Trade DeMarcus Cousins? No Thank You
By Kareem Gantt
DeMarcus Cousins is easily one of the top 20 players in the NBA, but unfortunately, Cousins is playing on a Sacramento Kings team that is not at its best right now. When a good player is playing on a sub-par team that said player is often the target of comments like these:
“Is he happy there?”
“Why isn’t he leading his team to better days?”
“Maybe it would be best to trade him.”
That last comment is the hot topic on the internet today. Should the Kings do the unthinkable and trade a rare talent at center who can post up, shoot mid-range jumpers, rebound like a mad man, pass out of double teams, and defend the paint with reckless abandon?
Michael Saenz is one of the leading voices in wondering out loud whether the Kings should pull the plug on Cousins. One of his main arguments is that new Kings’ head coach George Karl doesn’t want Cousins to be the face of the franchise.
Really?
Who wouldn’t want a player like Cousins to be the centerpiece of a team? Cousins is a rare talent, and Karl knows this, which is why he want’s cousins to be around for the long haul. Another reason Saenz gives for trading away Cousins is that Karl wants Ty Lawson to come aboard in Sacramento, even if that means trading Cousins to get him.
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If the Kings make a trade like that, I will stop watching basketball altogether.
Yes, Lawson is a good point guard that will fit well under Karl’s system, but you don’t trade a talent like Cousins to get him. That’s like trading LeBron James for Luol Deng just because he fits Davit Blatt’s system. Deng is a good player, but you don’t trade the best player in basketball just to acquire him. James is a centerpiece player, Deng is not.
The same thing applies to Cousins. The talent level at the center position in the NBA has been weak for years, and when you have a player as talented big man as Cousins on your team, the only way he should leave is on his own, not by a trade that would not benefit neither team.
I don’t know where this crazy idea of the Kings trading away Cousins came from, but like all bad ideas, it needs to be lead to the back of a barn and put out of its misery.