It wasn’t supposed to end like this.
Not after years of rumors and speculation with nothing coming of it. Not after years of animosity between all parties involved. Certainly not after they had promised their star player he would not be traded nor after he had made it clear he wanted to stay long term.
Late Sunday night, after All-Star festivities in New Orleans had ended, the Sacramento Kings told DeMarcus Cousins to stay where he was. He had been dealt to the New Orleans Pelicans.
It wasn’t just that Boogie was being traded after every precursor that had come and gone without any rash decisions. It was the package that Sacramento received in return that shocked the world.
Buddy Hield. Tyreke Evans. Langston Galloway. A first and second round pick.
That’s it. That’s all Sacramento could swipe for the most dominant offensive big man in the game today. That’s all they could get for a three-time all-star and two-time all-NBA selection.
Trading Cousins is not a terrible decision on its own. The Kings have needed a revamp for years. They haven’t had sustained success with Boogie (although that’s far from being completely his fault). Moving on from Cousins was always a distinct possibility and one that made some sense, no matter what side of the Boogie debate you stand on.
But you have to wonder about the timing, and you have to wonder about the package. Cousins had finally committed himself to the Kings for the long-haul. The CBA’s incentives for home-grown talents to stay with their original franchise made it a relatively easy choice for Boogie to stay in Sacramento and earn a $207 million extension at the end of the season.
The Kings haven’t been much better on the court, but Dave Joerger had gotten to Cousins in ways that only Mike Malone had ever done before. The very bare minimum of a framework to long-term success was emerging. But the Kings decided to blow it up.
Hield hasn’t done anything of value in his rookie year. It’s early but he doesn’t project as much more than a decent shooter and at 23 years old (just over one year younger than Cousins!), there is not a lot of room for growth. Galloway is reportedly likely to be waived. Evans may be bought out.
The Kings are resting their laurels on their draft picks: one 2017 first rounder from New Orleans (top-three protected although it’s highly unlikely that will matter) which may not fall in the lottery any longer and their own. That pick is owed to Chicago if it does not fall within the top ten after the lottery.
For a franchise that has nearly no track record of success in the draft (outside of Cousins), that is a mighty huge risk. But the Kings will shoot their shot.
The Kings shot themselves in the foot once again. They traded the franchise star that had stuck with them even in the most rough patches. They did so without getting back a king’s ransom (pun 100 percent intended). They did so with seemingly absurd reasons revolving around Boogie’s joking about the Warriors and one win against the Celtics with Cousins suspended due to technical foul accumulation. And they did so while cratering their reputation among NBA players and agents even further:
More Akana: "They have assured me, and DeMarcus, that the Kings won’t trade him, and are committed to signing DeMarcus long term." (CONT')
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 20, 2017
More Akana: "In fact Vlade has gone on record saying exactly the same thing. If the Kings flip-flop on what they committed, that is on them"
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 20, 2017
But enough about the misery that is the Kings. This trade had a second side to it – one that was a clear winner.
The New Orleans Pelicans come out of Sunday night as looters in a riot. They pair their All-Star Game MVP with a fellow Kentucky alum. Arguably the league’s most talented big men, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins will join forces in NOLA.
Both Cousins and Davis are now on the best teams they have had in their time in the NBA. The Pelicans are uniquely dangerous. They have two in-their-prime superstars and a third, underrated component in Jrue Holiday. They are positioned to make a run to the postseason.
At 23-34, the Pelicans are only 2.5 games out of the playoffs and seem well-positioned to beat out the rest of the competition to get the eighth seed in the West.
The Pelicans have been a .500 team in Holiday’s 42 games played this season. Adding Cousins to that solid of a team should, in theory, push them into the playoff race quickly.
Adding Cousins to the rotation won’t be an easy task by any means. The Pelicans have been at their best with Davis playing as the center. That’s a strategy that they do not use often – Davis has a scary injury history and has not shown an affinity to risking his health against bigger bodies. Cousins helps in that regard but may reduce the minutes that Davis spends playing the five in spacing heavy lineups.
Cousins’ inclusion also forces head coach Alvin Gentry to stylistically change the makeup of the team. Gentry runs a D’Antoni-lite system, opting to push the pace and take quick shots. Cousins is not that type of player; even with his newfound ability to hit from deep, he is still at his best as a battering ram in the low post.
Gentry isn’t in much of a position to bargain, however. Despite being known as an offensively-minded coach, his Pelicans rank 27th in the NBA with an offensive rating of 102.3. No matter how difficult it is to adjust to life with Boogie, he is going to improve that number, likely in a big way.
What’s most important is how this will impact New Orleans in the postseason. The Pelicans seem destined for a matchup against the Warriors in the first round in what will be the coronation of Cousins as a playoff player.
No one is expecting the Pelicans to pull an upset against the most talented team of all time, nor should they. But they can be a thorn in the Warriors’ side for the duration of that series.
Right now, the Pelicans have the second-worst offensive rebounding rate in the NBA at 18.2 percent. That number should climb dramatically with Cousins who gobbles up 7.1 percent of offensive rebound opportunities on his own.
The frontcourt duo of Cousins and Davis should be able to punish the Warriors (and their 21st ranked defensive rebounding rate) down low. Gentry can have his team fight for offensive rebounds against the Dubs’ small lineups without sending the farm to get them. In short, he has the best of both worlds: the potential to get second-chance points without the risk of giving up transition points to the most dangerous fastbreak team in the NBA.
The Pelicans are still deficient in depth, particularly on the wings, but the makings of a team are finally there. It will be difficult to make the money work, but they have Bird rights for both Holiday (a free agent this season) and Cousins (a free agent next summer) and will have the ability to go over the cap to re-sign them.
Cousins’ agent has publicly stated that he does not view an extension likely (there is no financial incentive to do so once a player, not in his rookie year is traded). So, the Pelicans will have about a year and a half to convince Cousins that he can win in New Orleans. Davis’ presence helps, and if the Pelicans can retain Holiday this offseason (which is probable), it’s easy to envision Cousins staying loyal.
New Orleans still has work to do, of course. Their cap space situation is not ideal, to say the least. They will have to trade bad contracts such as Omer Asik and Solomon Hill (which would likely involve attaching assets such as first-round picks, which they should be willing to do given the win-now prospects) or stretch out their contracts for smaller yearly cap hits. The lack of depth is concerning for a team with so little money to spend, but having Cousins and Davis is the great equalizer.
This trade has several clear winners:
The Pelicans, for finally having a respectable team that can compete year in and year out should they make the correct decisions in the immediate aftermath of swindling the Kings.
Anthony Davis for having a superstar teammate that can ease the burden placed on his shoulders.
And DeMarcus Cousins for finally being out of the mess that is Sacramento, for finally having a shot at the playoffs, and for finally being away from an organization and media that had turned on him, often in incredibly unfair ways.
The Kings are the clear loser, but that doesn’t come as a surprise. This is not a singular decision. It’s the aftermath of years of poor management and ownership, years of poor decisions snowballing into an avalanche of despair, and years of treating one of the greatest players in franchise history like a scrub.
The Kings never deserved DeMarcus Cousins.
