DeMarcus Boogie Cousins and YOUR Sacramento Kings

[RookieOfTheDay]

I have only one question. WTF were the teams who picked before the Kings looking at when they drafted other players?

There were scared off by all the "red flags" surrounding Cousins. All the talk of him being a head case, having attitude problems, being out of shape, etc. It was pretty commonly thought that he would have went 1 or 2 if not for all those issues. It didn't seem like any team other than The Kings really did any research to find out the truth about Cousins, they seemingly just believed the media reports and passed on him because of them.

 

[JJ22L]

There were scared off by all the "red flags" surrounding Cousins. All the talk of him being a head case, having attitude problems, being out of shape, etc. It was pretty commonly thought that he would have went 1 or 2 if not for all those issues. I didn't seem like any team other than The Kings really did any research to find out the truth about Cousins, they seemingly just believed the media reports and passed on him because of them.

This.

This is, in my opinion, why Petrie has such a solid draft history relative to other GM's (yes yes, I know, there are blips). The Kings appear to a.) do a very thorough job researching prospective pics, and b.) be willing to go against the norm/take a chance (at least recently, depending on how you define norm - Evans over Rubio, Cousins over others).

If only we could talk management into taking this process and using it in trades/signings...

 

[mac]

I have only one question. WTF were the teams who picked before the Kings looking at when they drafted other players? Cousins is CLEARLY the best player out of that draft! He is only a rookie, yet he commands a double team every night. He passes out of the double team with skill, getting many assists and partial assists. He can power up thru anyone in the post even though he does not possess dominating vertical leaping ability. He is exceedingly agile and quick for a man nearly 7 feet tall. His wingspan makes him difficult to score over and as he learns to play better defense he will become a very good defensive stopper. He has all the tools to become a dominant center for the next 10 years. So again, I ask, WTF were the teams selecting before the Kings looking at? #1 Washington - John Wall: Decent player, but plays on the wing and has only decent scoring ability. Is not a superstar however his quickness makes him a candidate to be very good. But Dominant? That is a major question mark.#2 76'ers - Evan Turner: Hasn't helped a woeful 76'er team to get any better. Another wing player with some scoring ability. Not likely to become dominant at his position. Just a nice outside scorer. #3 Nets - Derrick Favors: Has not shown skill or scoring ability to warrant a #3 selection. May become more skilled, but does not look like a player who will develop into a dominant player at his position. #4 Minnesota - Wesley Johnson: The Timberwolves organization is full of imbeciles. This is another stupid draft pick by the same team that took Rubio who will probably never play in Minnesota EVER. The GM for the Wolves is on the edge of forced retirement. The Wrath of Kahn is starting to get ugly.

And then the Kings select Demarcus Cousins at #5. Sure there were some maturity issues with a 20 year old player. But freekin LOOK at him! Nearly 7' tall, agile, fast, and knows how to score and set up his teammates to score. He is quickly learning NBA defense, the only thing holding him back right now is foul trouble. Ref's are giving him hell his rookie season, yet he keeps plugging along knowing it will get better next season. He has vaulted into 2nd place behind Griffin for ROY, even though that isnt very fair because Griffin is actually a 2nd year player no matter what the league says. If there were no Griffin on the ballot, Cousins would get serious consideration for the ROY. Who else would get consideration? Not a very strong crop in the 2010 draft. With a coupla free agent signings for next season and possibly a few trades, the Kings are beginning to look like a very strong core team with a lot of upside! They have their franchise center and a franchise wing player. They need another outside scoring threat and possibly a slashing 3 to balance the floor. All could come to fruition next season if there isnt a labor stoppage. Cousins is playing great and the attitude issues have proven to be minor at best! Cousins is a STEAL at #5 and the 4 teams ahead of the Kings are KICKING themselves in the HEAD for not drafting this kid! He isn't a bad person. He is an emotional 20 year old who wants to win! Isn't that what you want in a player? A player with a deep desire to win and to make those around him better? Wholly Molly how stupid do those 4 GM's ahead of Petrie look now? I say Go BOOGIE GO !! Go Kings !! The future is looking brighter and brighter. The opportunity to avenge the travesty of the game 5 debacle by Dick Bavetta is just around the corner. Justice WILL PREVAIL!

