The Sacramento Kings and DeMarcus Cousins are no longer in a relationship and that’s a well-known fact. On February 20th the Kings traded Cousins and his friend Omri Casspi to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for Tyreke Evans, Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway, and a 2017 protected first-round pick. This was a sad ending for a love story that had a lot of ups and downs in the last seven years.
When the Kings released an official statement to announce the trade, Vlade Divac, Kings GM, explained the move in this way:
It was time for a change and I decided this was the best direction for the organization. Winning begins with culture and character matters. With the upcoming draft class set to be one of the strongest in a decade, this trade will allow us to build the depth needed for a talented and developing roster moving forward. We thank DeMarcus for his contributions and wish him all the best in New Orleans. The fans in Sacramento are the best in the world and we are all committed to building a team that will continue to make Sacramento proud
Around the league, the fact that Vlade Divac wanted to trade Cousins wasn’t a secret, a source told Def Pen Hoops. However, Vivek Ranadive, the owner of the Kings, had always been opposite to this idea. This is, until at least a couple of weeks ago. With the new CBA ready to kick in, Cousins would have been eligible to sign the so-called ‘Designated Veteran Extension’ in Sacramento which would pay him more than $200 million in five years. Ranadive began to vacillate when he realized that the only chance to keep Cousins around was to give him that amount of money, so Divac took the opportunity and moved him for a very questionable return.
In a vacuum, this kind of decision is respectable. The Kings weren’t ready to give Cousins all that money so they moved him. However, the way the team handled the entire situation was a complete disaster. Divac said several times that he wasn’t going to trade Cousins, and maintained the idea that he was the key player of the team moving forward. Even just a couple of days before the deadline, Divac talked to Cousins’ agent and assured him that he wasn’t going to trade his client. That ultimately ended up being a lie and it also wasn’t the only mistake made by Divac and the rest of Kings’ front office.
Immediately after the trade, in fact, Divac admitted to the media that he had a better deal for Cousins just a couple days before he agreed to the trade with New Orleans. Reporters were in shock when Divac said that and the GM basically blamed Cousins’ agents for the missed deal.
Now, that is so wrong in so many ways that it’s almost hard to make a list. First of all, if you’re a GM, you don’t go to the media and say in public that you had a better deal for your superstar two days before you decided to move him for a worse one. This kind of behavior makes you look like a fool and doesn’t help the image of the team that is already ruined by years of poor decision-making in the front office. Second, Divac can’t blame this on the agents. This is another huge mistake. Agents do their job. They try to ensure their clients are in the best position possible. Cousins’ agent called several teams to dissuade them from trading for their client because Cousins would have lost the opportunity to sign the Designated Veteran Extension. That’s their job and they wanted their client to stay in Sacramento to make more money. Divac can’t blame them for doing that as lying to Cousins’ face about trading him to keep him quiet is just as bad.
Cousins has never been an easy guy to deal with. He had a history of clashes with coaches and teammates during his experience in Sacramento. His bad relationship with the referees has led Cousins to be consistently under the attention of the media, ruining the already poor reputation of the team. But if Vlade Divac wants us to believe that Cousins was the only problem in Sacramento and now that he’s gone everything will be alright, he has some explaining to do. When the Kings GM said that character matters, of course, he was referring to Cousins and his issues but the big man wasn’t exactly the only guy with issues on the roster. What about Ty Lawson? He was pleaded guilty several times for driving under influence of alcohol. What about Darren Collison? He was pleaded guilty for domestic battery just last summer. Matt Barnes was released after the trade with New Orleans but the Sacramento Kings didn’t cut him when he was charged with assault just a couple of months ago. So trying to imply that Cousins was the only problem in the locker room is pretty sad. Boogie has been a very positive figure in the community of Sacramento during his seven years with the team and the way he said goodbye to the members of his association showed that. Cousins has always loved Sacramento. He never had a problem with the city, he had a problem with the organization of the Kings.
