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The whispers about Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins possibly getting traded are growing louder. With one day before the 2015 NBA Draft, reports are now surfacing that new head coach George Karl is emphatically trying to convince Sacramento ownership that Cousins simply cannot be coached. Karl has a slight argument, given Cousins’ issues with authority in the past, but it did appear that Cousins and the rest of the Kings had begun to turn a corner early during the 2014-15 NBA season.
Things went south once Cousins fell ill heading into December last year, and a sinking Kings squad ended up spelling the end of the line for former head coach Michael Malone. Unhappy with the firing of Malone, Cousins appeared to have soured on the franchise and never established the same trust with Karl that he had with Malone.
Because of that, Karl isn’t backing Cousins and it’s opened a can of worms that Sacramento may not be able to contain much longer. That could lead to shipping ‘Boogie’ out of town.
This is terrible news for a Kings team that hasn’t been a consistent winner since the days of Chris Webber and has been mismanaged during that span. Of course, as silly as it may sound to get rid of a player as gifted as Cousins, it’s also possible trading their best player could put the Kings in a better position down the road. That being said, this isn’t just about Karl not liking Cousins. Cousins himself asked out roughly a month ago.
While there will be a litany of teams calling the Kings with offers if Kings ownership approves a trade, the only team to really stand out to this point has been the rival Los Angeles Lakers. It’s unknown exactly how the Kings plan to go about reshaping their team if they unload Cousins, but if they did a deal with the Lakers, they could send Cousins to L.A. for Julius Randle, the #2 overall pick in this year’s draft and possible another player. The Lakers are said to be in hot pursuit of Cousins and could go all in to acquire the talented big man.
The deal may not work with just the Lakers, of course, as Cousins is easily one of the best big men in the entire league and Sacramento will work hard to get appropriate value in return for their superstar player. That may require a third team to enter the mix to finalize a deal. To this point, the Orlando Magic have been rumored to potentially be involved. That deal could involve Magic center Nikola Vucevic and a number of other players.
Everything so far is speculation and part of the guessing game, but the bridge is on fire in Sacramento and getting closer and closer to going down for good. Either Karl and co. need to officially put the fire out, or make a huge deal that will have Kings fans forgetting this was ever a headache in the first place.