Dude are your paragraphs ever less than 250 words? Please please, half the people on this board have asked you to stop with the wall of texts. I find your opinion rather worth reading, but it's torture to read through your posts.

Think you're underrating John Wall though. And let's not forget that many of us were high on Evan Turner as the perfect fit next to Tyreke. He may not be playing well now, especially on a sixers team that doesn't take well to rookies, but I assure you he'll become a valuable player (whether as a star or the second man) in the future.

 

[Section 101]

Playing through a pick does not a defender make.

So what makes a good defender?

 

[Asaf]

I have only one question. WTF were the teams who picked before the Kings looking at when they drafted other players? Cousins is CLEARLY the best player out of that draft! He is only a rookie, yet he commands a double team every night. He passes out of the double team with skill, getting many assists and partial assists. He can power up thru anyone in the post even though he does not possess dominating vertical leaping ability. He is exceedingly agile and quick for a man nearly 7 feet tall. His wingspan makes him difficult to score over and as he learns to play better defense he will become a very good defensive stopper. He has all the tools to become a dominant center for the next 10 years. So again, I ask, WTF were the teams selecting before the Kings looking at? #1 Washington - John Wall: Decent player, but plays on the wing and has only decent scoring ability. Is not a superstar however his quickness makes him a candidate to be very good. But Dominant? That is a major question mark.#2 76'ers - Evan Turner: Hasn't helped a woeful 76'er team to get any better. Another wing player with some scoring ability. Not likely to become dominant at his position. Just a nice outside scorer. #3 Nets - Derrick Favors: Has not shown skill or scoring ability to warrant a #3 selection. May become more skilled, but does not look like a player who will develop into a dominant player at his position. #4 Minnesota - Wesley Johnson: The Timberwolves organization is full of imbeciles. This is another stupid draft pick by the same team that took Rubio who will probably never play in Minnesota EVER. The GM for the Wolves is on the edge of forced retirement. The Wrath of Kahn is starting to get ugly.

And then the Kings select Demarcus Cousins at #5. Sure there were some maturity issues with a 20 year old player. But freekin LOOK at him! Nearly 7' tall, agile, fast, and knows how to score and set up his teammates to score. He is quickly learning NBA defense, the only thing holding him back right now is foul trouble. Ref's are giving him hell his rookie season, yet he keeps plugging along knowing it will get better next season. He has vaulted into 2nd place behind Griffin for ROY, even though that isnt very fair because Griffin is actually a 2nd year player no matter what the league says. If there were no Griffin on the ballot, Cousins would get serious consideration for the ROY. Who else would get consideration? Not a very strong crop in the 2010 draft. With a coupla free agent signings for next season and possibly a few trades, the Kings are beginning to look like a very strong core team with a lot of upside! They have their franchise center and a franchise wing player. They need another outside scoring threat and possibly a slashing 3 to balance the floor. All could come to fruition next season if there isnt a labor stoppage. Cousins is playing great and the attitude issues have proven to be minor at best! Cousins is a STEAL at #5 and the 4 teams ahead of the Kings are KICKING themselves in the HEAD for not drafting this kid! He isn't a bad person. He is an emotional 20 year old who wants to win! Isn't that what you want in a player? A player with a deep desire to win and to make those around him better? Wholly Molly how stupid do those 4 GM's ahead of Petrie look now? I say Go BOOGIE GO !! Go Kings !! The future is looking brighter and brighter. The opportunity to avenge the travesty of the game 5 debacle by Dick Bavetta is just around the corner. Justice WILL PREVAIL!

TBH, we probably would've picked Wall had we had the #1 pick. Wall has been battling injuries, but if he manages to stay healthy, he will be a top-5 PG in the leagues within a couple of years. I'm glad we got Cousins, because dominant centers are a much more rare breed than great PGs, but Wall was certainly the consensus #1 pick.

