I'm glad you felt the need to mitigate that statement with borderline, but we both know there's nothing borderline about it.
And this season showed us that the only players scoring more points than DeMarcus are two of the greatest shooters of all time and a guard who can turn any hint of contact into free-throws. Short of trading DeMarcus for Steph Curry, I'll stick with my plan.
I also didn't see anything in that statement about Cousins, Gay, or Rondo. The whole article is about how Thibs wants complete control of an organization so it should be self-explanatory why he's not interested in Sacramento.
There was actually a very intesting discussion on RealGM about the screening going on. To me the rulesets and statements of the NBA regarding illegal screens are quite complicated and I'm extremely glad, that I'm not the one that needs to call this. I always thought, that if you move laterally while screening it's illegal (this is the way it's called over here), but apparently the NBA thinks otherwise nowadays and allows lateral movement as long as it's not before contact occurs and as long as the defending player makes contact with the screener first in the attempt to fight through the screen. Ultimately it doesn't matter, if we think (and we are on the same page regarding this) that these are illegal screens. The NBA chooses not to call them.
And while Cousins is 4th in scoring let me quote Greg Popovich "No I don't want you to score. I want the team to score!"
I believe, that the guard/wing centric playstyle with lots of screens is easier to execute and will lead to better/easier scoring teamwise, than the traditional big man approach. Mediocre perimeter heavy teams like Portland, Clippers without Griffin, Detroit, where a great center is basically a put back and lob machine, Boston, Atlanta or to some extent even Toronto seem to support this thesis from my point of view.
On a very basic level I think this is because doubling a big man in the post is one of the easiest things to do as a defense in the era of zones, but doubling a perimeter player that operates from the top and runs through multiple screens is extremely difficult, when he isn't stuck on the sideline or in the corner, where baseline and sideline act as extra defenders. That with the overall improvement in perimeter shooting and ball handling with lots of players, that can pull up from the dribble and can make decisions with the basketball makes the current playstyle so dangerous.
So while my heart always says, that a big guy dominating everything is the way to go, my head always tries to trick me into the admiration of perimeter heavy playstyles. More or less the classic faustian conflict "Zwei Seelen wohnen ach in meiner Brust!"
But ok - we all know, where this is heading - a long conversation about offense, when ultimately the problems of the Kings are on the other side of the court.
So yes, if Cousins can be successful as part of a top notch defensive team remains to be seen and actually I really hope we get the chance to see it, before his contract runs out.
The statement about Thibs are rumours. So we all don't know if this is really true. I shouldn't have made that statement about him not wanting to coach DMC, Gay and Rondo. Basically I was always critical regarding those kind of rumours, but now I use them to support my own point of view. Well I guess we all already fell into that trap more than once.