Yep. Not the first time I've seen that.
Now, here is my attempt at a ray of sunshine: PDA was still at the heart of that, may have even encouraged it. Consider this timeline:
1) Karl is hired
2) PDA is still GM at that point
3) Karl with PDA, or PDA recruiting Karl, pushes Karl or Cousins narrative
4) Cousins knows this, as do agents, pissed, asks for trade
5) Vlade comes out and say Cousins untradeable
6) Cousins responds with a lol
7) PDA leaves/is fired, maybe even for this activity
8) Vlade again says Cousins not going to be traded
9) PDA hired by Denver, Woj delivers column on the move straight from the rodent's mouth
10) All of a sudden story breaks about Karl trying to force out Cousins, story is by Woj
11) Cuz respons with snake in a grass emojii
Now where do you think #10 would come from given all the above?
My strong strong bet is this is Pete, feeding information to Woj, about a real event that already happened with the Kings while Pete was here. Its something Pete had intimate knowledge of. It was something Cousins already knew. Something CarmichaelDave etc. may have had hints of behind the scenes. And something Valde and Vivek have known about and been dealing with for months.
Now the positive of that is that this crap would not be new news to Cousins, would not be new news to Vlade or Vivek. And yet Vlade/Vivek have continued to insist that Cousins is not going to be traded. The storm may have already been weathered internally with the big question being whether Boogie feels any desire to forgive and forget.