Assuming Karl is fired it will mean that after three years and three head coaches, the GM finally gets to conduct a coaching search and hire who he wants.
I think it makes sense to give Cousins, Vlade and the new coach one season before blowing this thing apart completely.
The hard part for me is that giving that one season also likely requires signing Rondo to a big money FA deal and I'm not sure he'd be all that easy to move if the team does decide to rebuild.
But if we want to play this game (which is more fun than watching Kings games any more) I can take a look at what a Boston trade might result in. Let's say Boston ends up with a top 2 pick courtesy of Brooklyn's first rounder. Trading Cousins for Bradley, Sullinger, the Net's pick and one of Boston's other two first rounders (either their own or Dallas') would mean the Kings have a top 2 pick, a top 10 pick (their own) and another pick in the early 20's or so.
Rondo and the Kings would mutually part ways in this scenario (Rajon doesn't need to be a part of another rebuilding team and the Kings don't need to spend a ton of caproom on a nearly 30 year old PG), Gay would likely be dealt and at least one of McLemore and Belinelli would likely go as well. Let's say Belinelli goes for a future 2nd rounder. Then the roster is:
Collison
Bradley/McLemore
Gay/Casspi
Sullinger
Cauley-Stein/Koufos
With a top two pick the Kings would end up with one of Simmons or Ingram. With their own pick (depending on how poorly the Kings finish the season will likely be in the 7-9 range) the Kings will probably be looking at guys like Buddy Hield, Skal Labissiere or maybe Kris Dunn who should go higher but may drop because of all the lottery teams with PGs. The later pick would be a crapshoot. I think Wade Baldwin (who I like) will move up draft boards so the guys I like later in this draft are Caris Levert (who is slotted 24-32 or so in most mocks but should be higher IMO) and Ivica Zubac, the young center.
Let's say the Kings end up with Ingram, Dunn and Levert, they resign Curry and Acy, do a sign and trade of Rudy for Ryan Anderson, sign a free agent or two and roll the ball out next season
Collison/Dunn/Curry
Bradley/McLemore/Levert
Casspi/Ingram/FA
Sullinger/Anderson/Acy
Cauley-Stein/Koufos/FA
That roster would probably lose a lot of games next season. The hope would be that Dunn and Ingram (or Simmons and Labissiere etc) would develop enough to make the Kings winners again. But it's a big gamble. I don't see any sure things in this year's draft. Simmons is more a poor man's Magic Johnson than LeBron James-lite but unless he fixes his shot he's not going to be a great player. Ingram doesn't do any one spectacularly and his success will also hinge on getting bigger and stronger and finishing better at the rim.
If you want to roll the dice by dealing Cousins to start a full rebuild, that's the level of roster you'd be left with. In fact, I think it's a really optimistic view of what the Kings could have after trading Cousins.
I understand we're all tired of watching a terrible Kings team lose night after night, but dealing Cousins for picks is at least a big a gamble as trying to retool around him.
The only reason we'd visit dealing Cousins this off-season is we can pretty much dictate the asking price with 2 years left on his deal. And dealing with some of the Boston assets, we'd have a giant head-start on our rebuild. Say you get Crowder, Bradley and the BK pick or some iteration of that. That leaves us with:
WCS
Bradley
Crowder
2 top 10 picks
as quality young talent locked up long-term under 25. I'd imagine we'd shop around Rudy as well and could likely get a pretty solid young piece in return.
I think Cousins value significantly drops off when he's an expiring contract as teams won't have the confidence they can resign him. We'd certainly get a lot less in return and I think the team pool would be limited to who we could trade him too. Which is why I think THIS is the off-season we need to make the decision of moving on, or going down with the ship. And the whole reason for bringing this up in the first place is I don't see how we're going to do the quick turnaround with Boogie and convince him to stay here past 2018.