2. That’s all the Kings could get for Cousins?
The deal sending Cousins to New Orleans came after the Los Angeles Lakers turned down a trade that would have sent rookie No. 2 overall pick Brandon Ingram to the Kings. Looking at what the Kings ended up receiving, we can’t blame Los Angeles for passing up on that deal. Though, it does beg one major question. Is this all Sacramento could get for Cousins?
We already know Cousins’ checkered history. And in reality, that’s the primary reason Sacramento moved on from him. With all that said, Boogie is still right up there among the top-10 players in the entire game. He’s put up 24-plus points and 10-plus rebounds in each of the past three seasons.
This year alone, the three-time All-Star has tallied 40-plus points four times. He’s a force inside and has expanded his game to outside the three-point line in recent seasons.
With the shortage of talented centers in today’s NBA, some might conclude that Sacramento could have received more for the embattled big man. Teams like the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns sure had capital to exhaust here. As it relates to the Celtics, that included what could very well be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft — originally from the Brooklyn Nets.
It’s quite possible that we were valuing Cousins’ on-court performance at too high of a clip. Maybe he was seen as too cancerous off the court — that type of plague other teams simply weren’t willing to take on. Even then, two firsts and a one-dimensional and unproven youngster as the major returns here? That just doesn’t make much sense.