The Boogie Watch

[rsavaj]

emerging from hibernation to provide my take:

A) I think the likelihood of getting Cousins while managing to keep a Bledsoe/Booker/Chriss/Bender quartet is infinitesimally small. One of Bender/Chriss would have to go unless McD had some kompromat on Divac.

B) We know that Gambo is Sarver's mouthpiece. We know that he basically floats whatever the Suns want him to float out into the ether

Combine A and B and you get:

C) To me, this seems like a classic "give the fans something to distract from how awful we are, end up standing pat at the deadline/only make minor trades" Phoenix Suns move that the FO has perfected over the course of Sarver's ownership.

[jcsunsfan]

emerging from hibernation to provide my take:

A) I think the likelihood of getting Cousins while managing to keep a Bledsoe/Booker/Chriss/Bender quartet is infinitesimally small. One of Bender/Chriss would have to go unless McD had some kompromat on Divac.

B) We know that Gambo is Sarver's mouthpiece. We know that he basically floats whatever the Suns want him to float out into the ether

Combine A and B and you get:

C) To me, this seems like a classic "give the fans something to distract from how awful we are, end up standing pat at the deadline/only make minor trades" Phoenix Suns move that the FO has perfected over the course of Sarver's ownership.

There are conspiracy theorists and then there are cynical conspiracy theorists.

[Scutt]

If you can get Cousins whilst keeping Bledsoe, Booker AND Chriss/Bender, you gotta do it.

This is so comparable to the Barkley from Philly deal.

Barkley came to a Suns team that already made the Conference finals, and had a leader in KJ. They were a legit playoff team that was trying to add the piece that would put them over the top. This current Suns team has one of the worst records in the league, and getting Cousins might not even get them into the playoffs. I fail to see how this situation is anything like when we got Barkley, other than both players having attitude issues.

[Djedefre]

Acquiring Boogie is a perfect recipe for multi annual mediocrity

[AZWildByNature]

Not Suns specific but pertains to the Boogie to PHX rumor.

SACRAMENTO
Trade assets: limited

The recent Achilles’ tendon injury to Rudy Gay takes one of the Kings’ few trade assets off the table.

Outside of DeMarcus Cousins, Gay – on an expiring contract (player option in 2017-18) – had the most value on the roster.

Sacramento does, however, have a group of young players in the development stage and veterans on expiring and short-term contracts.

Sacramento also has the draft rights of 2014 first-round pick Bogdan Bogdanovic and second-round picks Luka Mitrovic (2015), Arturas Gudaitis (2015) and Alex Oriakhi (2013).

Prior trades limit the Kings from moving current and future first- and second-round picks.

The Kings cannot trade a first until 2021 and their second-round pick will go to Chicago if the Bulls do not receive Sacramento’s first-round pick (Nos. 11-30) this season.

Should be off the table: maybe just one

Unless a team is willing to unload a combination of draft picks and core pieces for All-Star DeMarcus Cousins, the Kings’ roster should be open for discussion.

The big decision for Kings management will come this summer when Cousins is eligible to sign a $200 million-plus extension to remain in Sacramento for the next five years.

GM history at the deadline

Vlade Divac is entering his second trade deadline since taking over after the 2014-15 season.

Divac, who did not make a deal at last year’s deadline, was most active this past June, when the Kings made two draft-night trades.

Post-trade deadline roster movement

The Kings’ place in the standings could dictate any possible player buyouts before the March 1 deadline.

Although there is little separation among the teams fighting for the West’s last playoff spot, Sacramento would be best off in the long term integrating young development assets such as Richardson, Labissiere and Cauley-Stein. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/trade-guide-west-teams-pushing-for-last-playoff-spot-195756875.html

There might be some truth to Gambo's comments yesterday, but I doubt that McD was involved in the conversations. It was most likely a lower level GM Assistant, who made a call to inquire about what it would take to acquire Boogie. GMs most likely do not get involved in trade conversations until they are in "advanced" conversations. Gambo has to get his info from somewhere, since he is not going to get it from McD, his usual suspects would be other GMs or lower level FO, or owners like Sarver. I would not be surprised if the Suns FO are calling teams to find out what; the Suns 2017 First Round Pick, TJ Warren, and Alex Len could get in return.