I agree about the rest, though. Cousins should've definitely gone no lower than #2.

 

[The Hammer]

If only we could talk management into taking this process and using it in trades/signings...

Dalembert. Jeter. And I still like the Landry trade, from a capspace point of view and talent wise. To me, that's 3 winners in a row. Solid winners. Jeter is the future back up pg. Dude's a pro. His shooting has been money lately too.

 

[bajaden]

I'll have to look back at Rose's numbers during the early part of last season, but it'd be great to see Tyreke make the kind of leap that Rose has made this season. It would also be great if he could leap like Rose during all of his seasons.

Rose got off to a terrible start in his sophmore year, leading people to question if he was really that good or not. But he turned it around and the second half of the year was actually better than his rookie season.

 

[bajaden]

There were scared off by all the "red flags" surrounding Cousins. All the talk of him being a head case, having attitude problems, being out of shape, etc. It was pretty commonly thought that he would have went 1 or 2 if not for all those issues. It didn't seem like any team other than The Kings really did any research to find out the truth about Cousins, they seemingly just believed the media reports and passed on him because of them.

I don't want to toot my own horn, well I guess I do. But it wasn't that hard to figure out that Cousins was going to be very good. It also wasn't that hard to do the reseach to find out that. While he wasn't the poster child for the Nobel peace prize, he also wasn't the thug he was being protrayed as. If one took the time to go back and read the campus newspapers and watch all the videos of suspossed examples of his bad bahavior, you found out that a lot of it was very exaggerated, and in some cases never happened.

There's no doubt that there was some risk involved with picking him. But his talent clearly overshadowed that risk. At least in my opinion. Bear in mind that there's a reason why teams are picking 1 through 5. Especially the teams that are in the group frequently. When your team is constantly in the lottery, especially at the top of the lottery board, you've probably got brain dead management leading the way. Minnesota is being led by an idiot, that drafts for need, time and time again, with no regard for overall talent. Lets continue to hope, that if a team is picking in front of the Kings, its Minnesota.

Its no secret that there were a lot of teams down in the draft. Teams with good management, that were trying to move up in the draft to take Cousins. And that was my biggest fear prior to the draft.

 

[bajaden]

Think you're underrating John Wall though. And let's not forget that many of us were high on Evan Turner as the perfect fit next to Tyreke. He may not be playing well now, especially on a sixers team that doesn't take well to rookies, but I assure you he'll become a valuable player (whether as a star or the second man) in the future.

I agree. I think all of the top picks will end up being good players. Its rare for rookies to come into the league and play up the expectations of the fans. Lets face it. In most cases the teams picking in the top five aren't very good. As a result those top picks are looked at by fans as their saviors. Expectations are placed that are difficult to live up to. Especially in the short term. There are the rare players that can. But in almost every case, those players end up being stars or even superstars. Looking at it from that prespective, the future looks very bright for Cousins. And Tyreke as well.

But as for the other players, like Johnson, Favors, or Turner. Remember that the great Steve Nash didn't do anything to stand out his first 3 years in the league, and didn't really reach star level status until his fifth year in the league. Jermaine O'Neal was an absolute bust his first 3 years in the league. Players get drafted high because of two reasons. One is, that its just a weak draft, and you could just shuffle the deck and pick, and hope for the best. Sheldon Williams is an example of that. The other is that the player is very talented, and its just a matter of time for said player to figure out how to adapt that talent to the NBA.

My bad! There is a third reason. You have a stupid GM, or owner, who thinks he knows more than the GM, and your team picks someone at 2 or 3 that should have been picked at 20. Issiah Thomas, Khan, and the owner of the Memphis Grizzleys spring to mind.

