Here's the deal. I started this thread, not to promote Cousins as our pick over Turner or Wall. But because I followed the guy all year and I think he's getting a bum rap. And part of the problem is something you just did in your post. I know it wasn't intentional, but the result could end up being the same. You stated that if he gets caught with girls and weed in his room at rookie camp you wouldn't be surprised. You also alluded to his offcourt problems. So first, he hasn't had any offcourt problems. All his problems have been on the court. And some of those have been exaggerated. According to one of his best friends and some of his teammates, he doesn't smoke, drink, or do any drugs. Actually most of his friends and teammates say he's a pretty goofy guy off the court.
Trust me, someone will read your post and come away thinking that Cousins smokes pot. And he'll post it on another fourm, and it go on and on and then it will become fact in everyone's mind. People see what they want to see.
I agree that worse case scenario would be Wallace. But why do we always assume the worse case. There have been plenty of players that had bad tempers that matured out of it as they got older. Wallace is one that didn't. Fine! Greivis Vasquez was a player that was considered a big time hot head his freshman year. And believe me he was. But now he's a different person. Oh he still has that fire in him. But he tempers it now. Who knows how Wallace might have turned out had he gone into a different inviorment from college.
My personal choice is still Turner. Thats the guy I want. But its just become too fashionable to beat up on Cousins. The guy has taken a lot of abuse. On the court and off from the so called pundits. And yeah, he brought some of it on himself by his actions before he even got to college. But from day one, every team he faced tried to provoke him into doing something stupid. And if he accidently did something, that if any other player had done, it would have been excused, but he of course was accused of doing it on purpose. Even the play where he slapped the player with the ball in the groin. If you watch the play closely, he was slapping at where the ball had been just a few seconds before. Unfortunately the player had raised the ball up and cousins got him in the groin. Even the announcers said it was accidental. Yes he reacted badly when he was called for a technical. And that was the reason Calapari pulled him from the game. But now its accepted by most that he intentionally hit the player in the groin.
He may turn out to be Gengis Kann. I don't have a crystal ball. But I do think he deserves more of benefit of the doubt than he's getting. I seriously doubt that most of the Holier than thou people could have put up with what he put up with this season.
