Woj official Cousins to the Pelicans

[SacKingZZZ]

Right but did he get a green light from the owner in time to accept it or was there more vacillating?

It's funny you mention a green light. In the initial presser a reporter asked if Vivek gave him the green light to trade him and he said that Vivek didn't even know about the deal until he brought it to him. It sounds like Vivek wasn't even involved. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Vivek is more clueless than even the haters give him credit for. In fact I think he's so cluelss (partially by choice I'm sure) that he couldn't even name all the players on his own team. He strikes me as that type of owner. Which is either good or bad depending on your opinion.

When I was an associate, I'd work my tail off to get the case to where it could be settled and my former boss never saw a deal he didn't think he could improve. I can't tell you how many settlements were scuttled because of him.

Well, regardless, it sounds like people are bashing Vivek for the wrong reasons. If you are mad about the trade look elsewhere because it sounds like Vivek was the only one wanting him here from the start.

[WarriorsLakers]

A player I mentioned quit a while back Kings were interested in . Kings are close to acquiring via trade .

Deng

[Phase 3]

A player I mentioned quit a while back Kings were interested in . Kings are close to acquiring via trade .

Deng

Ish Smith

[OGSactownballer]

It's funny you mention a green light. In the initial presser a reporter asked if Vivek gave him the green light to trade him and he said that Vivek didn't even know about the deal until he brought it to him. It sounds like Vivek wasn't even involved. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Vivek is more clueless than even the haters give him credit for. In fact I think he's so cluelss (partially by choice I'm sure) that he couldn't even name all the players on his own team. He strikes me as that type of owner. Which is either good or bad depending on your opinion.

When I was an associate, I'd work my tail off to get the case to where it could be settled and my former boss never saw a deal he didn't think he could improve. I can't tell you how many settlements were scuttled because of him.

Well, regardless, it sounds like people are bashing Vivek for the wrong reasons. If you are mad about the trade look elsewhere because it sounds like Vivek was the only one wanting him here from the start.

No don't believe this tripe for a second. He is sounding SO much more prepared and polished for this interview than the earlier one. This is a set up recovery from the earlier interview when he was caught flat footed and irritated and gave away a few little clues.

[City of Trees]

Ok so it wasn't a shot at Vivek, it was a shot at Cousins agent who possibly killed the first/better deal?

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[KF10]

Read on Twitter

[SacKingZZZ]

Vlade needs to learn to speak in code like Petrie did back in the day.

[OGSactownballer]

I almost think he is trying to, but sometimes the English idioms defeat him and he sounds 90 degrees off from what he is trying to get across.

[Shem]

HOLY **** Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins are on the SAME TEAM!

HOLY **** we have to play Boogie 4 times a year. Poor Willie.

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Only three I believe.

It depends on the season. Teams in the same conference, but not in the same division rotate seasons on which they play each other either 3 times or 4 times.

[KF10]

According to an Eastern Conference source, Divac also called the Celtics, but asked for far too much in return and refused to negotiate. There’s also belief that the Nuggets were willing to include anyone but Nikola Jokic and perhaps Jamal Murray in a trade for Cousins. Per a separate source, the Suns were offering a package of players and multiple first-round draft picks (including one or both of their upcoming Miami picks), but the Kings declined. “We would have traded for him at the right price,” Suns general manager Ryan McDonough admitted to Arizona Sports 98.7. “We didn’t want to break up our young core to get him.”

Apparently that home run was Buddy Hield, a player Ranadivé was reportedly enamored with. Divac’s desperation stemmed from Ranadivé saying no over and over again to every Cousins trade proposal. The Kings owner was “softening slightly” to the idea of dealing the franchise center over the past year, per a source, and this was Divac’s chance to press the reset button. If Divac waited, there’s a chance Ranadivé would reverse course once again. The Kings wouldn’t have been in this mess if they had dealt Cousins for a huge return one to three years ago, but Ranadivé’s unwillingness at the time to move on made that impossible. Instead, they dealt Cousins, after assuring Boogie’s agent they were committed to signing the star big man long-term. Now, they’re a dysfunctional organization, barren of high-value assets, with a track record of burning bridges.

Sources around the league have indicated that Cousins has megalomaniac tendencies: He grows jealous when teammates receive credit for team success, or he reacts negatively if a teammate makes a mistake. It’s hard for players to follow along when the leader doesn’t practice what he preaches. You don’t have to look hard to find the stories. On Monday’s episode of The Lowe Post podcast, Zach Lowe told Brian Windhorst, “DeMarcus Cousins ruined Nik Stauskas … or almost did. The stories about DeMarcus Cousins berating Nik Stauskas, threatening to fight Nik Stauskas on the plane to China when they were going there for the preseason, two years ago or whenever that was … he ruined Nik Stauskas.” The rumblings are the same from people in drastically different circles.