 

[Dr. Spaceman]

I'd love to keep Dalembert with that 3-year contract that has been proposed, but keep in mind that he is turning 30 in May. He could be thinking that this might be his last shot at a big, long-term contract and would probably be able to get said big contract on the market. Although the 3-year deal would be incredibly convenient for us, I wonder if he sees such a deal so favorably. Especially with the mixed playing experience he's had with the Kings this year. Maybe if we really get things rolling for the rest of the season, OKC style.

 

[giantking1355]

In an SI article they had a scouts take on Cousins, and he roughly said "He has a lot of talent but I wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole, he takes to many plays off and he's like Derrick Coleman, once he gets paid he's gonna stop caring".

To me that's a bunch a B.S.

It appears he doesn't try on defense sometimes but I think he just gets confused on whats a foul and just sits there so he doesn't foul. it also appears he gets exhausted which isn't good but fixable.

To me the skys the limit and I'm looking forward to watching the journey.

 

[Tetsujin]

Completely unrelated but I was lurking on a Sixer fansite and someone was trying to legitimately support his contention that the Sixers were better off with Hawes than DeMarcus. Strange, I had already almost forgotten that Hawes was ever on this team.

 

[est.1999]

Completely unrelated but I was lurking on a Sixer fansite and someone was trying to legitimately support his contention that the Sixers were better off with Hawes than DeMarcus. Strange, I had already almost forgotten that Hawes was ever on this team.

Was he basing his statement on their games or supposed "character issues"? Cause no one with an ounce of a brain should ever think for one second that Spencer Hawes has more game or can bring more to a franchise than DMC.

 

[Tetsujin]

Was he basing his statement on their games or supposed "character issues"? Cause no one with an ounce of a brain should ever think for one second that Spencer Hawes has more game or can bring more to a franchise than DMC.

Said that Hawes was a better shooter (ugh) and was a more efficient rebounder (uhhh what?) and shot blocker (can't actually argue that one) in addition to having more potential than DeMarcus.

 

[Sac.Kings]

http://www.foxsportsohio.com/msn/01/31/11/Double-Dribbles-Cousins-fit-for-Kings/landing.html?blockID=401243&feedID=3724

This is a nice little story on Cousins and his recent accomplishments (the games against the lakers and hornets)... but as always they made a little mention of his "negative" side, although thankfully there wasn't much on it.

 

[ElRey]

Said that Hawes was a better shooter (ugh) and was a more efficient rebounder (uhhh what?) and shot blocker (can't actually argue that one) in addition to having more potential than DeMarcus.

that's great. when do we play Philadelphia?! lets see what happens when they play each other. haha

 

[mac]

that's great. when do we play Philadelphia?! lets see what happens when they play each other. haha

Ughh I have a feeling it's going to be really ugly. High chances of it turning into a big man 3 point shooting contest. Andrea Bargnani and Dirk may pop up from the stands and join in. Seriously though Cousins has yet to consistently punish the other team inside. He's shown us glimpses of solid footwork but is still lacking the explosiveness to finish well. In the last two games he was just hitting outside shot after outside shot. So I'm not so sure that our dear Spencer Hawes is going to be so outworked by DMC, though I certainly hope that Westphal will call for DMC to attack him inside (since PW should know how much of a softy Hawes is)

 

[Aenadin]

Ughh I have a feeling it's going to be really ugly. High chances of it turning into a big man 3 point shooting contest. Andrea Bargnani and Dirk may pop up from the stands and join in. Seriously though Cousins has yet to consistently punish the other team inside. He's shown us glimpses of solid footwork but is still lacking the explosiveness to finish well. In the last two games he was just hitting outside shot after outside shot. So I'm not so sure that our dear Spencer Hawes is going to be so outworked by DMC, though I certainly hope that Westphal will call for DMC to attack him inside (since PW should know how much of a softy Hawes is)

SIZE ALONE will work hawes over, we all know how good of a defender he is against big men, so the fact that he can man handle hawes inside would be to our advantage.

its going to be the battle of 6"8 PFs with brand and Landry though... there is NO excuse for our front court to lose to them when that time comes.

