Brick, I think you are way off base with your inability to talk realistically about Cuz's problem on the court. It wasn't a big deal until you made it one. 99% vs. 1%? Ridiculous. We talk and talk and talk about Cuz's greatness but mention a serious Cuz flaw and you're done for. Ease up.
DeMarcus defense
- Thread starter VF21
- Start date
Brick, I think you are way off base with your inability to talk realistically about Cuz's problem on the court. It wasn't a big deal until you made it one. 99% vs. 1%? Ridiculous. We talk and talk and talk about Cuz's greatness but mention a serious Cuz flaw and you're done for. Ease up.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
No, I am the one and only person here who is blistering the herd with the actual FACTS of the case. The cold, hard, inescapable numbers.
Let me try to sum up the cognitive dissonance issue here:
The facts:
DeMarcus Cousins positives (scoring, rebounding, huge def impact etc.)
minus
DeMarcus Cousins negatives
-------------------------------------
= DeMarcus Cousins greatness (27pts 11reb huge defensive impact)
The cognitive dissonance of the naysayer:
DeMarcus Cousins greatness (27pts 11reb huge defensive impact)
minus
DeMarcus Cousins negatives
----------------------------------------
= something less
Its a double counting logical flaw.
The FACTS are that all of DeMarcus Cousins great plays minus all of DeMarcus Cousins bad plays = 27pts 11reb huge defensive impact and the best big in the game. That's the package. That's the facts of the case.
The naysayers logic fail is that it becomes 27pts 11reb huge defensive impact MINUS all DeMarcus Cousins bad plays = sorry less great.
Not the way it works. Each and every bad play is already accounted for in the massive numbers and impact. He is all that great even with all of them. No other King ever has been. Precious few other basketball players for any team ever have been. He's an historic level player. You put Cousins on Milwaukee and he's the best player they have had since Kareem. You put him on the Hornets/former Bobcats and he's the best they've ever had.
You want to make a 100% valid complaint, a possible if not entirely reasonable one about Cousins warts? Then you have to start with something he has NOT done. Because what he HAS done includes multiple All Star appearances, multiple (after this season) All NBA appearances, likely multiple National Team appearances and gold medals. So here we go with something further: golly gee, I sure do wish DeMarcus Cousins would quit complaining to the refs, if he did he might challenge Steph Curry for MVP.
P.S. on another front, the occasional argument that somehow DeMarcus Cousins "demoralizes" his team in such a peculiar way that they all play radically better when he is on the court, and then collapse when he is off of it, is such a logical stretch that it just has to leap out at you. Here's a far more logically consistent explanation: 1) his massive talent makes an overwhelming impact no other player on the Kings can match and 2) awareness of his overwhelming impact inspires confidence in his teammates when he is out there, and a lack of confidence when he is not. Try it, you will find that explanation answers virtually every "mystery" about the team's performance with and without Cousins. He is their confidence and he is their backbone. With him they believe. Without him they do not.
KingsFanGER
Starter
How do we know, that Cousins behaviour affects the team? Do you believe, that guys like Rondo, Gay or Bellinelli don't give enough effort on D, because Cousins is late getting back and argues with the ref's from time to time?
I think we still have to keep in mind, that Cousins makes more defensive plays than almost anyone else on this roster. He is one of our best defenders.
And yet we should still believe, that it's his fault, that his teammates are bad on defense?
Cousins will most likely never be a "nice" guy. He will always have his antics. But I think we tend to overvalue those things.
If he truely drags down the locker room, you listen to trade offers as long as his value is high.
But actually I never heard a bad word about DMC from his teammates and Vlade has be adamant to not trade DMC.
I don't think a guy like Vlade would do this, if DMC has a negative effect on the team.
Cousins defensive lapses are a lot more than 1 percent of the total plays. He rests on defense some of the time. It is noticeable when he does not slide over from the weak side. Look at the percentage of made shots that the Kings give up that are layups. He is a great player, but would be even better if he stopped arguing and quit "giving up on plays" that Christy likes to talk about.
Section 101
All-Star
Maybe if the wings weren't playing matador defense he wouldn't have to cover their asses the whole game and there would be less.
macadocious
Starter
Check out Marcus Thompsons article on Draymond Green. You could replace greens name with Cousins and it would read he same, except the winning part.
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
Draymond had a game where he scored 1 point I believe but had 15 + rebounds, 5+ assists, blocks and steals...he doesn't need to score to affect the game.