[Qwigglez]

I take it all back. Suns shouldn't trade for Boogie anyway. Go after Butler. His contract is more valuable. Knight/Warren/Len 2017 1st and 2019 Miami 1st. Then over the summer... go for Boogie. Besides the money what else is keeping him in Sacramento? He wants to play with Bledsoe or Wall? Well Wizards don't have the cap room, so that leaves us. Here's his chance.
Bledsoe/Booker/Butler/Chriss/Cousins
Ulis/LB/Bender/Dudley/Chandler

[Villalobos]

Besides all the lockerroom/coach/ego drama he'd bring, Jimmy Butler is a legit stupid person. I really wouldn't want him on the Suns. To give an example of the level of dumb you're dealing with, there was a story about how Butler literally took the rear view mirror out of his car to emphasize his philosophy of never looking back in life. That's some Darwin award type ****.

[Scutt]

Besides all the lockerroom/coach/ego drama he'd bring, Jimmy Butler is a legit stupid person. I really wouldn't want him on the Suns. To give an example of the level of dumb you're dealing with, there was a story about how Butler literally took the rear view mirror out of his car to emphasize his philosophy of never looking back in life. That's some Darwin award type ****.

Maybe he is a fan of Tame Impala. The lyrics to one of their songs goes something like, "He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac because he doesn't like it looking like he looks back." I doubt Jimmy Butler is listening to Australian psychedelic pop music, but you never now.

[Qwigglez]

Besides all the lockerroom/coach/ego drama he'd bring, Jimmy Butler is a legit stupid person. I really wouldn't want him on the Suns. To give an example of the level of dumb you're dealing with, there was a story about how Butler literally took the rear view mirror out of his car to emphasize his philosophy of never looking back in life. That's some Darwin award type ****.

Maybe he is a fan of Tame Impala. The lyrics to one of their songs goes something like, "He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac because he doesn't like it looking like he looks back." I doubt Jimmy Butler is listening to Australian psychedelic pop music, but you never now.

I literally posted the same exact thing when we faced the Bulls the first time last season because he was talking **** about Booker.

Watch on YouTube

[csuriano]

If you can get Cousins whilst keeping Bledsoe, Booker AND Chriss/Bender, you gotta do it.

This is so comparable to the Barkley from Philly deal.

Barkley came to a Suns team that already made the Conference finals, and had a leader in KJ. They were a legit playoff team that was trying to add the piece that would put them over the top. This current Suns team has one of the worst records in the league, and getting Cousins might not even get them into the playoffs. I fail to see how this situation is anything like when we got Barkley, other than both players having attitude issues.

The celtics were one of the worst in the league with Pierce when they traded Jefferson for Garnett and signed Allen, a situation McD remembers all to well. Maybe Cousins could be our first piece to fall?

[Qwigglez]

If you can get Cousins whilst keeping Bledsoe, Booker AND Chriss/Bender, you gotta do it.

This is so comparable to the Barkley from Philly deal.

Barkley came to a Suns team that already made the Conference finals, and had a leader in KJ. They were a legit playoff team that was trying to add the piece that would put them over the top. This current Suns team has one of the worst records in the league, and getting Cousins might not even get them into the playoffs. I fail to see how this situation is anything like when we got Barkley, other than both players having attitude issues.

The celtics were one of the worst in the league with Pierce when they traded Jefferson for Garnett and signed Allen, a situation McD remembers all to well. Maybe Cousins could be our first piece to fall?

Traded for Allen too.
http://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2954127

[TASTIC]

If you can get Cousins whilst keeping Bledsoe, Booker AND Chriss/Bender, you gotta do it.

This is so comparable to the Barkley from Philly deal.

Barkley came to a Suns team that already made the Conference finals, and had a leader in KJ. They were a legit playoff team that was trying to add the piece that would put them over the top. This current Suns team has one of the worst records in the league, and getting Cousins might not even get them into the playoffs. I fail to see how this situation is anything like when we got Barkley, other than both players having attitude issues.

If you quote the rest of my post, I mean in the sense Barkley (ie Cousins in this scenario) was the disgruntled star who was putting up massive numbers, but his team wasn't ever going to win a title (with their older pieces) and he was constantly moody and lashing out. Not the package of the deal, should have clarified.

Look at their cumulative stats through their first 7 seasons, they're really close apart from Barkley's absurd FG%!

[Saberestar]

IMO Sir Charles has been the second best PF in the history of the game only behind Tim Duncan. He was a beast but with the past of the years he was more relaxed on defense, and he was an average defender on the Suns. But he was a terrific all around PF, a monster on the boards.