What I love about demarcus is he can play high post distributor as we have seen him do against NO, evans is getting better at moving with out the ball, if cousins starts to lose a few more lbs its going to be nice to see him get much faster.

 

[Bricklayer]

Ughh I have a feeling it's going to be really ugly. High chances of it turning into a big man 3 point shooting contest. Andrea Bargnani and Dirk may pop up from the stands and join in. Seriously though Cousins has yet to consistently punish the other team inside. He's shown us glimpses of solid footwork but is still lacking the explosiveness to finish well. In the last two games he was just hitting outside shot after outside shot. So I'm not so sure that our dear Spencer Hawes is going to be so outworked by DMC, though I certainly hope that Westphal will call for DMC to attack him inside (since PW should know how much of a softy Hawes is)

People remain just confused on this issue amongst many.

Cousins shooting jumpers does NOT equal Cousins doesn't go inside, in particular on physically weak opponents. What he is doing, and doing beautifully, is learning at an amazing rate what does and does not work against various opponnets. In 3 months he's already figured out he just can't bang and overpower the bigger taller centers in the league in the post, and so he exploits them out where he has an advantage. Have LaMarcuus Aldridge guard him and all of a sudden he goes down inside and goes to work. DeMarcus Cousins takes more shots within 10 feet of the hoop than does Tim Duncan (7.5 attempts/gm to Duncan's 6.5), and does it in fewer minutes. In fact I am going to go ahead and crunch some numbers here, using hoopdata's shot location charting. The link to the raw page is here: http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

NBA Bigs, shots within 10 feet of the hoop, per 40 minutes
Howard 12.9
Randolph 12.8
Stoudemire 12.7
Milicic 12.7
Ming 12.4
Griffin 12.3
Bogut 12.0
Bynum 12.0
Boozer 11.8
Cousins 11.5
Kaman 11.3
Hibbert 11.2
Scola 11.2
Lopez 10.9
Aldridge 10.8
O'Neal 10.5
Jefferson 10.3
Hickson 10.0
P.Gasol 9.5
Love 9.7
Blatche 9.2
Lee 9.0
Nene 9.0
Duncan 8.9
Noah 8.7
Odom 8.5
Okafor 8.5
Milsap 8.4
J.Smith 7.8
West 7.7
M.Gasol 7.6
Horford 7.1
Bargnani 7.0
Varejao 6.8
Brand 6.3
Bosh 6.1
Green 6.0

*methodology: I took the combined shots at rim and shots < 10feet for every PF or C appearing on the Top 40 list for either shots at rim or shots <10 feet, divided the total by their minutes played, then multiplied the result by 40(min) to get the per 40 rate.

So Cousins is 10th in the entire league in interior shots taken per minute, hanging with the elite bangers and rim attackers in the league as a 20yr old rookie who's body isn't even fully developed yet, and yet we have a line of argument developing that he doesn't go inside enough? Who exactly does then? I can only explain it by people again just not having a very realistic view of what goes on in the rest of the league. ESPN may make it look like Blake Griffin dunks 20 times a game, but in reality he takes less than 1 extra shot inside per 40 minutes than does Cousins. And he's 2-3years older and has twice the vertical leap.

 

[FaStRmAn]

Dude are your paragraphs ever less than 250 words? Please please, half the people on this board have asked you to stop with the wall of texts. I find your opinion rather worth reading, but it's torture to read through your posts.

Think you're underrating John Wall though. And let's not forget that many of us were high on Evan Turner as the perfect fit next to Tyreke. He may not be playing well now, especially on a sixers team that doesn't take well to rookies, but I assure you he'll become a valuable player (whether as a star or the second man) in the future.

I can appreciate your desire for brevity, but some people need more than 127 characters of a facebook page post to get their ideas across. 2 Paragraphs really? Please, if you dont like my long posts, use your scroll key and hit the down arrow. I put a great deal of thought into my posts, and I edit them often. I take whole paragraphs out to try and shorten my posts. Some posts only require one sentance, some a paragraph, and some a bit more. But really, if you don't like my posts, feel free to use the scroll key. There are others who post significantly longer and more verbose posts than I, yet I enjoy them throughly. See, I was able to respond in only 9 sentences !! Now that is Growth (oops, that's 10!).

