I'm preaching to the choir..
Just my 2 cents