Would You Trade Lopez for Cousins?

[Prokorov]

I think it makes even more sense to deal for cousins considering lopez being more of a health risk, lopez no longer finsih as strong as he usually does in the paint, and most importantly how poor our defensive rebounding has been.

I know Trader Joe's contention for a while has been he doesnt care how many rebounds lopez gets as long as we are an elite rebounding team. Well, we are no longer an elite rebounding team in terms of differential, and we are no longer an avg defensive rebounding team. I dont think its myth that reggie evans and humphries made up for lopez deficiencies on that end... even if some of it was stat padding.

Cousins has his share of problems, but he is still really young and can still mature alot. i think he has already made strides this year with some more talent around him. and i think he more then anyone would benefit from finally playing with some really good veterans like he would have here.

He has really picked up his game this year:

23 ppg
11 rpg
3.5 apg
2 spg
1 bpg

49% FG
56 TS%
27 PER

107 Ortg
101 Drtg

His efficiency is way up(27 PER vs 20 PER last year). which was one of the bigger knocks on him. his defense has improved. his FG% and TS% arent great, but both of those have seen a pretty nice uptick as well. And i think if you surrounded him with the shooters and talent we have hear, with the 1 on 1s he would get he would really beast.

plus, the original reason ive always prefered him to lopez - he is a competitor, he plays with a ton of passion and energy, and he wants to win. He reminds me alot of rasheed in that way. and when rasheed was in a good place, he did good things. i think cousins can be the same.

plus he is only 23. when you compare the 2:

Lopez - Cousins

PPG
20.6 - 22.7

RPG
5.9 - 10.8

APG
1.0 - 3.2

SPG
0.4 - 1.8

BPG
1.8 - 1.0

FG%
57.1 - 49.2

TS%
64.1 - 56.4

PER
27.0 - 27.0

Brook clearly with better shooting numbers... But even with that Cousins has been just as efficient. And rebounding wise cousins has been better and is having an elite season from a defensive rebounding perspective. I just dont think we would lose a ton offensively with cousins at center. He can score in the post. he can pass from the post. he has a decent jumper from mid range(not like brook but also not like dwight). Defensively im not sure he is worse. help defense brook is better, man brook might be better too. but pick and roll cousins is alot better. cousins also brings us more athleticism, and an elite rebounder. he is also younger and doesnt have the injury history/risk.

Then you have his competitiveness. he would match the emotion/energy of someone like noah in a big game. he would never back down physically from anyone.

i wouldnt say no to a straight up trade. maybe last year you could call me crazy, but right now, you have to consider it.

[Paradise]

IMO, The answer is still no. Cousins looks great this year but what's the point when he struggles against talented defenders and doesn't protect the rim?

Brook suffers from lack of aggressiveness. Cousins suffers from turnovers, defense and still attitude problems.

Unless, we're rebuilding on the fly ala Portland. I'm not trading Lopez for Cousins today.

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[Prokorov]

IMO, The answer is still no. Cousins looks great this year but what's the point when he struggles against talented defenders and doesn't protect the rim?

Brook suffers from lack of aggressiveness. Cousins suffers from turnovers, defense and still attitude problems.

Unless, we're rebuilding on the fly ala Portland. I'm not trading Lopez for Cousins today.

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doesnt lopez also struggle against physical defenders and on defense? and cousins attitude i think is exactly what we need here. someone who cares a little too much about winning and isnt afraid to call anyone out. he would be our rasheed wallace.

Lopez hasnt been a great rim protect either. he looked good the first few games but has been pretty invisible since. gaurds are back to finishing up, over, and around him at will like they did a year ago.

i do like that lopez has brought his FT% back up.

[Paradise]

IMO, The answer is still no. Cousins looks great this year but what's the point when he struggles against talented defenders and doesn't protect the rim?

Brook suffers from lack of aggressiveness. Cousins suffers from turnovers, defense and still attitude problems.

Unless, we're rebuilding on the fly ala Portland. I'm not trading Lopez for Cousins today.

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doesnt lopez also struggle against physical defenders and on defense? and cousins attitude i think is exactly what we need here. someone who cares a little too much about winning and isnt afraid to call anyone out. he would be our rasheed wallace.

Lopez hasnt been a great rim protect either. he looked good the first few games but has been pretty invisible since. gaurds are back to finishing up, over, and around him at will like they did a year ago.

i do like that lopez has brought his FT% back up.

He does struggle against bigger centers at times but he still gets to the FA line and usually offsets his offensive struggles by doing a decent job defensively on the big he's guarding.

Cousins gets owned against quality centers on both ends. He has nights where he gets 28 points 9 rebounds but plays zero D like last night vs Atlanta or some nights he gets taken completely out of the game.

Brook still is #1 in rim protection. His impact is largely obvious in on/off court in the paint stats.

He was bad last night but that was probably based off returning from an injury.

Brook is not untouchable by any means but I would not trade him for a guy that is much worse at everything besides rebounding.

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[Prokorov]

He does struggle against bigger centers at times but he still gets to the FA line and usually offsets his offensive struggles by doing a decent job defensively on the big he's guarding.

Cousins gets owned against quality centers on both ends. He has nights where he gets 28 points 9 rebounds but plays zero D like last night vs Atlanta or some nights he gets taken completely out of the game.

He has more then a few nights where he gets 28/9. he is averaging 23/11 and has plenty of 25-30 point games this season and plenty of 10+ rebounding games this season. and if you are saying there are some games he plays 0 defense or gets taken out, i dont know how the same cant be said about lopez, who is about as inconsistent as it comes and suffers from the same issue.

Brook still is #1 in rim protection. His impact is largely obvious in on/off court in the paint stats.

I'm not sold on this "rim protection" stat. any stat that has lopez #1 this year in that category is flawed. i mean does it take into account when a wing or gaurd gets by lopez so easily he isnt in the play anymore to block it, cause thats the only thing that could explain it. lopez isnt a great rim protector. and gaurds go by him at will. he doesnt even make the shots difficult for them most times.

on/off stats are a fucntion of not only your play but your reserves play. when your backup bigs are guys like mirza/plumlee/blatche/evans its going to favor you alot more then if you have legit backup bigs on your team.

He was bad last night but that was probably based off returning from an injury.

he has been bad/inconsistent all season. and injuries are part of why you would trade a guy, no?

Brook is not untouchable by any means but I would not trade him for a guy that is much worse at everything besides rebounding.

everything? is cousins a much worse passer? a much worse athlete? a much worse scorer? much worse efficiency(Cousins at @& PER) a much bigger pansy? much more soft?

[JazzMatt13]

The thing is (Prokorov), you forgot to mention 1 major stat about Cousins, his need for the ball, a lot. Kings are freight training their offense through him. Besides for that stat, you covered all there is.

I think the data is enough to consider it, but I think the #1 concern would be is how he functions with D-Will.

Stat:
Right now Cousins has a USG of 34.2, which is a lot. Lopez is also pretty demanding with a 26.7 this year!

[Wonderllama]

The answer to this question was yes.

[Paradise]

Aside from the injury disparity, the answer is still no.

Why is this thread still alive?

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[MrDollarBills]

The answer is no? Lopez is now a blight on our cap.

[Paradise]

The answer is no? Lopez is now a blight on our cap.

The premise of this thread was a healthy Lopez for Cousins and the answer still is no. Now, that he's injured and probably never going to be good enough to be a #1 option or even have a long career then I would do it but a healthy Lopez is still a much better impactful player.