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

I can appreciate your desire for brevity, but some people need more than 127 characters of a facebook page post to get their ideas across. 2 Paragraphs really? Please, if you dont like my long posts, use your scroll key and hit the down arrow. I put a great deal of thought into my posts, and I edit them often. I take whole paragraphs out to try and shorten my posts. Some posts only require one sentance, some a paragraph, and some a bit more. But really, if you don't like my posts, feel free to use the scroll key. There are others who post significantly longer and more verbose posts than I, yet I enjoy them throughly. See, I was able to respond in only 9 sentences !! Now that is Growth (oops, that's 10!).

I think he's just trying to be helpful. People would understand and appreciate your thoughts more if they were organized into shorter, clearer paragraphs. The overall length of the post is not the issue; it is instead the length of each individual paragraph.

That said, if you aren't interested in some well-intentioned writing criticism, then you can scroll right past this post

 

[mac]

People remain just confused on this issue amongst many.

Cousins shooting jumpers does NOT equal Cousins doesn't go inside, in particular on physically weak opponents. What he is doing, and doing beautifully, is learning at an amazing rate what does and does not work against various opponnets. In 3 months he's already figured out he just can't bang and overpower the bigger taller centers in the league in the post, and so he exploits them out where he has an advantage. Have LaMarcuus Aldridge guard him and all of a sudden he goes down inside and goes to work. DeMarcus Cousins takes more shots within 10 feet of the hoop than does Tim Duncan (7.5 attempts/gm to Duncan's 6.5), and does it in fewer minutes. In fact I am going to go ahead and crunch some numbers here, using hoopdata's shot location charting. The link to the raw page is here: http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

NBA Bigs, shots within 10 feet of the hoop, per 40 minutes
Howard 12.9
Randolph 12.8
Stoudemire 12.7
Milicic 12.7
Ming 12.4
Griffin 12.3
Bogut 12.0
Bynum 12.0
Boozer 11.8
Cousins 11.5
Kaman 11.3
Hibbert 11.2
Scola 11.2
Lopez 10.9
Aldridge 10.8
O'Neal 10.5
Jefferson 10.3
Hickson 10.0
P.Gasol 9.5
Love 9.7
Lee 9.0
Blatche 9.2
Nene 9.0
Duncan 8.9
Noah 8.7
Odom 8.5
Okafor 8.5
Milsap 8.4
J.Smith 7.8
West 7.7
M.Gasol 7.6
Horford 7.1
Bargnani 7.0
Varejao 6.8
Brand 6.3
Bosh 6.1
Green 6.0

*methodology: I took the combined shots at rim and shots < 10feet for every PF or C appearing on the Top 40 list for either shots at rim or shots <10 feet, divided the total by their minutes played, then multiplied the result by 40(min) to get the per 40 rate.

So Cousins is 10th in the entire league in interior shots taken per minute, hanging with the elite bangers and rim attackers in the league as a 20yr old rookie who's body isn't even fully developed yet, and yet we have a line of argument developing that he doesn't go inside enough? Who exactly does then? I can only explain it by people again just not having a very realistic view of what goes on in the rest of the league. ESPN may make it look like Blake Griffin dunks 20 times a game, but in reality he takes less than 1 extra shot inside per 40 minutes than does Cousins. And he's 2-3years older and has twice the vertical leap.

Umm ... I'm guessing this was directed at me, but if you read carefully nowhere did I say that he doesn't go inside enough. I was joking about the Big Man 3 point shootout thing. What I did say was that in the past two games which we won Cousins got a lot of his points away from the basket(and I don't think you'll disagree with me on this), and that he hasn't consistently gone for like 20 points a game scoring inside on the other team. Against smaller or poor defenders such as Hawes, I'm hoping that the team will get the ball to Cousins down low more instead of having him out at the high post as we do quite often, so that we can take advantage of the matchup inside.