I think that Barkley and Cousins are not at the same level, one was a Hall of Fame player ( like Westbrook nowadays, for example) and the other is just an All Star player.

[jcsunsfan]

If you can get Cousins whilst keeping Bledsoe, Booker AND Chriss/Bender, you gotta do it.

This is so comparable to the Barkley from Philly deal.

Barkley came to a Suns team that already made the Conference finals, and had a leader in KJ. They were a legit playoff team that was trying to add the piece that would put them over the top. This current Suns team has one of the worst records in the league, and getting Cousins might not even get them into the playoffs. I fail to see how this situation is anything like when we got Barkley, other than both players having attitude issues.

If you quote the rest of my post, I mean in the sense Barkley (ie Cousins in this scenario) was the disgruntled star who was putting up massive numbers, but his team wasn't ever going to win a title (with their older pieces) and he was constantly moody and lashing out. Not the package of the deal, should have clarified.

Look at their cumulative stats through their first 7 seasons, they're really close apart from Barkley's absurd FG%!

That fg% is a major difference between the two. Charles was clearly the much better player. Those numbers smack of high usage on a bad team for Cousins.

[Mulhollanddrive]

The biggest query to me is effeciency, prior to this year his offensive rating was worse than the 16th ranked team, he shoots alot of jumpers and rarely gets to the rim for a big and has high turnovers from dribbling in iso situations.

Hed have to cut out stuff to lead to a winning team, at Sac it doesn't really matter.

[lilfishi22]

I know I'm a bit late to the party since these rumors have surfaced but I'm still in favor of trading for Cousins.

I don't really see Bender, Warren, Len, Suns 2017 1st and a Miami pick as being everything and the kitchen sink as some have made it out to be. TBH I think that's probably on the lower end of the package of what I'd ask for if I was Kings FO. To me, everyone except for Booker is on the table. I like our young guys but I'm not in love with any of them. Bender to me is the most intriguing because of his size, background and youth. Chriss, I'm probably the least excited about because we've seen players like him before. Ultra athletic, slightly undersized bigs isn't new and the fact that he seems like a low IQ player without solid foundations just doesn't do it for me. That 17 first would be difficult to part ways with but hey, the last time we moved a top pick, we got Knight in return. This would be orders of magnitudes better use of a top pick in a trade.

And for those who say well we're gutting the team and we're not going to be competitive....you MAY be right but we have money and we can certainly make more moves in the future. I do hope talks pick back up

[Zelaznyrules]

I know I'm a bit late to the party since these rumors have surfaced but I'm still in favor of trading for Cousins.

I don't really see Bender, Warren, Len, Suns 2017 1st and a Miami pick as being everything and the kitchen sink as some have made it out to be. TBH I think that's probably on the lower end of the package of what I'd ask for if I was Kings FO. To me, everyone except for Booker is on the table. I like our young guys but I'm not in love with any of them. Bender to me is the most intriguing because of his size, background and youth. Chriss, I'm probably the least excited about because we've seen players like him before. Ultra athletic, slightly undersized bigs isn't new and the fact that he seems like a low IQ player without solid foundations just doesn't do it for me. That 17 first would be difficult to part ways with but hey, the last time we moved a top pick, we got Knight in return. This would be orders of magnitudes better use of a top pick in a trade.

And for those who say well we're gutting the team and we're not going to be competitive....you MAY be right but we have money and we can certainly make more moves in the future. I do hope talks pick back up

Forget everything else, I'd rather have our pick this season than Cousins. Keep in mind, we have no guarantee he'll sign with us. He and Wall are close and if you were him, would you want to stay on a depleted Suns roster or join a very loaded Washington team? Cousins might be worth that kind of package if he's locked up for several years but in a league filled with cap space, having his Bird rights means very little IMO and that plus a year of ball is all we're really getting. No thanks.

[Christine-In-AZ]

I somewhat amazed that about 40% of you would trade Bender, Warren, Len and the two #1s for Cousins.

Chriss and Bender - they are both similar, really only need one and I agree, keep Chriss

Sorry to single you out BobbieL, but your observation strikes me so wrong and may be shared by others given these poll numbers.

Chriss and Bender are wildly dissimilar to me. Chriss barely knows how to play basketball at this point. He's laced with athletic ability, and hopefully as the years go by he'll get the game. He could possibly become a star in 5 years or just flat out disappear. He was a good pick at #8. I'm pleased with what I've seen, but in my book he's more hope than promise.

