Sources: George Karl pushing for Kings to trade DeMarcus Cousins (Yahoo Sports)

[Yahoo! Sports - NBA -]

The Kings have become increasingly open to discussing deals for both DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay.

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[hrdboild]

Wow, anyone else think Pete D is a little upset with our front office? First there was the whole "Woj, tell everybody Vivek made me fire Malone" article and now he lobs a "George Karl wants to trade Cousins" grenade in our general direction. I hope Kings fans don't buy into this BS.

 

[Sac.1989]

its pretty simple. Karl himself needs to come out, put his pride aside and say that this isnt a possibility. Anything short of that and this circus will continue and this persistent sniping in the media does us no favours. None. This absolutely must be addressed. Our existance depends on it

 

[Sac.1989]

if there is any truth to the article then we need to cut Karl and bring in Thibs ASAP. Thibs is the only one who can immediately turn this around. Focus on Defense and have the respect of Boogie and Rudy from the get go.

 

[SacTownKid]

So, Karl wants to get rid of the two all star caliber players he has? Sorry that makes no sense and I highly doubt a coach in his position has even thought about that. He wants to win now, this is just stupid.

 

[Larry89]

Karl has had problems with Allen, Payton, Melo, Lawson, Iguodala... this does not surprise me

 

[hrdboild]

Karl has had problems with Allen, Payton, Melo, Lawson, Iguodala... this does not surprise me

George Karl is a prickly personality because he believes he's better than his players and isn't shy about insinuating as much. Behind closed doors, he knows how to coach though and he's been able to forge positive working relationships which result in winning teams. Does anyone else remember the story about Carmelo Anthony visiting Karl in the hospital during one of his bouts with cancer and how he didn't have the heart to tell them they'd just been eliminated from the playoffs? Their partnership produced 4 consecutive 50 win seasons in Denver. The verbal sparring only occurred after Melo forced his way out of Denver and George Karl touted his ability to win more games without him. Sounded like some wounded egos on both sides to me.

I don't think he'll ever get along with DeMarcus the way Mike Malone did, but that doesn't mean they can't both benefit from the relationship. George Karl has things to teach DeMarcus that he probably couldn't learn from anyone else and there's no way Karl gets the Kings anywhere near a championship without DeMarcus buying in and playing hard. Not every coach/player relationship needs to be holding hands and singing kumbaya. I'll settle for grudging respect if that's what gets results.