Merged: Cousins traded to N'Awlins (for some Cajun shrimp)

Losing him "the LaMarcus way" wouldn't have been too costly if this is all they were able to get. It's worth losing out on Hield and an okay first-round pick in order to get an extra year of looking for a better deal. Just because teams were supposedly getting cold feet this week doesn't mean that would be true for another year--circumstances change quickly.

And they could have done the more obvious thing and re-signed a guy who pretty obviously wanted to re-sign. A team like the Kings isn't likely to find a better player than Cousins for years (if ever, honestly). And all of this "You'll never win anything with Cousins" talk reminds me of what the media and some fans around the Trail Blazers said about Rasheed Wallace--until he promptly won a title soon after being traded. And Cousins is even better than Wallace.

 

By the time the next season comes around teams know he's a UFA at the end of the season and would rather take their chances with him in FA than give up any of their assets in a trade.

If teams have had cold feet on Boogie for the past 2 years (when he had 4 yrs on contract) then there is not a chance in hell they would want to gamble on his expiring contract.

 

Hmm speaking of LMA.......What they say a year and a half before often changes.

 

Teams haven't had cold feet for "the past two years." Supposedly, the Kings turned down far better offers for the past two years. This isn't a front office with any kind of vision or plan--they basically refused to make any decision on Cousins over the past two years (while making other awful decisions) and then suddenly and randomly panicked and traded him for pennies on the dollar.

 

Do you have a link that says there were actually better deals on the table for the Kings over the years and not just "what about _____ for Cousins" offers to gauge the Kings' interest in moving Cousins.

I remember you'd hear about him in trade rumors almost every year, but at the same time we heard about Kevin Love for Melo, and I'm pretty sure that was legit fake news.

 

Feel bad for SAC fans

 

At least they still have a team and got a sick new arena built.

 

No, it's just columnists and reporters expressing incredulity over this because they say the Kings have been turning down better deals for the past couple of years. I'm not sure why you're so certain that the Kings played this perfectly when we already know they've made horrendous decisions (like the 76ers deal, firing Mike Malone when he clicked with Cousins and had the team performing well, etc). As far as I'm concerned, the proven stupidity of the Kings' front office lends credence to the claims that they've been turning down superior offers all this time (including the Drummond offer earlier this season) only to panic-trade him this week.

We can toss in the fact that Divac has been promising Cousins that they wouldn't be trading him this year, the fact that other NBA executives are expressing bafflement over the Kings--it doesn't paint a picture of a team that calmly made a rational decision.

 

You should have followed more news then.
Lakers offered D’Angelo Russell + assets (picks?) after their mess last year, Detroit put Drummond on the table but the Kings said no and it's easy to guess teams like Boston and Washington must've given their fair proposals as well.

It was known around the league that Vlade is fucking around too much and that the whole decision making process in the team is a mess (including some mysterious lawyer woman who apparently have a big say in anything). Many GMs just grew tired of dealing with this mess.

 

That a person now should be able to easily get great, cheap seats at....

 

At that one benefit of their owners stupidity is that they don't know the rest of the NBA charges $6, so they only charge $3.

 

I bet that's why he signed Seth Curry.
*in Vivek's accent* "HAHA! who could be more similar to Steph Curry than his own brother?! EXCELLENT job boys! ice cream for everybody!"

 

Great idea, Kosta actually looked like a solid center in Memphis and i think he was a teammate of CJ in the past.

 

I'm not saying they played it perfectly, and you are right they have definitely made a lot of really bad business decisions for one reason or another (seems like a lot of these decisions were based around Cousins as their POTF). However if they turned down better deals for 2 years only to end up at Buddy Hield, shouldn't the logic be "where am I going to end up if I turn down Buddy?".

I think its possible that the Kings FO could both be completely incompetent, and at the same time right in the way they handled this Cousins situation.

For what its worth I could absolutely see that Drummond rumor being one of the offers that was backed out of by the offering party. If Cousins doesn't re-sign and the Pistons give away Drummond then the egg is on their face.

 

It was actually well known back then that the Kings were donkeys to give up on Thomas:


This video is from 2013 lol

 

I'd agree with that if Buddy Hield were a valuable prospect. While I agree with those who say it's way too early to call him a bust, he's not performing well as a rookie despite being "overaged" as a rookie. I think if what you're risking by holding onto Cousins is Hield, that's not much of a risk. And it only takes one team to decide to pull the trigger to get a nice return. Even if you don't want to hold him til the next trade deadline, the draft is another good trade market and the entire off-season offers possibilities, especially for teams who don't pull in a premium free agent.

And I still think that the Kings had a good chance to simply re-sign Cousins, especially considering the new CBA strongly incentivizes players to sign maxes with the team that drafted them, moreso than before. It seems like the Kings were the ones who decided to break the relationship--which is fine if you can find a great return, but otherwise I don't think you have much choice but to stick with someone as talented as Cousins is and try to find the right fit around him (and maybe don't fire a coach who actually gets through to him).

I read a stat today that Cousins' averages of 27.8 PPG/10.7 RPG/4.9 APG/1.4 BPG/1.3 SPG have only been pulled off by three players in NBA history: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Robinson and Larry Bird. Unless he's basically refusing to play or is constantly running afoul of the law, you have to find a way to make it work with a player like that, even if it takes years. It is entirely possible that the Kings never again have a player as good as Cousins.

 

Collison is $5.23M expiring. No one in that salary range I'd want to give up for a Collison rental.