Sacramento Kings: DeMarcus Cousins Staying in New Orleans

DeMarcus Cousins went to New Orleans for the 2017 All-Star Game, and he’s staying there. The Sacramento Kings are trading him to the Pelicans.

On February 7th, Kings’ general manager Vlade Divac said, definitively and with conviction, “We’re not trading DeMarcus…We hope he’s here for a long time.” As it turned out, “a long time” ended up being 12 more days. On February 19th, hours before midnight and days before the trade deadline, the Kings, definitively and with conviction, traded DeMarcus Cousins, the man they said they wouldn’t trade.

It’s not exactly a deal that should have blown the Kings away, either. The package that Sacramento got in return for their superstar center was lackluster. The New Orleans Pelicans are sending three players and two draft picks to the Kings, and Sacramento is sending not only Cousins, but forward Omri Casspi as well.

The Pelicans are getting one of the game’s best big men in Cousins. In seven years in the NBA, he averages 21.1 points,10.8 rebounds, three assists, 1.2 blocks, and 1.4 steals per game. This season, at age 26, he’s averaging 27.8 points and 4.9 assists, both the best marks of his career, as well as 10.7 rebounds. The 6’11’ center is a three-time All-Star, having made the last three games.

More from Golden Gate Sports

The Kings are getting guards Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, and Langston Galloway (who will be waived, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski), and a pair of 2017 draft picks. They are also getting New Orleans’ first round pick, as well as a second-round pick that comes via the Philadelphia 76ers.

Hield, who became something of a darling with Oklahoma during last season’s NCAA March Madness, is a rookie averaging 8.6 points in 57 games. Evans is familiar to Sacramento, having been drafted by the Kings fourth overall in 2009. Evans won Rookie of the Year for the 2009-2010 season when he averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.8 assists. He has not been able to reach that level since. This season, Evans is averaging a career-low 9.5 points in a career-low 18.2 minutes per game. He hasn’t started any of the 26 games he’s played this year.

No matter your opinions on Cousins and his personality, there is no denying that he was the Kings’ best player by a country mile. He was the must-see player, the only must-see player, on a team that hasn’t been “must-see” in well over a decade. Getting Hield and Evans won’t change that fact, and the rebuilding process, a process that has been going on for years, will continue without a superstar player at center.

And as Wojnarowski mentioned on Twitter, Divac going back on his statement as quickly as he did reflects poorly on him and the team. As if the Kings didn’t have enough trouble attracting players, this is just another blow to a franchise that has been down in the doldrums for years, and it will be even harder to attract free agents.

For a player to say that he wants to spend his career with the Kings, and the team to seemingly back him up on that only to trade him weeks later, is a gut-punch to fans who have grown attached to seeing a player finally give this beleaguered, laughing stock of a team some hope.

The only saving grace for this trade is that the Kings get a pair of draft picks in what should be a deep draft. They will also now most likely keep their own draft pick, rather than trading it to the Chicago Bulls. As part of the 2014 Luol Deng trade, the Bulls would have gotten the Kings’ first-round pick this year, had the Kings been outside the lottery. With it seeming unlikely that the Kings will be anything close to competitive from here on out, the Kings will probably keep their first-round pick and send the second-round pick instead. Even still, it’s not much of a saving grace.

For Cousins, he now gets to play alongside Anthony Davis, another one of the NBA’s premier big men. They will instantly become the best duo of big men in the game. Davis is averaging career-highs with 27.7 points and 12 rebounds. The Pelicans are worse than the Kings, record-wise, at 23-34 and are 11th in the West.

The Kings were obviously intent on trading Cousins, no matter what Divac said. They took a bad deal for a superstar, and the Kings can now go into full-on tank mode. Their current .421 winning percentage is on pace to be their best since 2007-2008, but that will certainly go down. As will attendance, and likely as will season-ticket sales.

Next: Webber Named Hall of Fame Finalist

Good luck, Sacramento Kings. Whatever it is you guys think you’re doing, good luck.

Home/Sacramento Kings