Kingster
Hall of Famer
Oh, yeah, thats it. Blame Petrie. Wow.
Read the post. I'm not blaming Petrie for Cousins' behavior. I'm blaming him for his feckless response to his behavior. See the diff?
Oh, yeah, thats it. Blame Petrie. Wow.
Not sure how many of you heard it today. Brought up a few things I found interesting.
First, said Cousins needs to shut the hell up and stop arguing with coaches and peers. Implied twice, that Cousins is not only arguing with members of the coaching staff, but teammates as well.
Said in the last 2 weeks, members of 3 seperate organizations said when teams pull into Arco, they are laughing at the banner of Cousins.
Veteran players on the team have a problem with the poster of Cousins on the side of Arco, and were mad it went up before Cousins had played a single game. Thinks that banner is not good for Cousins, or the other guys on the team.
Also, said veteran players, including Bobby Jax who is in the practice facility on a regular basis, have tried talking to Cousins about his professionalism on a number of occasions.
Just putting this out there for anyone who missed it.
I would like to point out that we don't even know what happened, much less whats in the mind of Evans, Petrie, Westphal or anyone else on the team. From what we can gleen, Cousins and Westphal had an argument over something at practice. Yeah, not a good thing. But we don't know the severity of the argument. We don't know who started it or what it was about. But bottom line is that it was an argument, and it happened on the practice court instead of the Coaches office where it should have happened. He didn't murder anyone. He didn't punch anyone, and as far we know, he didn't threaten anyone.
How hard would some of you be, if it had been Tyreke that got kicked out of practice? Be honest. Don't tell me you wouldn't be looking at this in an entirely different way. I'm not excusing anyone, but because its Cousins, its a lot easier to come down hard on him. Punish him with whatever the appropiate punishment is and move on. There are far too many rumors of unrest in the locker room, and thats not the best environment for a young immature player like Cousins. I would like to point out that Westphal had this same identical problem in Seattle. His problem child there was Gary Payton, who also questioned Westphals decisions on the court. Not excusing Cousins, but there is always more to the story than first appearance.
Baja - You are making excuses. You've always said the red flags were just talk and Cousins is starting to act in conformity with the issues rasied at that time. The fact that we don't "know" everything isn't in your favor. We do know that after a couple of months Cousins was fined, kicked out of practice, and has been bad enough that homer Grant has decided to call him out. If that's the case, I'm willing to bet it's not just two things.
"He didn't murder anyone?" Please! I get that you want to believe in this guy, but that's a weak take.
Look, they need to get a handle on this guy. They tried to bring in his HS coach and it looks like that wasn't enough. They took a little out of his wallet and that wasn't enough. Now, it's time for a little public pressure. Thus, he was kicked out of practice and they told the press.
I know everyone has an opinion .. and thats fine. The problem is, at least when it comes to Cousins being kicked out of practice is that we just dont know what happened.
Im having trouble wrapping my head around this whole situation. First of all, what kind of practices do we hold? why would Cousins have anything to argue about?
I mean, reports are that Cousins and Westphal go back and forth all the time, but NOW he gets kicked out .. why this time? and again .. what could they be disagreeing over that creates such a huge war of words that it gets out of hand.
I, along with a lot of other Kings fans have been watching Demarcus VERY closely since he was drafted by the Kings. Watching him play every NBA game of his career so far, I have actually been impressed with how he handles bad calls ( or calls he thinks are bad ) compaired to what I read about him. Sure, you can notice his frustrating with the call .. but the techs arent there. I dont see him pulling a Brad Miller where he will sit there and yell at a ref instead of getting back on defense. If his name wasnt Demarcus Cousins and he didnt have his reputation, NO ONE would have anything on the court to point to and say "This guy is an *******". In fact, Jason Thompson, one of the nicest guys on the team, is far worse ( or at least was when during his first two years ) when it came to compalining after fouls.
I hate how the this team has a "sky is falling" aura around it right now. We absolutely need to get back on track.
And you know what? Demarcus might be an idiot. He might be the guy everyone thinks he is. I dont see it, but I also dont know the guy. I do know Paul Westphal though. At least I think I do .. I have a better understanding of who Westphal is. Ive watched him coach longer, Ive listened to him talk a lot, and I dont know why HE would let this 'argument' go as long as he did.