More here:

https://theringer.com/demarcus-cousin-trade-effects-sixers-bulls-jimmy-butler-celtics-bc7e5af236ff#.uh0stshwp

[Wolfay]

Probably the fairest assessment yet. It's a bad trade in terms of value, but Cousins could very well have a severe personality disorder. I hope he gets help, but at this point he's probably surrounded himself with people who'll only feed it and make sure he never gets help. I also hope New Orleans is ready.

[B00Yah]

There has to be something more to this trade. Like do New Orleans management have leaked Anjali Ranadive nude photos? This is worse than the Vince Carter trade. My condolences

Stop trolling.

This is not worse than the Vince deal, which landed Toronto:
a player that they knew didn't want to play in TO (and they had to eat their own **** when the bought him out)
a couple of scrubs
a meh first round pick
....for arguably a better player + no head-case issues.

As much flack as SAC is getting on this, I'm sure they shopped Boogie.
They probably should have gotten more, but how many teams are out there:
a) with the need
b) the assets
c) the interest in taking on a borderline psycho
d) paying said BD-psycho 200m

The Vince deal should go down as one of the worst in NBA history for eternity (since Stern nixed the Chris Paul deal).

[Silver Man]

Vivek needs to have ZERO involvement in ANYTHING basketball team decision related. This is has been addressed numerous amounts of times and at some point he needs to stay out of EVERYTHING team related for once and for all.

[RIPskaterdude]

Read on Twitter

[codydaze]

Read on Twitter

Heart breaking...


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[SacSanity]

Read on Twitter

Heart breaking...


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This is why we love Cousins the person... unfortunately not so much the player anymore. I think it is safe to say we all wish him the best in his career.

[perezident]

As a huge Sacramento Kings fan from The Bahamas, I am no doubt excited to see Buddy lace it up for my team. Buddy grew up a few homes away from my grand parents house. I watched the guy grow up into the young man we see today. High character guy who works extremely hard and wants to be great so badly. He is determined to excel and play top notch basketball.

As a few of you would remember, I traveled from The Bahamas to Cali to witness my first NBA game and what was supposed to be the final Kings franchise home game in Sacramento April 2014. I have been a Kings fan since '98. I love the game of basketball.

The trade I must admit is terrible across the board and really makes no sense at all. I was hoping Buddy fell to us in the daft to be paired with Cousins -- not to replace him. So you must imagine how much of a bitter sweet moment this is for me.

However, what is done is done. Give Buddy a chance to make a meaningful contribution! Hopefully Vlade and his team wake up for once and start to put the correct pieces in place to build a team worth its marbles. Because as it stands now....it looks ugly.

[Sixerfan86]

Full disclosure, I am a sixers fan. But as a fellow member of the realgm/nba community, I felt compelled to stick up for the Kings trade and explain why this was a good move for the Kings.

Don't let anyone fool you: Demarcus Cousins on a 5-year, $235 million dollar contract is an immovable contract. If the Kings couldn't adequately build a team around Cousins making a modest salary at his athletic peak, they would have no shot with lesser cap room and an older Boogie. Instead, they would be guaranteed to be an average at best team the next 10 years (with a chance of being worse).

On the flip side, what do the Kings now have?
2016 number 6 overall pick -- Buddy Hield
2017 number 5-10 pick (via Kings/Sixers)
2017 13-18 pick (via pels)
2018 top 4 pick! (in another top-heavy draft)

Wait, it gets better:
in the 2018/2019 season, the Kings have player options for Garrett Temple and Kousta Koufus (8 mill a piece, both are reasonable contracts), but then?

Willie Caulie Stein team option: $4,696,874
Buddy Hield team option: $3,833,760
Georgios Papagiannis team option: $2,400,480
Malachi Richardson team option: $1,569,360
2017 lottery: rookie scale
2017 late lottery pick: rookie scale
2018 top pick pick: rookie scale

Lead NBA in cap space. In the next two years, Kings will be able to absorb other teams bad contracts (and waive them) in exchange for more picks.

Then comes 2019. The old Kings (which were run out of town by Demarcus Cousins) would think linearly. They would say, "We have no pick in 2019, so we should just use our cap space to sign best player available to make us competitive." The new Kings are smart and realize that that move will not lead to a championship. So what do they do instead?

They trade some combo of 2 of the following: (the better of) WCS, Buddy Hield, Georgios, Malachi, 2017 lotter pick and 2017 late lottery pick for a mid/late round pick in 2019 (just to keep everyone's sanity), but really for 2 picks that will be high lottery in 2020. The kings stink again in 2020 (sorry kings).

So, 2019: kings stink, but manage to acquire a pick in 2019 and 2 picks in 2020.

2019/2020 season;
Kings stink again (sorry kings).

