The NBA has started another season and it appears to be another season of the Sacramento Kings being an underwhelming team. For just about half of the last decade of futility, the team has harbored a star on their roster. DeMarcus Cousins has been seemingly held captive by the Kings as they try to find their way and restart just about every year.
While the trade rumors centered around DeMarcus have calmed down in the recent weeks, there still appears to be some lingering sense of his departure. While Cousins won’t outright say anything about it, there is a big man tied to the Kings who will. No, not Kings general manager Vlade Divac shutting down trade rumors. Instead, it’s Kings minority owner Shaquille O’Neal who says he’s heard some rumblings of discontent.
Shaq said the following on Inside the NBA on Thursday night, as noted by Matt Moore of CBS Sports.
On Thursday night’s “Inside the NBA,” NBA Hall of Famer and Kings minority owner Shaquille O’Neal described Kings center DeMarcus Cousins as a “hot head” and said he lacked leadership.
“In the previous years, he’s been hot-headed, he hasn’t shown great leadership qualities,” O’Neal said. Furthermore, O’Neal said that the team may actually look to trade Cousins if the situation doesn’t improve.
“I’m hearing talk that if things don’t start to become correct, then they may be looking in another direction.”
Check it out below.
Well, this is something to note for a few reasons. Shaq may of course be talking about the rumors swirling around Boogie Cousins but on the otherhand, it could be discussions he’s had within the front office. In 11 games, Cousins already has three technical fouls, he’s fouled out in one quarter of action and he’s also gotten into it with two players in back to back nights. So his recent actions haven’t deviated much from his past and the team could be reching their breaking point.
Either way, it is notable that a team minority owner is speaking on some supposed rumors. It seems to be more of a ‘when not if’ situation with Cousins at this point.
