It was pleasure to watch the 6'11" center play for U of L. He has the vertical game, runs the floor and plays really hard. He has a jump shot from past 15 feet and is a good rebounder. He pinned a few shots on the glass. It will take some time for a player like him in the weight room to compete in the NBA, but he seems to have a lot of skills already. Moving cousins to the 4 starts to become a real possibility with a guy like Dueng.
Dueng from Louisville type player
- Thread starter ppine
- Start date
bajaden
Hall of Famer
Not to nit pic, but his name is spelled Dieng. My question is, why do you want to move Cousins to the PF position? Dieng is mobile enough to guard most PF's in the league, and Cousins isn't. I'll say it again, I don't want Cousins out there getting in foul trouble trying to guard guys like Millsap, Landry, and Favors, who are all quicker than he is. He is not Chris Webber just because he can play in the highpost, shoot the Jumpshot, and pass the ball well. Those are all nice attributes for any big to have, but it doesn't make him Webber, who could jump out of the building and was much quicker than Cousins. Webb weighed around 250 pounds, and Cousins weighs over 270 pounds.
I'm just befuddled. We have a player in Cousins that has the potential to a top 3 center in the league, and people want to make him into a PF. Instead of trying to make Cousins into something he's not, why don't we find the right PF to put along side of him. Or is that too logical!!!
Kingster
Hall of Famer
Totally agree. This idea of Cousins guarding power forwards is nonsensical, borne from the revelation that he isn't an easy fit, given his current penchant for no defense. Centers who don't play D tends to be problematic for teams. At least for that teams that want to win.
My read on Cousins' defense lately is there hasn't been much. So if you go by the current evidence, you better have a mega defender at the pf position to offset his weakness. Hard to say, though, whether this no-D Cousins is here to stay or not. At the beginning of the year he showed a great aptitude for taking charges. Then he had his mental issues with the refs et al.; then the graph of those charges seems to have plummeted from left to right. It's as if he just said to himself: screw it, I ain't playing no D so I can stay him the game; if I ain't playing D, no ref is going to be able to call a foul on me. He's basically given up. I saw a play last game in which he *literally* waved at the guy going past him. "Matador defense", as Chick Hearn used to call it. So who is the real Cousins? The guy who took the charges at the beginning of the season, or the guy currently waving at players as blow by him?
bajaden
Hall of Famer
I doubt that Cuz will ever be a great defender, but with the proper coaching, he can be decent to good at team defense. There's no doubt that he's gun shy right now. Not only is he worried that any little thing he does will be called a foul, and the ref's are a little biased when it comes to Cousins, (payback is a *****) he's also worried that if he gets two fouls on him he's out of the game, and many times forgotten about for 12 or more minutes of playing time. Once again, I think a good coach can correct a lot of these problems. That said, it would help to have a mobile and preferly a shotblocking PF next to him. As much as I like JT, Patterson played much better team defense when he was on the floor with Cuz, and it really helped Cousins, who had become afraid to even try and defend the pick and roll, due to no one having his back at the basket. Patterson did!
Now the Kings' have shown some serious scoring fire power, it it logical to try to shore up the weak defense. The first place to look is a dominant center that can change the shots of the opposition inside. Several people have eloquently pointed out the defensive liabilities of a player like cousins. Average to below average playing defense as a center, and probably too slow to play defense on many PFs. When he feels like it, as in the last game of the season he blocked several shots.
Glenn
Hall of Famer
Too logical. I wish you'd knock that crap off.
Darth Divac
Bench
I want Dieng badly. He screams perfect fit for this team.
bajaden
Hall of Famer
Darth Divac
Bench
I can see it coming into shape....Evans/Douglas/???????/Dieng/Cousins.....
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