Evaluating the Cousins Trade.

#61
Here's how this trade works out and the odds of it happening:
  • Buddy turns into a 25 PPG scorer and all-star
  • Boogie or Davis get hurt over last 25 games, NOP finish with 7-10 range
  • POR, DAL and DEN finish ahead of NOP
  • Kings finish in the 5-8 worst record range
  • Kings are lucky on lotto day and 76er swap rights are not exercised
  • Kings are lucky on lotto day and NOP does not get Top 3 pick
  • Kings have two lottery picks around #5 to #10 range
  • They draft a future all-star (PG) with one pick and a star with the other (SF)
The odds of all these events transpiring are about 1,000,000 to 1!!!!!!

The more likely scenario is Buddy turns into capable starter based on his impressive skill set but not star level simply because achieving NBA stardom is a rarified air. (Note: I really like Buddy so think he has a chance to be a star better than most). And the two picks the Kings retain in this years draft will amount to decent role player or wash outs. So you give away the most dominant big in the NBA for 2-3 role players.

The package Vlade accepted was same the Pelicans offered for Okafor and the 76ers rejected it. What does that tell you about Vlade's ability to maximize player value? It tells me he is an impulsive idiot being out-smarted and outclassed by GMs with 30-40 IQ points on him. It is gross negligence and fireable offense what he did and Vivek should have put the breaks on this stupidity like he did previously.

Vlade couldn't get a 2019 draft pick out of Pelicans?!? That he couldn't get the 2017 pick unprotected?!?! That he couldn't exert patience and shrewdness and wait until Thursday and play hardball for competing suitors to sweeten the pot to outbid one another (Pelicans, Detroit, Suns)? This guy is out of his element and clueless buffoon. He's an epic fail even if Buddy and the draft picks go on to have success. Just when you thought it could get NO worse than Pete D'Allesandro, Vlade outdid that clown and cemented his legacy as a total laughingstock.

The depressing notion in all of this is the Kings have NO proven starters and NO proven stars especially since I expect Collison and Koufos to be gone Thursday. We traded a superstar without getting an established building block in return. That's a crime and a nightmare scenario and a slap in the face to all Kings fans.
Especially agree on the bargaining blunders....
 

HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
#75
From what I can tell it looks likeVlade is taking the hit for this one, fine then this one's all in your head. I don't agree with but I can understand the argument to trade DeMarcus Cousins but if that was the case there's no hurry and he certainly could have been shopped around for a better deal. Moreover now you are the one who has to take responsibility for making a promise and breaking it and that kills your credibility is a GM. I love Vladeas a player and respect what he did for the game internationally but I've lost all faith in him as a GM at this point. People can rail against ownership all they want but until they take responsibility or somebody hold him accountable for this decision I have to assume it came from Vlade because he's out there claiming he made the call
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#88
This trade was about money, but not Vivek's money. DMC was going to get that super-max extension... the Kings had really no choice but to give it to him for him to stay in Sac, right? But DMC, as great as he is, and DMC is one of my all-time Kings favs, has a lot of issues he is making no progress on overcoming... I am not going to hang specific digs on DMC, but there are too many issues. When a player gets super-max type money, what kind of player do you think of? The teams best player, a winner, and a leader on an off the court. DMC is simply not all of these things. I think of players who, over time, deserved that fat of a check: MJ, Magic, Bird, KG, and so on. DMC simply is not the complete package and the team is not winning with him as the cornerstone. You can't pay him that much... it is the wrong salary for DMC and the only choice here is to trade him.
I think you are going to find out very quickly that magically DMC is a great winner and even potential future champion, when he is gifted to another franchise that suddenly is able to surround him with talent. New Orleans came out of this with nearly a completely complete team. And Cuz. And even Omri. In a few days they might add Barnes as well. If they scrounge up a SG who can really shoot, all of a sudden there is almost no weakness.

the Kings though can enjoy holding their head high as post-Barkley Philadelphia in 1992. If you can keep the tank going long enough, maybe after 5 more years of misery you can draft your own Iverson and be ready to make the playoffs by 2025.