If I'm not wrong your stats show attempts around the rim right? Would be good if you could get makes, and percentage wise I don't think Cousins will be among the top 10 in makes, though I may be wrong. Thus I said that he still lacks the explosiveness to finish well after his awesome post moves.

Like I said, I'm not certain that Hawes will just get bullied inside by Cousins, but it's likely that Cousins will find a way to score with Hawes defending him, be it outside or inside.

 

[mac]

I think he's just trying to be helpful. People would understand and appreciate your thoughts more if they were organized into shorter, clearer paragraphs. The overall length of the post is not the issue; it is instead the length of each individual paragraph.

That said, if you aren't interested in some well-intentioned writing criticism, then you can scroll right past this post

Thanks. You hit it right on the nail

 

[ESP47]

Why is the argument of whether or not Cousins plays under the basket always coming up? The guy is constantly in the post and when he's not, he's constantly draining 16-17 foot jumpers. He has by far the best 16 foot jumper on the team. Coming into this season I would have said Landry, but Cousins has surpassed him there.

Hawes may have more range with his shooting but its not nearly as good as Cousins' inside the 3pt arc.

If you put Cousins vs Hawes for any extended period of time, Hawes would probably block him a few times but he would also get scored on about 20+ and out rebounded by a lot as well.

 

[rhythmless]

Uh... why are we even mentioning Hawes "guarding" Cousins? You guys were fans before last summer right? It's pretty common knowledge that Hawes plays no defense, and even less so against full sized centers. He gets bullied, he gets pushed. His response is to shoot 3s like Okur. Hawes is a little boy in a bigger boy's body. No pride, no aggression. Cousins will eat him up like an appetizer when he comes in.

 

[bajaden]

People remain just confused on this issue amongst many.

Cousins shooting jumpers does NOT equal Cousins doesn't go inside, in particular on physically weak opponents. What he is doing, and doing beautifully, is learning at an amazing rate what does and does not work against various opponnets. In 3 months he's already figured out he just can't bang and overpower the bigger taller centers in the league in the post, and so he exploits them out where he has an advantage. Have LaMarcuus Aldridge guard him and all of a sudden he goes down inside and goes to work. DeMarcus Cousins takes more shots within 10 feet of the hoop than does Tim Duncan (7.5 attempts/gm to Duncan's 6.5), and does it in fewer minutes. In fact I am going to go ahead and crunch some numbers here, using hoopdata's shot location charting. The link to the raw page is here: http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

NBA Bigs, shots within 10 feet of the hoop, per 40 minutes
Howard 12.9
Randolph 12.8
Stoudemire 12.7
Milicic 12.7
Ming 12.4
Griffin 12.3
Bogut 12.0
Bynum 12.0
Boozer 11.8
Cousins 11.5
Kaman 11.3
Hibbert 11.2
Scola 11.2
Lopez 10.9
Aldridge 10.8
O'Neal 10.5
Jefferson 10.3
Hickson 10.0
P.Gasol 9.5
Love 9.7
Lee 9.0
Blatche 9.2
Nene 9.0
Duncan 8.9
Noah 8.7
Odom 8.5
Okafor 8.5
Milsap 8.4
J.Smith 7.8
West 7.7
M.Gasol 7.6
Horford 7.1
Bargnani 7.0
Varejao 6.8
Brand 6.3
Bosh 6.1
Green 6.0

*methodology: I took the combined shots at rim and shots < 10feet for every PF or C appearing on the Top 40 list for either shots at rim or shots <10 feet, divided the total by their minutes played, then multiplied the result by 40(min) to get the per 40 rate.