Bender will be a solid contributing NBA player for the next 10 or 15 years. He's already a pretty solid defender, has displayed an understanding for NBA offense play schemes, and has a nice shot. He could become a Nowitzki-esk star on offense with better D, but even if that stardom doesn't happen his "floor" is very high...he is a solid top 6 roster piece worse case. If Bender had stayed overseas another year, he'd be the prize every tank team was aiming for in this upcoming draft...and the Suns already have him. Yeah!

[GMATCallahan]

The celtics were one of the worst in the league with Pierce when they traded Jefferson for Garnett and signed Allen, a situation McD remembers all to well. Maybe Cousins could be our first piece to fall?

The Celtics were not necessarily one of the worst teams with Pierce—in the sense that Pierce missed 35 games (36 starts) in '06-'07 and the Celtics totally fell apart without him, going 4-32 (.111, a 9-win pace per 82 games) when he did not start compared to 20-26 (.435, a 36-win pace per 82 games) when he did start. (In other words, Pierce's presence more or less quadrupled the Celtics' win expectancy.) Conversely, without any major injures, the Suns' winning percentage right now is .306 and Phoenix is on pace to win 25 games. Pierce was also a more experienced player who had shown that he could lead the Celtics to the playoffs (four straight strips from 2002-2005, including an Atlantic Division title in 2005) and enjoy some success in the playoffs, albeit in a mediocre conference (a combined three playoffs series victories in 2002 and 2003, including a trip to Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2002). So the analogy does not really work in the sense that Eric Bledsoe, for instance, has been healthy all season long for Phoenix, but the Suns are still one of the three worst teams in the NBA and have never been to the playoffs with him.

Plus, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen (whom Boston traded for, by the way, as opposed to signed) were mature, experienced veterans in their early thirties who had both been to the conference finals themselves. Cousins, conversely, is anything but mature and has never been to the playoffs. And then, of course, you are talking about the addition of two stars in that case, not just one.

To be sure, I would explore the opportunity, but I do not see an analogy to the Boston situation ten years ago.

[GMATCallahan]

Look at their cumulative stats through their first 7 seasons, they're really close apart from Barkley's absurd FG%!

That fg% is a major difference between the two. Charles was clearly the much better player. Those numbers smack of high usage on a bad team for Cousins.

... yeah, the difference in two-point field goal percentage is astronomical! (.469 in the chart cited for Cousins versus .617 for Barkley.)

I have stated before that I would draw an analogy between Cousins and Derrick Coleman rather than Cousins and Charles Barkley—for on-court reasons and off-court reasons. In terms of on-court reasons, compare Cousins' statistics with Coleman's during his New Jersey days (when he was in his prime):

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/couside01.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/colemde01.html#1991-1995-sum:per_game

In his seventh NBA season, Cousins (age twenty-six) for his career is averaging 21.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 3.4 turnovers, 1.4 steals, 1.2 blocks, a .460 field goal percentage, a .327 three-point field goal percentage, a .469 two-point field goal percentage, and a .734 free throw percentage in 7.5 attempts per game.

Through his first five NBA seasons (through age twenty-seven), Coleman averaged 19.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 3.1 turnovers, 0.9 steals, 1.6 blocks, a .461 field goal percentage, a .275 three-point field goal percentage, a .478 two-point field goal percentage, and a .770 free throw percentage in 6.9 attempts per game. Also keep in mind that Coleman actually had to share the ball with some good players on relatively good teams: the Nets won at least 40 games and made the playoffs three straight seasons from 1992-1994, featuring Mookie Blaylock and/or All-Star Kenny Anderson at point guard and Drazen Petrovic at shooting guard (until his tragic death following the 1993 season, which may well have derailed that team long-term, as Petrovic constituted a Reggie Miller-type shooter/scorer). And Coleman showed that he could help anchor an elite defense, as New Jersey ranked fifth in Defensive Rating (points allowed per possession) in '92-'93.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/NJN/1993.html

Really, the analogy would be to Coleman, not to Barkley, and if the Suns had been a bad team in 1992, Barkley would not have miraculously turned Phoenix into a championship contender. After all, he had proven in Philadelphia that he was no miracle worker, and he was actually playing with an All-Star shooting guard in Hersey Hawkins, who was sort of a tougher version of Bradley Beal. Even so, in 1992, the Sixers missed the playoffs.