Sacramento’s VP of basketball operations Vlade Divac wants everyone to know that DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins is not going to be traded. Here’s Vlade shooting down the rumor to the Sacramento Bee:
“That is not happening,” Divac said forcefully, “but I would love to do something, a smaller move, before the draft. We have a lot of changes to make. The league is much more up-tempo now, and we need more three-point shooting. If we don’t get that in the draft, we’ll be active in free agency and see about making trades later in the offseason.”
Numerous front office and coaching changes have left Divac as the sole basketball decision maker in the franchise. Former advisor Chris Mullin is trying to resurrect the St. John’s basketball program. Mike Malone, who was fired early into the season by the Kings, has moved on to coach another bottom tier western conference team, the Denver Nuggets, who have their own temperamental star, Ty Lawson. Former Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro also moved over to the Denver Nuggets front office after losing decision-making authority to Divac.
The issue of whether or not to trade Cousins has been a topic of the league for the past few seasons. Even Kings Coach George Karl recently said no one was untouchable on the team, although Divac promptly contradicted him. The team is obviously conflicted on what to do about their superstar.
If Cousins were made available in trade talks, there would be considerable interest around the league, specifically in Los Angeles Lakers and Boston. The Celtics have an assortment of first-round picks to deal, and have shown interest in Cousins before. The Kings, for the moment, aren’t interested in dealing their big man out of Kentucky. The Lakers could possibly make a trade work by dealing their two first-round picks for Cousins. Besides, Cousins paired with Kobe could make for an interesting one-two punch along with Julius Randle.
Cousins is an extremely gifted big man, one who finished seventh in player efficiency rating this year, and fifth last year, while also making his first All-Star team. Boogie is one of the top three big men in the game, but has areas he needs to work on. He averaged 24.1 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game this past season, yet he is temperamental and has a history of clashing with coaches. He’s also prone to taking possessions off on defense and berating teammates. Cousins did show some level of maturity this past season, and even connected with former coach Mike Malone and his teammates in ways he never had before. Plus, his contract is a great bargain considering the salary cap is set to rise dramatically in the summer of 2016.
It’s possible a Cousins and the Kings split could be beneficial for the franchise and their star player. The team hasn’t ever made the playoffs since drafting him with the No. 5 pick in 2010. If they dealt him, they might be able to reload if they acquired the right picks in exchange and drafted smartly. But they’ve reloaded so many times before, and a player of Cousins’ caliber isn’t as simple to attain as just making another lottery pick. Cousins has had to deal with constant turnover with the roster and coaching staff, so judging him by his lack of a playoff appearance is unfair. Still, a change of scenery could allow him to reach even more of his potential.
In the end, the decision will ultimately fall to Kings owner Vivek Ranadive. The man who has advocated for four-on-five defense, and who has run off Mike Malone and Pete D’Alessandro in his brief tenure with the team. That’s a scary thought for Kings fans.