So Cousins is 10th in the entire league in interior shots taken per minute, hanging with the elite bangers and rim attackers in the league as a 20yr old rookie who's body isn't even fully developed yet, and yet we have a line of argument developing that he doesn't go inside enough? Who exactly does then? I can only explain it by people again just not having a very realistic view of what goes on in the rest of the league. ESPN may make it look like Blake Griffin dunks 20 times a game, but in reality he takes less than 1 extra shot inside per 40 minutes than does Cousins. And he's 2-3years older and has twice the vertical leap.

Great post, and dead on. Sometimes perception is not reality, contrary to what the advertizing firms around the country would want you to believe. I was thinking of doing a similar post using stats from 82 games, but got lazy and didn't. Now I'm glad I didn't..

 

[rainmaker]

I can appreciate your desire for brevity, but some people need more than 127 characters of a facebook page post to get their ideas across. 2 Paragraphs really? Please, if you dont like my long posts, use your scroll key and hit the down arrow. I put a great deal of thought into my posts, and I edit them often. I take whole paragraphs out to try and shorten my posts. Some posts only require one sentance, some a paragraph, and some a bit more. But really, if you don't like my posts, feel free to use the scroll key. There are others who post significantly longer and more verbose posts than I, yet I enjoy them throughly. See, I was able to respond in only 9 sentences !! Now that is Growth (oops, that's 10!).

It has nothing to do with length, or whether or not we like what you post. Mac, myself, and others have asked you to make your "wall of text" easier to read numerous times over the past year at least.

What I don't understand is that you say you put a great deal of thought into your posts, and myself and others would like to read your posts, but the way in which you post makes it very hard on the eyes. So we ask you to make it easier to read, and you tell us to just scroll down?

No one is asking you to shorten your posts. No one is attacking you for the content of your posts. The only thing we're asking is for you to make your posts easier to read, for those of us who do want to read your posts. I'm not sure where your attitude is coming from, and somehow you're mssing the entire point, and have been for the last year.

There is not one other poster on this forum who posts these giant "walls of text" on a regular basis like you do. The other significantly longer and verbose posts that others post, are always easier to read, whether it's Brick, Bajaden, CruzDude, or others who regularly post long posts. If you disagree, please find one post, from one other poster, which has a wall of text which is harder to read than what you post regularly.

 

[bajaden]

It has nothing to do with length, or whether or not we like what you post. Mac, myself, and others have asked you to make your "wall of text" easier to read numerous times over the past year at least.

What I don't understand is that you say you put a great deal of thought into your posts, and myself and others would like to read your posts, but the way in which you post makes it very hard on the eyes. So we ask you to make it easier to read, and you tell us to just scroll down?

No one is asking you to shorten your posts. No one is attacking you for the content of your posts. The only thing we're asking is for you to make your posts easier to read, for those of us who do want to read your posts. I'm not sure where your attitude is coming from, and somehow you're mssing the entire point, and have been for the last year.

There is not one other poster on this forum who posts these giant "walls of text" on a regular basis like you do. The other significantly longer and verbose posts that others post, are always easier to read, whether it's Brick, Bajaden, CruzDude, or others who regularly post long posts. If you disagree, please find one post, from one other poster, which has a wall of text which is harder to read than what you post regularly.

Are you implying that I make long posts? Surely not! Good thing I don't have one of those computers that will translate the spoken word to script. I'd overload the entire internet.... My blessing, which is that I used to be able to type a 100 words a minute, is now your nightmare. Good thing my fingers get tired..

 

[rainmaker]

Are you implying that I make long posts? Surely not! Good thing I don't have one of those computers that will translate the spoken word to script. I'd overload the entire internet.... My blessing, which is that I used to be able to type a 100 words a minute, is now your nightmare. Good thing my fingers get tired..

We all love your posts. It's as if we have our own nba insider. Actually, I think you could run a very successful blog if that's something which would peak your fancy.

 

[Section 101]

Are you implying that I make long posts? Surely not! Good thing I don't have one of those computers that will translate the spoken word to script. I'd overload the entire internet.... My blessing, which is that I used to be able to type a 100 words a minute, is now your nightmare. Good thing my fingers get tired..

too much time on your hands !