If the Kings really wants to build a culture in Sacramento, they should stop complaining and pointing fingers at players. If they represented the symbol of mediocrity in the league in the last 10 years, it’s only their fault. Kings management screwed so many things up during both Maloof’s and Ranadive’s era that we would need a full new piece to list them all. Divac started his experience as GM of the team with a disastrous trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. To clear cap space he traded Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, and Nik Stauskas, an unprotected 2019 first-rounder, and the possibility of swapping two first-rounders. He then used this cap space to sign Rajon Rondo to a one-year deal (he left after that season), Kosta Koufos (the only one still with the team after that trade), and Marco Belinelli (traded to Charlotte just one year after the trade). With that move, Divac basically sold the future of the team to the Philadelphia 76ers for one year of Rajon Rondo and Marco Belinelli. These are pieces that, at least according to the Kings, should have helped the team to reach the playoffs. Of course, the Kings didn’t reach the postseason and fired coach George Karl, who had issues with Cousins and other players since day one. In the past, they traded Isaiah Thomas for basically nothing (now an All-Star in Boston), they waived Hassan Whiteside (now considered one of the best bigs in the league), among other moves.
Sure, the Sacramento Kings can potentially have two first-rounders in the next draft (the Pelicans pick is top 3 protected and the Sixers can swap their first-rounder with Sacramento), but their recent history of draft choices isn’t exactly comforting. Do you need a reminder? In 2009 they selected Tyreke Evans before a guy named Stephen Curry, in 2011 they drafted Jimmer Fredette before guys like Kawhi Leonard and Klay Thompson, in 2012 they selected Thomas Robinson before Damian Lillard, in 2013 they picked Ben McLemore, whom they tried to move several times since then, before guys like C.J. McCollum or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Finally, in 2014, they drafted Nik Stauskas, a guard out of Michigan. Vivek Ranadive described Stauskas in this way at that time
"He shoots like Steph and he's big like Klay." – @Vivek
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) June 28, 2014
As mentioned before, Stauskas was traded after just one year to the Sixers who are at least getting some production out of him. Ranadive has tried to find a new version of Stephen Curry nearly incessantly since he arrived in Sacramento. His past experience as a minority owner with the Golden State Warriors has led Ranadive to this fixation of recreating the Warriors in Sacramento, as wonderfully explained by Kevin Arnovitz in a long form back in January.
According to Baxter Holmes of ESPN, Buddy Hield, one of the pieces that Sacramento got in return for Cousins, was the main reason why the Kings wanted the deal with New Orleans. Ranadive believes that Hield has the potential to become the new Steph Curry and has been in love with him since the draft.
Source familiar w/ Kings’ thinking: "Vivek thinks Buddy [Hield] has Steph Curry potential.” Am told that fixation was a key driver in deal.
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) February 20, 2017
Hield was one of the oldest rookies in the draft and during his stint with New Orleans, has been pretty inconsistent with his shot. Since his arrival in Sacramento, his three-point shooting has improved to a great 48%, but the sample for a real evaluation is too small with just 25 shots. Let’s just say that Ranadive has put a little bit of pressure on this rookie for the rest of his career.
If Sacramento really wants to build a new culture, they need to begin from the inside. Divac and Ranadive need to stop being so naive. They should try to build a team that has a real identity and not a blurred copy of the Golden State Warriors. Sacramento deserves a solid team. That city has been through a lot. Maybe Cousins wasn’t the right guy and maybe more than $200 million for his next contract was too much but one thing is for sure; the Sacramento Kings failed him, and the fans in so many ways that is almost unfair. The culture problem in Sacramento didn’t start with DeMarcus Cousins, it was already there way before him. Cousins was only the outcome of Kings’ dysfunction. He is a player that for seven years has lived in the ‘Basketball hell’, to quote his former teammate Rudy Gay.
Sacramento, now, has the chance to start all over again. However, this time, there won’t be any excuse because if they’ll fail. There isn’t anyone to blame but themselves now.
