For Sacramento Kings fans, their saving grace from years of relative turmoil has been DeMarcus Cousins. The 26 year old All-Star center has had his qualms with the media, and has even had conversations with past greats in an effort to help Cousins either gain or maintain focus. Whatever rift has formed between the old guard of players and Cousins or between he and the media, one question has emerged – is DeMarcus Cousins destined to languish in Sacramento?
Since Cousins was drafted out of the University of Kentucky in 2010 after only one season, there hasn’t been much to cheer about in Sactown. The team has won 34% of it’s games since then. With questionable draft picks – six of the teams’ first round picks are no longer with the team, and offseason moves that have the left the team bereft of any real players that can push the team into contention, fans are restless and rightfully so.
The Kings Organization
via USA Today Sports Images
The front office has made safe moves that ultimately seem shortsighted and hardly ever bear any fruit. The heavily dissected relationships between Cousins and his head coaches are one example of the barren moves. The Kings management hired Mike Malone in 2013, shortly after Vivek Ranadive purchased the team.
There was clear evidence that, at last, Cousins had found someone whom he could let his guard down for. Malone thought the he was the guy that could help Cousins channel his supreme talents and help make his teammates better.
Per Blake Ellington of SB Nation’s SacTown Royalty:
I’m myself. Be true to yourself and I was real. In a weird way, DeMarcus and I are very, very similar – both highly competitive, can be a little emotional at times and as I told him many times, I never wanted to change DeMarcus, I just wanted him to
via USA Today Sports
harness all that competitive fire and use it in a positive way…Â
The front office fired Malone 24 games into the 2014-2015 season after having reported “philosophical differences.”
Management then decided to hire George Karl. At the time, the league saw Karl as a respected NBA coach. However, his very public discord with Cousins was very hard to ignore.
In the 2015-2016 offseason, the Sacramento Kings signed Rajon Rondo to a 1 year 9.5 million dollar contract just one season removed from his disastrous stint with the Dallas Mavericks. The move in a vacuum wasn’t detrimental to the season for the team – they only won 33 games that year. The motivation behind it, is what confusing. To trade away an asset in Ray McCallum for a second round pick, that essentially turned into a non-rotational piece, when Darren Collison is still on the team seemed disjointed. Not to mention the matter of trading away Isaiah Thomas so Collison could start a couple of seasons earlier.
DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins
With all that has gone wrong the team, DeMarcus Cousins has still managed to make two All-Star games and is an excellent community activist in the city. And that’s the thing, DeMarcus still maintains that’s he loves the city and the fans and would love to remain in town. The fans adore him and understand exactly what they have is arguably the best center in the game. Among centers that qualify Cousins is second in scoring, fifth in steals and assists and second in 3 point attempts while hitting them at a respectable 38%.
Via USA Today Sports
Only three players have posted 55+ 10+ rebound games since 1985. Cousins has one of them. He is however, the only one of those players to shoot 5-8 from three in the game. I’m also sure that he’s the only one of those players to get ejected and then un-ejected in such a game.
That’s the type of player Cousins is —  supremely talented but equally as visceral. The same intensity that fans attribute to Draymond Green and players alike is what makes them go, it’s what drives them to burn a few extra gallons of fuel that few around the league possess. That extra fuel sometimes gets Boogie into trouble as leads the league in technical fouls with 12.
Once again, is the tumult and disarray of the front office the perfect accompaniment for Cousins’ overt, harried temperament? The front office thinks so as they are reportedly planning to offer Cousins the new “MegaMax” extension worth a reported $200 million per ESPN. From Marc Stein’s column:
The Kings, as you surely know by now, are openly desperate to bring their 10-season playoff drought to a halt. Those who know Sacramento best continue to say that, as long as the West’s No. 8 seed remains within the Kings’ sights, they’ll be increasingly reluctant to part with their All-Star ‎center.
But sources also say that the Kings, at season’s end, want to pitch Cousins on a long-term partnership in the summertime, knowing he’s going to be eligible in July for a Designated Player Extension that ‎could make him one of a handful of $200 million players league wide.
The latest signals suggest it would take a monster offer to get the Kings to tweak those plans.
CSN California reports that the front office  has reason to believe that he would accept the extension.
Via USA Today Sports
There is no way to determine how Demarcus feels about the team this summer, or if he declines the extension, how he’ll feel in 2018. If he decided to leave the team in free agency or inquire the front office about a trade, there’s a good chance he ends up with a contending squad or a team that’s on the verge of contention and possess competent management.
Would that be the best outcome, to have his gifts on a world stage where all is out for the world to see. Or is the quaintness of his current situation just destiny? His flaws and valor accepted alike, hoping that one day the chips will fall and the success will come.
You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and eSports articles from other great TGH writers along with Daniel!
