Yes, and nobody here disregards that nothing is certain with Cousins. All we are saying is that it is clear that Cousins has the potential to be the best big man in the league. We should be building around that (what we have right now), and perhaps see how it goes along under a good coach for 2-3 years. Isaiah Thomas is not leading us to ever possibly winning a championship. He is a huge liability on the defensive end and was drafted #60 for a reason. He has certainly proved to be far far more valuable than the 60th pick, but there is no frikin way on earth that I am building my team around a 5'9 shoot-first Point Guard. That doesn't mean I don't value what he could similarly do under a good coach. It just means I don't value what he's doing right now, nor the way that the organization has pumped him up.
Just out of curiosity - is it true that teams normally announce their best, star player last? E.g. LeBron James would be introduced last, Kobe last etc. Because against the Clippers the order was Salmons, JT, Cuz, MT, IT. I found that strange.
i have, since the day he was drafted, trumpeted the notion that a home run swing that misses with demarcus cousins is worth it
so much more than a base hit with an inferior talent. you get nowhere in either case, but at least you put yourself in a position to achieve greatness when you rolled the dice on a player like cousins. for a small market franchise like sacramento, you get very few opportunities to swing for the rafters. in 28 years, there has not been a single kings draft pick with more potential than demarcus cousins. not one. and there might never be another with this much talent. bitter beer face? so what. technical fouls? pish posh. KG's got a ton of 'em. even the occasional ejection, while hardly ideal, doesn't bother me more than an ounce. demarcus has time to iron out his behavioral issues, and make no mistake, time is always what it takes...
but let's get hypothetical for a second and say that such an ejection occurred in the playoffs. this is, after all, what a lot of the naysayers are at least implicitly building their argument around, that demarcus can't be counted on, that his temper will hold this team back, that... wait a minute, **** me, i don't even give a ****, DMC would have gotten the kings into the playoffs!! after all, a guy that is capable of putting up 36/22/3/3 is a guy that can get you where you're trying to go. and where has this team been the last seven seasons? in the basement,
no where near the playoffs. ancient greek discus champions couldn't hit that mark from where the kings have been standing, because the kings, as an organization, have shown exactly
zero acumen for building around young talent with star potential...
of course, in answer to your curiosity, there are plenty of kings fans out there who are satisfied with rooting for isaiah thomas. he's announced last during introductions because he's a feel-good story, and feel-good stories generate a lotta cheers in sacramento. but ya know what generates more cheers? winning. and, in the contemporary nba, you win with star talent. you build with star talent. you begin with star talent. DMC is such a talent. it's true enough that he may never live up to his promise, but i'm taking that chance ten times out of ten. ****, if i could, i'd take that chance eleven times out of ten. such an opportunity may never come around again, to draft a player who could very quickly become "The Best ___ in the Game." you simply
do not sabotage yourself by casting that opportunity aside...