Call it rebuilding, retooling, or simple talent or youth acquisition (for another debate), I think it's pretty obvious that this franchise needs an injection of young talent or, dare I say, potential. It's pretty amazing how we went from a young, dangerous, talented team to an old, average team in the blink of an eye, and sadly, the road back to the promise that the former held is going to take a lot longer than the seemingly split-second slide back down to the latter. In my mind, this team needs to hit it unexpectedly big to counter the blows of Brandon, GO, Joel, Jeff, etc.) which means finding a guy that can be a star in the right place -- not just another Cunningham. LA, Wes, Batum, and GO (if he ever gets healthy) are all young enough to rebuild around, and if he can figure it out Brandon can still be a great bench guy for a good amount of years. My hope is that Cho can begin this process by looking at young, misused but talented players around the league that might be solid "buy-low" options... Off the top of my head... -Johnny Flynn has spent a good amount of time in the d-league this season -Terrance Williams (perfect skill set to replace what Brandon did for us) hasn't figured it out yet in NJ -Seems that Anthony Randolph and/or Earl Clark can be had on the cheap -Demarcus Cousins hasn't fit in well in Sacramento. -I'm sure there are other examples as well, just can't do too much research at work... I guess my point is that I'm hoping Cho is swinging for the fences on some of these guys whose 'stock' might be down some. With the current roster, we'll be good enough to never be in the meaningful portion of the lottery, so our chances of landing a legit young start that way are slim-to-none. Might as well see if we can't get one or two of these guys if we can get them for cheap!
Looks Hasheem Thabeet can be added to that list: http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/70560/20101213/grizzlies_open_to_dealing_thabeet/
The team clearly needs to re-tool. Sadly, I don't see it happening anytime soon. Between the CBA negotiations and an inexperienced GM with questionable authority, the team seems willing to just founder.
Re-tooling with headcases? Saw this with the JailBlazer era as well with the Artest/Malace in the Palace group in Indiana. A huge no.
Sacramento won't be parting with Cousins anytime soon. I do believe Terrence Williams can still be a positive player on a good team. I think he has a bad fit situation where he is at and could do better elsewhere. I also don't think that all the above players mentioned are headcases. Even if some of them are supposedly headcases, often times those players are actually much mentally tougher than other players and believe in themselves when others don't. That is a lot more than I can say for a lot of the current Blazer roster.
They were all lottery picks for a reason. They're talented. Does that mean they'll make it in the NBA? No. Trajan Langdon is one of the most talented shooters in basketball history and was an NBA washout. If we can get one or two of these guys for cheap, why not see if this is the right fit for them? What could it really hurt right now? Just which of these players do you favorably compare to RON ARTEST?!?!?!? Cousins has his baggage (yet has been able to keep his nose clean for awhile now), and it seems as though Williams has kind of taken his NBA status for granted, but other than those two, to my knowledge, none of these kids are anything more than potential NBA lottery busts... Explain your "huge no".
I like Cousins. He needs to be around vets to keep him in check. Being around Camby could do a lot for him.
I was actually thinking about this the other day, and the first thing that came to mind was Johnny Flynn. I think he could learn a lot from Miller, and I like him as a PG more than Johnson or Mills.
Cousins barely played a 1/4 of a season before the Kings are ready to ship him out. There were huge concerns before the draft. I have seen Anthony Randolph act like a baby more than once in GS and he got his second chance in NY. Williams was just sent to the D League. Minnesota is doing exactly what you are suggesting by picking up Martell, Beasley, Darko, etc. They also had to cut season ticket prices in half to get anyone to watch them. Despite them being honest that they will play guys that are not currently as talented in favor of developing younger talent, Flynn is still in the D league. The Pacers and Blazers both experienced success and tried rebuilding on the fly taking guys like Cousins, Williams, Randolph. Both ended with alienated fan bases and zero championships. BTW, are you David Kahn?
I'd love to grab Cousins. This would be a great time for the franchise to take an upside gamble. I'm quite sure Sacramento isn't going to give up on him so quickly, though.
Correlation does not imply causation. Just because it's happened in the past does not mean it WILL happen in the future. Beyond that, I can think of plenty of "headcases" that have done just fine in the league (Kobe comes to mind for starters...). As for the Timberpups, their success arc is on its way up, while ours is very much on the way down. So the question is, do you want to enjoy this plummet from relevance and be dragged through another decade of mediocrity or do you want to take some risks on talented players that haven't fit in their current roles at - and I'll emphasize this for a THIRD time in this post - a cheap price, hoping one or two pan out? Worst case, none of the risks work out and we're right back in this situation, better case, one or two actually DOES pan out, and we potentially pull out of this downward spiral...
The only people that have thought the Kings were going to ship him out are Blazer fans on this board. I have not seen one single media story or rumor that Cousins has been ever on the block. Disciplined? Yep. Not getting along with Westphaul? Yep. Shopped? Not a chance. Geoff Petrie took a big chance on Cweb when he was in his darkest days. He will have no problem waiting a couple of years to see if he can get a dominant center.
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2buusyl doubt it will happen but suppose it makes sense...
Doing the same thing and expecting different results is also called insanity. You want to use Kobe as an example of buying a head case low and it paying off? The Lakers have never considered trading him and had to give up a proven veteran center just to draft him. I would hope that Minnesota is arcing up. It is very hard to do worse than 6-18. A GM should always be looking to find talent that can be better utilized and buy low. Not a huge departure from what any team in the league is doing.
That is my guess as well. Tyreke Evans was also in trouble this offseason with his street racing video on Youtube and there have been no rumors of him being available. Still, if he were offered this early in his career, I would hope Cho would pass.
We get Cousins for Fernandez and Babbit? He is a headcase I would not want to deal with, but his trade value is alot higher than Luke and Rudy. Flynn is a better deal and still not in the same ballpark.
