Evaluating the Cousins Trade.
- Thread starter kingdivac
- Start date
I watched the game. I wouldn't have such strong opinions otherwise. The mistakes he made vs Spurs were mental, missed defensive assignments, brooding over calls, careless passes and the like. These bother me because they are avoidable and turned out to be costly. I have seen same with him as King 100s of times, granted less this season than seasons past.
there were no more trades b4 the deadline bc vlade's the patsy at the table. all the offers for darren ben and others must've been really absurd. hell if i was a rival gm i'd be offering garbage to see if vlade would take it with a mindset that 75% chance vlade would accept. he really shot himself in the foot after that post trade video. gm's know he will wilt under pressure from here forward. KANGZ.
we actually had 2 really good building blocks in a young tyreke and boogie but some how ended up with nothing once position-less 3.0 took over.
we actually had 2 really good building blocks in a young tyreke and boogie but some how ended up with nothing once position-less 3.0 took over.
No, that's not theory. That's more like throwing a whole bunch of crap against a wall to see if anything will stick. You're saying with a straight face that Cousins was traded because he didn't pass to cutters often enough? Seriously? News flash: You cannot pass to cutting teammates if they're standing still.
All I will say is that the trade looks worse by the day. Nothing against Buddy but for the life of me I cannot see how some people are thinking that he can be a special player. Other than that shot, there is not much there to hang your hat on in terms of NBA skill or game in general.
Hell when it comes to handles, Ben McLemore is Kyrie Irving compared to Buddy.
Hell when it comes to handles, Ben McLemore is Kyrie Irving compared to Buddy.
This trade was never about getting equal value. It was about removing Cousins from the team and reset with a new mindset. If you watched the Jazz vs Pelicans you can see what they wanted "removed". Cousins was complaining left and right, bad body language, waffling up the court and being outworked by Gobert, yelling and arguing with fans mid game, and just in general being focused on everything other than the basketball game, you do not want that from any player let alone your franchise player. All things we have seen here for seven years that have not and will likely never change. Having a player like that poisons the work environment, imagine going to work and theres a really talented guy acting the way Cousins does?
On paper it doesn't look good giving away a superstar player in Cousins for the return that we got for him. However, this team had peaked at around 30 wins with Cousins. There is a legitimate argument that this team was not going to get better because we don't attract big name free agents (and that will become more difficult with the new CBA), we haven't been able to draft another star, and we don't have the assets to acquire another star. Thus, the whole game plan this season was to get Joerger to work his magic with a below par roster in the hopes that he could replicate what he did last season with the Grizzlies with us. Sad thing is he hasn't managed to do that. So as good as Cousins played for us this season, he didn't make enough of a difference to carry this team into the next tier. Instead, we were on the fringes of the play offs and arguably not ascending.
Buddy might never become a star player, but he could become a useful role player off the bench, or even a decent enough starting shooting guard. Remember you don't need five all stars in the starting line up. You can get away with a couple of good starters and if Buddy can become a consistent shooter and play well defensively, then as a 3 and D player he can make a very good career for himself here.
The other thing to bear in mind is that we will get the Pelicans draft pick. With them continuing to struggle to win games that could mean we will have two top ten picks if the lottery Gods are kind to us. Obviously their pick has top three protection if memory serves, and our pick heads to Chicago if it falls outside the top ten, so we need a bit of luck to go our way to land the picks, but overall we can potentially get two good players for this team. If our front office do their job - I know that's a big ask based on their track record - then we can get two contributors in the coming draft. Remember other teams have built quality rosters without ever landing the top pick.
Warriors: Curry was picked 7th, Thompson 11th, and Green 35th. Now that is a rare line up to get a trio of all stars in those positions.
Jazz: I think the highest draft pick they have on their roster is Dante Exum who went 5th, everyone else came after that point.
Trail Blazers: Lillard 6th and McCollum 10th, and their other talent has come from all over the place.
Nuggets: generally a collection of top ten and outside top ten draft picks.
If these teams can build quality rosters, then we have the opportunity to do that if our front office do their job and get lucky. Two top ten picks, plus the young players we have on this roster, and we can start heading in the right direction, especially if our head coach and front office deliver on their promise to instil a strong culture going forwards.
So sure, this trade does look bad on the outside, but it could also be the best thing to happen to this team because it could just kickstart the next successful era in Kings basketball. As much as I love Cousins, I don't think we were ascending with him, and frankly I don't think we could ever be anything more than a fringe play off team at best with him. I think this front office made a tough decision in trading him, and for me, they made the right one to move on and start again.
Buddy might never become a star player, but he could become a useful role player off the bench, or even a decent enough starting shooting guard. Remember you don't need five all stars in the starting line up. You can get away with a couple of good starters and if Buddy can become a consistent shooter and play well defensively, then as a 3 and D player he can make a very good career for himself here.
The other thing to bear in mind is that we will get the Pelicans draft pick. With them continuing to struggle to win games that could mean we will have two top ten picks if the lottery Gods are kind to us. Obviously their pick has top three protection if memory serves, and our pick heads to Chicago if it falls outside the top ten, so we need a bit of luck to go our way to land the picks, but overall we can potentially get two good players for this team. If our front office do their job - I know that's a big ask based on their track record - then we can get two contributors in the coming draft. Remember other teams have built quality rosters without ever landing the top pick.
Warriors: Curry was picked 7th, Thompson 11th, and Green 35th. Now that is a rare line up to get a trio of all stars in those positions.
Jazz: I think the highest draft pick they have on their roster is Dante Exum who went 5th, everyone else came after that point.
Trail Blazers: Lillard 6th and McCollum 10th, and their other talent has come from all over the place.
Nuggets: generally a collection of top ten and outside top ten draft picks.
If these teams can build quality rosters, then we have the opportunity to do that if our front office do their job and get lucky. Two top ten picks, plus the young players we have on this roster, and we can start heading in the right direction, especially if our head coach and front office deliver on their promise to instil a strong culture going forwards.
So sure, this trade does look bad on the outside, but it could also be the best thing to happen to this team because it could just kickstart the next successful era in Kings basketball. As much as I love Cousins, I don't think we were ascending with him, and frankly I don't think we could ever be anything more than a fringe play off team at best with him. I think this front office made a tough decision in trading him, and for me, they made the right one to move on and start again.
Will you stipulate that it's possible to agree with all of that, and still be royally ****ed at management for how they went about it, and still not want them (and unfortunately, by extension, the team) to prosper, because you don't want to see how the way that management conducted itself during the trade be rewarded?
Because that's where I am at this point: I am still undecided as to whether or not I want to remain a Kings Fan*. I was never so attached to Cousins that I was willing to quit the Kings over him being traded, but I am thinking about quitting the Kings over how Divac ****ed the whole thing up.
* (FYI, for any of you who may be in my 'fan club', I was never going to leave the board, whether I quit the Kings or not, so if that was what you were hoping for... I'm afraid I've got some bad news...)
Because that's where I am at this point: I am still undecided as to whether or not I want to remain a Kings Fan*. I was never so attached to Cousins that I was willing to quit the Kings over him being traded, but I am thinking about quitting the Kings over how Divac ****ed the whole thing up.
* (FYI, for any of you who may be in my 'fan club', I was never going to leave the board, whether I quit the Kings or not, so if that was what you were hoping for... I'm afraid I've got some bad news...)