Plumlee likely to be picked ahead of Demarcus for Team USA

[K-Town King]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/494980981577617408[/tweet]

I feel bad for Demarcus. I don't get that one.

[Wolfay]

Cousins is simply best guy to handle the Gasol brothers and Spain, but let's go with the mediocre dude from Duke! Laughable.

[SactoKingsFan]

I could understand going with Milsap or Drummond over DMC, but Plumlee making the final cut would be ridiculous. Should be on the select team with his brother.

[Silver Man]

Our toughest opponent is Spain, who has the Gasol brothers, so by Coach K's logic we cut our best chance to slow them down for a role player. Doesn't make sense.

[SacKingZZZ]

This would be an absolute joke and honestly I thought it was fishy when I saw both Plumlees working out with the US team. No way are either on any sort of talent level to be there. We'll see how playing favorites works out this summer if true. If the other teams bring their A game I'm not sure confident about this USA roster to be honest.

[SacKingZZZ]

So, been reading a little on this and it looks like Cuz is the victim of the pick and roll once again. Coach K realizes that Cuz isn't a great pick and roll player. Can't wait until the Kings realize this, then Cousins will truly dominate the league.

[ICMTM]

Hopefully from here on out DMC declines to even go to their camps. Just say "I went a couple times and it did not work. I just want to focus on Kings basketball and doing things in my community."

I'm kind of tired of hearing about his attitude.

[K-Town King]

Foreal I agree ICMTM. It's obvious he didn't get a fair shot in this camp. All the haters on the general board can find is an article saying Demarcus hit a wall pad lol give me a break. Everyone fails to mention the countless talk about Demarcus being one of the best players in the camp and being backed by guys like Durant, Anthony Davis, and Paul George. There's no logic for this pick besides they had made up their mind already about him. Until Coach K leaves as coach Demarcus should politely decline.

[Silver Man]

Foreal I agree ICMTM. It's obvious he didn't get a fair shot in this camp. All the haters on the general board can find is an article saying Demarcus hit a wall pad lol give me a break. Everyone fails to mention the countless talk about Demarcus being one of the best players in the camp and being backed by guys like Durant, Anthony Davis, and Paul George. There's no logic for this pick besides they had made up their mind already about him. Until Coach K leaves as coach Demarcus should politely decline.

The problem is most people watch maybe five Kings games a year. This leads to many peoples opinion on Cousins being based off the past as well as what they hear from others, but when us Kings fans who actaully watch Cousins play every night and we defend him we just get called homers and repeatedly get asked "when are you guys just going admit he's a head case that can't be fixed". Our fan base when being compared to the entire basketball population is small, so we usually get outnumbered in Cousins debates against others who watch maybe 10 percent of what we Kings fans watch. Cousins will always get bashed on because the popular thing to do is tear players down. The gen board is filled with fans of other teams who like I said probably the majority of them watch around five full Kings games a year. The strives Cousins has made from his rookie year to this point especially attitude wise never get looked at fairlylike by other fans because they remember his knuckle head incidences.

The argument of "team USA isn't an all star team and need role players" is fine, 100% disagree with using that for choosing Plumlee over Cousins, but when we play Spain our biggest competition most likely is our best chance of slowing down an extremely talented duo of the Gasol brothers better with a role player of Plumlee or a player like Cousins? Call me a homer All you want but give me Cousins. Now the newest thing is if Cousins goes out and dominates Plumlee it's going to hurt him even more and he's just worried about himself and it's I'm vs the world. Absolute garbage, if he goes out and destroys Plumlee he's showing the coaching staff what he can do, that does not hurt his stock that proves how hungry and badly he wants to make the team, and to me that shows me how competitive of a player he is and I like to see that personally.

I'm not Coach K nor do I have the basketball knowledge of Tom Thibodeau, but I do firmly and strongly
believe come the World Cup Cousins deserves to be suiting with team USA. If the USA coaching does not think that way I disagree with them strongly but congrats to whoever they choose.

[Wolfay]

Cousins and Durant look great together.

I'm just saying.

[Koorverfor3]

Perception is reality

Barkley hated losing, was violitile on the court making numerous enemies and spoke out in the media much more than Cousins ever has.

