News10 Sacramento reporter Sean Cunningham had an opportunity to speak with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive last night at Oracle Arena. Ranadive was in attendance for the Warriors 97-87 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. It is somewhat depressing that the Kings owner has to go to Oakland to watch playoff basketball, but this is our reality. You can watch the full News10 interview here, or check out Ranadive’s relevant DeMarcus Cousins comments below.
Just spoke with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive during halftime. Will share video of interview shortly, but very interesting off-camera comments
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) April 21, 2015
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is very put-off by trade rumors with DeMarcus Cousins, especially since he signed him. No desire to trade him
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) April 21, 2015
Here’s the kicker; if you blindly believe everything coming out of the Kings organization right now you are a sucker. How many times have we been misled over the past couple of season? I’ve lost count.
A part of me does think that the Kings have taken such a massive PR hit over the Michael Malone / Tyrone Corbin / George Karl fiasco that the organization has had some sort of wakeup call. This could be wishful thinking on my part, but if the Kings haven’t hit public relation rock bottom yet than I certainly don’t want to see what that looks like.
For my own personal sanity, lets say that Vivek Ranadive is telling the truth. You know what, that’s not entirely fair. I do believe him. I do think that Ranadive has no desire to trade Cousins, and this is where his ‘meddling’ might be beneficial to Sacramento’s future. If the boss wants Cousins in Sacramento, Cousins will be in Sacramento.
It’s possible that George Karl and / or Pete D’Alessandro could entertain trading Cousins. I think it’s possible. I also think that this current crop of speculation-based rumors have snowballed into something larger than what is actually happening behind the scenes. This is the Internet, after all, and if you want to call that my own personal speculation, that’s fair.
A Cousins trade would not shock me, for whatever my word is worth. I just haven’t read anything substantial yet. And while Vivek’s words last night could come off as PR spin, I do believe that he believes what he is saying. Could someone with influence like Karl or D’Alessandro change Ranadive’s mind? Probably, yes, but that requires a jump to the conclusion that Karl and /or D’Alessandro actually want to trade Cousins, and I’m not there yet. I’m just not.
Vlade Divac has publicly supported Cousins’ future in Sacramento, and according to some, Divac is in charge of basketball operations. This is where I admit that I have a Vlade Divac sized blind spot for the Kings legend. If Divac says something, I’m going to believe it until he gives me a reason not to.
In regards to Cousins’ future in Sacramento, NBA writer and Sacramento insider (my words, not his, but if you follow this team you know his reputation) Aaron Bruski called the Cousins talk “informed speculation”, which I’m passing along because I thought was an accurate way to phrase this entire round of ‘rumors’.
I’m not worried. Yet.