Speaking of All-NBA, should check out where some national/NBA.com writers have Cousins.
Please. Those people are idiots. Have always been idiots, and will always be idiots. These are mostly the same people who didn't think he should be in the All-Star game, believe everything they read on Yahoo Sports, and generally think anything at all related to Sacramento is the joke that keeps on giving. I couldn't care less whether they think Cousins is All-NBA or not because of some arbitrary rules that they get to make up and then enforce. They call Cousins a team cancer while fantasizing about how they can rob us of him for a few meaningless late first round picks. And you'd better believe they'll be defending his All-NBA credentials if that ever happens.
The coaching search is absolutely about playing style and I suspect all of the talk of appeasing Cousins is a much bigger talking point among the fans than it is in the front office. I think it would be incredibly short-sighted to give up on a franchise level big man because George Karl couldn't make it work but I also don't think DeMarcus is bigger than the team. He's a great player but so were all the other guys we've traded over the years... Richmond, Webber, Peja, Bibby, Doug, Bobby ... they all got traded at some point. And that's why I want a defensive coach. Because I've
always wanted a defensive coach. If Cousins refuses to bust his ass on defense for a coach that demands it than he deserves to be traded. That was most certainly not George Karl though. I think George Karl
really only lost the locker room when it became obvious that Ben, Seth, and Willie were going to get benched for missing an open shot but Marco was going to get his minutes regardless of how poor his defense was. The commitment to defense from George Karl was non-existant.
And I know I'm not making any friends saying this, but all the talk about how the league is changing and we need a modern basketball mind to make sure we don't fall behind.... bull. crap. That's a whole truck full of it. Golden State and San Antonio are defensive powerhouses. That's why they're the two best teams in the league. Look at Golden State's lineup and point to one bad defender. Draymond Green, Steph Curry, and Andrew Bogut are among the best in the league at their positions. Igoudala is getting a little older but he's been known as a stopper for most of his career. Barnes and Thompson are no worse than average. Off the bench, their backup PG is 6'7". Leandro Barbosa plays basketball like a bull in a china shop but he's at least a rangy athlete. That accounts for most of their minutes. If all you see (this is a general you) when you watch Golden State is three-point shooting and ball movement than you're not paying attention. They've been scoring points in the Bay for a decade or more and never won anything until the new ownership committed to bringing in plus defenders. Remember when their own fans booed them for trading Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut? I'm not even sure Golden State fans get it.
And this extends all the way to the Spurs -- who are continually held up as a model franchise and yet people continue to overlook the obvious reason why. They're on a whole other level defensively from the rest of the league. And that didn't happen by accident. To pick just one example-- they were a 61 win team in 2011 and traded one of their top 5 players to get Kawhi Leonard who is now one of the top 5 individual defenders in the league. That's called knowing what you need and going out and getting it. Their defense was
astonishingly good this season and if you look at their roster -- Aldridge, old Ginobili, Parker, Patty Mills, Danny Green, David West, Boris Diaw, Kyle Anderson -- most of these players are not thought of as dominant defenders. As a
team though they're the Great Wall of China. I don't even want to read another word about motion offense, three point shooters, floor spacing, or the death of post play from any Kings fan. Ever. It's been 10 years of the same thing. None of that even matters people! Popovich has run more offenses than I can count in his Hall of Fame coaching career. He's had one of the slowest paces in the league and one of the fastest. He's had one of the most prolific three point shooting teams and one of the worst. But two things remain constant: his teams always work their asses off on defense and they're always in the playoffs.
You want a coach with a system that gets wins? That's the system: earn your paycheck one stop at a time. When you put on this uniform, you will take pride in locking down the other team or you'll sit on the bench. You're not going to complain about touches, you're not going to jog through defensive possessions, you're not going to hoist threes outside of the offense, you're not going to watch your man rebound the ball without putting up a fight. Commit to doing all of that and you'll be a better player. Unfortunately the number of coaches out there with the stomach for barking this message at NBA players day in and day out, game after game, practice after practice, who are both willing and able to stand their ground until the players shut up and decide it's easier to just put in the work instead of complaining about it is very small. Calipari can do that on the college level because he's God on that Kentucky campus. But who other than Popovich can demand that from an NBA team? Thibs can but he wants full control of the roster to ensure he doesn't get compromised again. Of the coaches we're looking at, I think Nate McMillan and Mike Woodson are really the only options.
But that's just my opinion.