My point is DONT let the argument get so out of hand that a crucial part of our team misses some of practice. Westphal needs to baby Cousins a bit. I know I know I know "Demarcus needs to shut up and play blah blah blah .. " but this is the NBA. Its not reality, its not how things work in this sport.
Cousins shouldnt have been kicked out of practice. It shouldnt have gotten to that point. It makes the negative cloud currently over the Kings even larger. I swear this team is one more negative moment away from completely collapsing. I dont want to have to see that. I've put too much time into this team. I love it too much to read negative story after negative story. Get your **** together over there. You dont have to win every game, you dont even have to win at all .. just make some damn progress.
Going public is a legit way to handle it. In the long run, you can't hide the problem from other NBA teams. But you can air it out in a way that makes it clear to the player that you've got to conform or flush dollars from your next contract down the drain.
Some reporters will get the story and fans have every right to be upset. It seems like you are saying the fans shouldn't be told that, after taking a potential head case, the team is seeing head case behavior. At this point, the Kings need to worry less about image and more about substance. This would be a good time to try it. Instead of trying to spin the news, try to fix the problem.
Pre draft, you backed this guy hard and tried to knock down every anti-Cousins posts. No matter why you root for him, now that he's having problems, it's fair to play the bias card against you.
Honestly, the pre-draft "red flags" was more the media making a mountain out of a molehill. Negative reporting always attracts a bigger audiance for them. Before teams draft anyone, GMs investigate very carefully, by talking to multiple people who know that player as a person very well, including those who have coached that player. Certainly a better more reliable way to get information than the media.Going public is a legit way to handle it. In the long run, you can't hide the problem from other NBA teams. But you can air it out in a way that makes it clear to the player that you've got to conform or flush dollars from your next contract down the drain.
Some reporters will get the story and fans have every right to be upset. It seems like you are saying the fans shouldn't be told that, after taking a potential head case, the team is seeing head case behavior. At this point, the Kings need to worry less about image and more about substance. This would be a good time to try it. Instead of trying to spin the news, try to fix the problem.
Pre draft, you backed this guy hard and tried to knock down every anti-Cousins posts. No matter why you root for him, now that he's having problems, it's fair to play the bias card against you.
The banners are pretty ridiculous. Bad move on the Maloofs part. As for Cousins arguing with teammates/coaches, I hope it doesn't become a chronic problem. It would be a real bummer if all the worst fears about Cousins come true.
If it was Tyreke, this forum would mount a lynch mob for Westphal's head.
I think the most disappointing thing about this is it seems Cousins told of Westphal, and that is disappointing because it's your 20 year old rookie taking action in a wayward, assbackwards season.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/01/3223609/embattled-cousins-gets-another.html#ixzz16tylu8BU"But I was being selfish. I'm a big part of this team, and coach (Paul) Westphal has been saying it. I've been terrible. It's the truth."
Grant had more to say about Cousins during his radio show today.
Said Cousins had run-ins with assistant coaches. Said that he (Grant) probably wouldn't have been as lenient as Westphal has been with Cousins. To paraphrase, Grant said that Westphal had essentially given Cousins a lot of rope until it got out of control and he had to kick him out of practice. It's up to Cousins to act like a professional. Said he (Grant) would suspend him. You can have all the support group in the world around the guy, but unless he wants to listen, it's not going to matter. Lastly, he said, it's not the end of the world. It's something that bears watching, however.
By the way, it's hardly speculation. The "nobody knows" argument doesn't wash. If anything, Napier has it in his interest as announcer to minimize the issue, not inflate the issue. The last thing he wants to do is turn off fans more than they are already. The fact that his 1140 ratings could blip up a few points because of piqued interest in Cousins immature behavior is nothing compared to the potentially negative effect on the Kings and his job down the line.
Bench the kid for a handful of games so he can wise up. It'll do him good. He's a pro and needs to show respect. Take down the banners and put up action shot banners of EACH player instead. I like the idea about C-Webb "counseling" Cousins. His issues need to be addressed ASAP someway or the other.
yeah, a friend picked up in the Indiana game the number of times Grant chided DMC at times where he normally wouldn't have made it personal against a singe player : "what's he doing going for a steal on tj ford at midcourt?" or how he shouldn't be reaching in on the offense in the post - in neither case was he actually called for a foul. i wouldn't even have noticed it but his chastizing of Cuz was indeed carrying over to the game.