No that is NOTHING like Lebron in 2010. By that time Cleveland had made the playoffs 5 straight years and also won the Eastern conference. I don't blame it all on Cousins because he is a center in a guard/wing's league. But is trading 5-7 players for a center worth it? He is better than Kiki Vandeweghe, but still........
The Sacramento-Philly trade really hurts any chances of us or another team acquiring Cousins. The reason a team trades away their only star is to rebuild through youth; and you do that with yes talent back in a trade but also with your own team now sucking and getting a top draft pick. But the 6ers traded for rights on 3 potential top Kings first round picks so Sacramento won't have that incentive to rebuild.
To my knowledge there's only been one person who suggested we trade half the team for him. I think the rest of us who want Cousins want to trade a different (smaller) package for him.
Yes, i think so. How many players do you need really? we only need 6 talented players + hardworking guys\specialists off the bench. Teams with a long rotation of 9 10ppg players are usually destined to make 1st round exits. I'm suggesting we sacrifice our potential to be good in order to be great. It's a gamble but it's a gamble with great value.
I think you need a solid 9 or 10 players to make it through the long season. However I am not philosophically opposed to a lopsided trade for a very good player. It's easy to find replacements for average players. Even easier if you have a Lebron on the team where vets will flock to. The gamble of of course comes with Cousins himself. With a bunch of savvy vets he would be awesome on any team. But that would not be the scenario here.
Stop thinking about Lebron for a second, think about 08' Celtics instead: They had Pierce and they had a lot of young talent around him...so they took a chance and traded some great prospects in Green,Jefferson etc for an aging Ray Allen and KG (who was also known as a 1st class asshole), then they patched some veterans and young bloods on that trio and that team dominated the league. You have to take a chance at a great duo\trio sometime, you can't expect 4 prospects to turn out great and take you to the promised land.
Garnett lead a team to the conference finals, won an MVP and was always in the playoffs. Ray Allen had his teams in the playoffs and had won multiple series. Boogie hasn't accomplished anything close to what they did. I think Boogie is an interesting piece but he shouldn't be mentioned in a similar fashion to any of those three.
I can't believe how underrated Cousins is on these boards, it's crazy. watch him DOMINATE the best defensive center in the league (34 Pts, 17 Reb): once you have this kind of an advantage over 90%+ of the league then you have a bigger chance of becoming an elite team, end of story. You guys watched us get torched by Gasol, z-bo,griffin and DJ all year long and now you fantasize about Vonleh hitting midrange shots again? smh
The logic is the same. What we hope for: Being a Contender Cousins: Hasn't won Therefore: He himself is the problem. He can't win What Miami hoped for: A Ring Lebron: Hadn't won a ring Therfore: Lebron was the problem? He couldn't win a ring? Wrong. Lebron didn't have a team. Same as Cousins. Now LBJ led his team far because of how good of a player he was. But let's remember DMC only came into his own LAST year. He's as young as Dame. So he's only had 1 year being the player he is, which was performing well at the start of the season before they inexplicably fired Mike Malone. He also had the worst fit for his Robin in Gay, who teams wouldn't have to worry about because letting him get his doesn't make a difference. So nobody questioning how could DMC is because of him not winning. As for this year, they didn't improve their standing in the west. They got Rondo, who we saw last year makes teams worse. They got a rookie who can't do anything except dunk, whos defense will likely be ineffective, from face foul trouble for the first couple years due to inexperience. They got a backup big man who's solid but not a great fit next to Cousins and a bad wing defender who can only shoot 3s, and somehow the additions make them better? I don't see it, especially with how the rest of the west minus us and Dallas got better too. With Lebron in Cleveland Era 1, he at least had shooters and guys that would get out of his way.. Cousins doesn't have that. So if they fail I don't blame it on him. He could play like the best center in the league and that team could still be 15 or 20 games under .500 at the deadline. Another thing I believe is that, since Hakeem, a big man will always struggle leading his team anywhere as the #1 scorer. The only one that did was Dirk but he was a hybrid.. a perimeter player. We saw what happened with Lamarsha... it's easier for someone like Westbrook who always has the ball and is hard to double team. That goes with any great wing. Big men are different. They need other good players. If DMC gets triple teamed and kicks it out but the guy he's passing to can't shoot a lick and bricks ten 3s a game, that team isn't going anywhere. That doesn't diminish how awesome Cousins would be as option 1B to Lillards 1A, with shooters and a solid 3rd scorer with them. You need at least 2 all stars, a borderline allstar, and a few good role players to win a ring. The likelyhood of this roster growing into that is so much less likely then trading for Cousins and finding a borderline star on the market or with a guy left on the squad that didn't get traded.
I think it's also worth trading a lot to get him because of the chance if attracting a 3rd star via free agency next offseason. I know people say Portland can't attract stars but when was the last time we had max cap space with a superstar player already on the roster, let alone 2? I think the opportunity to form a big 3 with Lillard and Cousins would be as enticing as any on the market next year, especially with a great, hungrier than ever fanbase who got spurned by free agency the year before. If we somehow got DMC and Durant, this fanbase would take an NBA atmosphere to a whole new level. Especially if we faced the Spurs the playoffs. That series would put the Finals to shame. Whatever 3rd star came here would have the chance to plant a whole city and crazed fanbase on the map. We've never had as good of a situation as that, so I believe we could rewrote history and attract a 3rd star. And it all starts with taking a "risk" on DMC, by trading a bunch of, in regards to the overall NBA landscape, nobodies.
I think we would all love to get cousins, but you guys are asking the wrong question. It's not whether portland wants him, it's whether sac town wants to dump him.
Hmm...I didn't see Marc Gasol in that video. Edit: just saw that was my 10,000th post. What a waste...
Why all this talk about Cousins when there's absolutely no indication that Sac wants to move him? In fact, ownership pretty much let Karl know that they'd rather fire him than trade Cousins if they can't get along. Seems to me that proposed final moves should have some basis in reality.
No. That is not even remotely close to what I said. I love Cousin's game and I would like to have him on my team. I have said that numerous times. The question I have, is he worth the gamble to trade the 7 players mentioned in the original post I responded to. I see both sides of the argument. I get that we need 2-3 stars to win it all and that lopsided trades are necessary to get there. I also understand that most of Cousins' immature behavior that he has been criticized in the media, can be attributed to his age. But still he has some red flags. And because of them, those 7 players might be too much to give up for him. As for Rondo......as I said in my previous post, and as I said the day of his trade to Dallas.....he was a bad fit next to Monta. It made little sense. It was a desperate attempt to "add a third star" to the team. But in Sacramento he does not have to worry about McLemore or Belinelli or even Gay dominating the ball. He just needs to play defense and get the ball to Cousins in a position where Boogie can score. And that is what Rondo does best. I think you will see Cousins benefit from having Rondo there, and because of it....... he will not be traded.
Reality is that minds can change as new data becomes available. I agree that SAC won't trade Boogie NOW. But I think there's a semi-decent chance that they might revisit the idea at the trade deadline. Or next summer. And KG didn't do shit until Cassell and Sprewell carried his ass to the WCF. Boogie's never even played with someone as good as Wally Szczerbiak!