Barkley is revered for it because its "chuck being chuck"
Demarcus is a "headcase"

[enderwilson]

In all seriousness, what does Windhorst know about the decision making other than to predict that Coach K is going to be bias towards his own players? I have a hard time believing that Coach K is going to leverage his preference for his former players at the risk of a stronger Team USA. Before the scrimmage was called, DMC was the dominant big-man on the floor with 11 pts and 11 boards. Plumblee is talented and could probably fill the position of role-player just fine, but DMC has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that he will do whatever Team USA needs and can deliver it just as much if not more than any other big man trying to make the roster.

[408Kings]

PG's leg though...*cringe*

[Kings2013]

The whole issue about Cuz having to go out of his way to make this team is kind of a slap in the face to Kings fans who believe he can be the best big in the league

I think for his first game he held his own, I didn't feel bad or good about it personally. The stats were obviously there and he showed his prowess and why we have hope for his future, but the turnovers and lack of running the floor were negative (although I did feel there was confusion in coverage at times). Most are saying he outplayed Drummond and didn't play worse than Plumlee in game 1 but now its time to show the dominance a little more seamlessly

[SacKingZZZ]

What do you struggle with the most, defensively? Is it footwork? Difficulty grasping the concepts? Or conditioning? The USAB folks noticed that you are trimmer than the past two summers but still believe your conditioning is subpar for the uptempo system Krzyzewski runs.

I want to lose another 10 pounds, and that’s why I practiced with the Kings during the summer league. I’ve lost a lot of that old baby fat. But I am just not a typical defensive player for a normal big man. A lot of big men can’t defend. But they block shots, and that’s not really defense. Defense is about five guys moving as one ... the moving-on-a-string theory. If one guy goes to the wrong place, it breaks down. But at the end of the day, as the center, I’m the defensive anchor. And I’m working hard on it.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/02/660106 ... rylink=cpy

So refreshing to hear and absolutely TRUE. He's on the money with this so he's been given and is understanding it the right way. Marc Gasol would be a great person for him to look at and emulate. Just in the last 2 seasons Cousins has started to realize he's got length to make a difference, now if he realizes his feet and awareness will get him the rest of the way he'll be a really good defender. Gasol reminds me a lot of Vlade defensively, they are great models for Cuz to follow.

[SacKingZZZ]

When you first came to the Kings, your former agent boasted about your passing ability. He actually compared you with Bill Walton, which was more than a little bit of a stretch. Yet you have thrown a number of perfect outlet passes these past few days that led to dunks or layups. Why haven’t you thrown more of those with the Kings?

A guy I used to throw a lot of them to was Marcus Thornton. He was quick, just throw it straight out and he would get it

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/02/660106 ... rylink=cpy

Also had a laugh at this. Been saying for years Thornton was the only one willing to move for Cousins. You can't pass to someone not willing to get open. In fact, the pass isn't even the important part, 90% of the time it's the work the player getting the pass puts in. Right now, McCallum is the only guy on this roster that I know will work for Cousins in that same manner.

[SactoKingsFan]

Apparently Millsap won't be making the final cut. Keeping 4 bigs in Davis, Cousins, Drummond and Plumlee would make sense.

Final roster should look something like this:

Rose/Curry/Irving
Harden/DeRozan/Korver or Thompson
Durant/Parsons or Hayward
Davis/Plumlee
Cousins/Drummond

[enderwilson]

Apparently Millsap won't be making the final cut. Keeping 4 bigs in Davis, Cousins, Drummond and Plumlee would make sense.

Final roster should look something like this:

Rose/Curry/Irving
Harden/DeRozan/Korver or Thompson
Durant/Parsons or Hayward
Davis/Plumlee
Cousins/Drummond

Can't discount Faried. I think Manimal is pretty secure in making the team as he provides an impact off the bench. The third and fourth spots for the front court will be down to Cuz, Drummond, and Plumlee.

I also feel that making the Team USA squad is DMC's best chance to get some recognition on the international stage. This will help set him up to make the All-Star team next year. Getting a spot on Team USA is the first hurtle. After that, if he can dominate like we know he can while simultaneously being the role-player the coaching staff wants from that position, he'll start changing the minds of people who question his attitude without seriously looking at his skill.

[pillwenney]

I'll withhold my outrage until he is actually cut.