It would be so sad if Cousins' great three weeks in January was solely for that All-Star push. They do have financial incentives to make all star games including getting paid more on their next contract. Is it a coincidence that Cousins' effort and energy took a huge plummet once he was named an All Star? I sure hope not but its a question that has to be asked. Aside from that great three weeks Cousins has had a poor season.
Pretty much. The best you can say is it has been an underachieving or disappointing season with Rondo as his set-up man. The raw production by Boogie (27/11) masks inefficiency and sporadic defense that contributed significantly to 2 losses in every 3 games.
If you take out his magnificent stretch of 12 games (8-4 record) his TS% drops to around 50% to 51%. With a 33% usage rate, it is difficult to overcome games in which he shoots poorly and subsequently lets it effect his defense. Any serious fan knows when things aren't going well for Boogie offensively he lets it carryover to the other end.
This is how you can have a playoff caliber roster and fall apart in winnable games with best player dragging you down tangibly (low efficiency) and intangibly (mood issues). You can't grind out wins on off night. You can't "win ugly". You can't ride the hot hand because the hot hand (whoever it may be) is not allowed enough opportunity to heat up.
Only one win do I recall in which Boogie did not have to have a huge scoring output (14 FGAs and 19 points in road win against LAC). This leads to a chicken-egg question: "Does Boogie launch as much as he does because he doesn't have help or does he NOT rely upon (trust) the help he has?" I would contend the latter and add a lot of his production occurs trying to rally the team from double digit deficits.
His struggles outside of the 12 game stretch occurs in context of team TS% of 54.6% on season. So it is not like he is shooting because he is surrounded by brick layers. The team is #9 in 3 point shooting (with Boogie contributing). These stats support fact Boogie has yet to find optimal balance between passing and shooting, or playing like LeBron did tonight (16 shots and 10 assists).
The larger issue that the team and Vlade and fans have to ultimately face is this:
Boogie does not make teammates better. Maybe he will but he hasn't yet. He's not a unifying force. He is an island. The team doesn't play better with him on the floor synergistically. It is his personal exploits that make the plus/minus difference. Until proven otherwise, this statement is self-evident and reflects the predicament of team.
Boogie has missed 9 games in which the team is 2-7. They were 8-4 when he was all-world. In games in which Boogie struggled with efficiency and defensive focus, the team is 11-20 or 2 losses in every 3 games. This is why we are where we are. Not the sole reason, but a big reason. The MVP season we hoped for from Boogie never materialized. And outside the three week stretch, he hardly performed like an all-star.
The counterargument is "'We don't play defense!" Why don't we play defense? Well besides dubious perimeter defenders, a coaching staff that sucks and about to pay for it with their jobs, when Boogie is not scoring well, bad offense leads to bad defense. How much attribution you assign to each is debatable but to pretend Boogie is not complicit in departure of head coach would be mistaken.
In other words Karl made his own bed but Boogie could have prevented this sorry outcome if he performed better quantitatively (efficiency) and qualitatively (leadership, maturity) as appeared to be happening until the Troy Daniel Shot that torpedoed our season and broke our hearts.