2020 draft:
Kings have top 4 pick! (own pick!)
Second high lottery pick from (2018 trades above):
Third lottery pick (from 2018 trades above0:

2020/2021 season (kings don't stink! but still in lottery)

2021 draft:
Kings draft lottery pick
late lottery pick which they've acquire from clearing cap space:

2021 Free Agency: Kings lead league in cap scace:
Kings have a top 5 player in NBA (top 4 pick from 2018)
Kings have up and coming star -- top 35 player in nba (2020 nba draft)
Kings have another up and coming star -- top 50 player in nba (2020 nba draft)
Kings have solid role players on rookie deals (third 2020 lottery pick, 2021 lottery pick, 2021 late first rounder)

Kings sign 1 free agent to a max deal
Kings sign Boogie Cousins to team friendly deal. He comes home. He's a new, changed man, ala pedro serano in Major League II.

2021/2022 season... Kings suprise everyone with 3 seed in the west, lose a hard-fought matchup.

2022/2023 seasons. Kings are in the finals.... have an all-time great season.

Unfortunately, they run into a buzzsaw in the Philadelphia 76ers who are finishing of a three-peat in dominant fashion. (I did say I was a sixers fan). But alas, they come back in 2023/2024 and win the title.

These are your new, disciplined, smart, Sacramento Kings.

[codydaze]

Full disclosure, I am a sixers fan. But as a fellow member of the realgm/nba community, I felt compelled to stick up for the Kings trade and explain why this was a good move for the Kings.

Don't let anyone fool you: Demarcus Cousins on a 5-year, $235 million dollar contract is an immovable contract. If the Kings couldn't adequately build a team around Cousins making a modest salary at his athletic peak, they would have no shot with lesser cap room and an older Boogie. Instead, they would be guaranteed to be an average at best team the next 10 years (with a chance of being worse).

On the flip side, what do the Kings now have?
2016 number 6 overall pick -- Buddy Hield
2017 number 5-10 pick (via Kings/Sixers)
2017 13-18 pick (via pels)
2018 top 4 pick! (in another top-heavy draft)

Wait, it gets better:
in the 2018/2019 season, the Kings have player options for Garrett Temple and Kousta Koufus (8 mill a piece, both are reasonable contracts), but then?

Willie Caulie Stein team option: $4,696,874
Buddy Hield team option: $3,833,760
Georgios Papagiannis team option: $2,400,480
Malachi Richardson team option: $1,569,360
2017 lottery: rookie scale
2017 late lottery pick: rookie scale
2018 top pick pick: rookie scale

Lead NBA in cap space. In the next two years, Kings will be able to absorb other teams bad contracts (and waive them) in exchange for more picks.

Then comes 2019. The old Kings (which were run out of town by Demarcus Cousins) would think linearly. They would say, "We have no pick in 2019, so we should just use our cap space to sign best player available to make us competitive." The new Kings are smart and realize that that move will not lead to a championship. So what do they do instead?

They trade some combo of 2 of the following: (the better of) WCS, Buddy Hield, Georgios, Malachi, 2017 lotter pick and 2017 late lottery pick for a mid/late round pick in 2019 (just to keep everyone's sanity), but really for 2 picks that will be high lottery in 2020. The kings stink again in 2020 (sorry kings).

So, 2019: kings stink, but manage to acquire a pick in 2019 and 2 picks in 2020.

2019/2020 season;
Kings stink again (sorry kings).

2020 draft:
Kings have top 4 pick! (own pick!)
Second high lottery pick from (2018 trades above):
Third lottery pick (from 2018 trades above0:

2020/2021 season (kings don't stink! but still in lottery)

2021 draft:
Kings draft lottery pick
late lottery pick which they've acquire from clearing cap space:

2021 Free Agency: Kings lead league in cap scace:
Kings have a top 5 player in NBA (top 4 pick from 2018)
Kings have up and coming star -- top 35 player in nba (2020 nba draft)
Kings have another up and coming star -- top 50 player in nba (2020 nba draft)
Kings have solid role players on rookie deals (third 2020 lottery pick, 2021 lottery pick, 2021 late first rounder)

Kings sign 1 free agent to a max deal
Kings sign Boogie Cousins to team friendly deal. He comes home. He's a new, changed man, ala pedro serano in Major League II.

2021/2022 season... Kings suprise everyone with 3 seed in the west, lose a hard-fought matchup.

2022/2023 seasons. Kings are in the finals.... have an all-time great season.

Unfortunately, they run into a buzzsaw in the Philadelphia 76ers who are finishing of a three-peat in dominant fashion. (I did say I was a sixers fan). But alas, they come back in 2023/2024 and win the title.

These are your new, disciplined, smart, Sacramento Kings.

That's a pretty nice day dream. 2021, the top 5 players in the league are still going to be Russ, KD, Kawhi, AD, Harden, Boogie, Steph, etc. No third year guy is going to enter that convo, just not gonna happen. Not to mention KAT, Embiid, Jokic development. This all pretty much a fairy tale which would be nice but not realistic.

[benchmobbin02]

Full disclosure, I am a sixers fan. But as a fellow member of the realgm/nba community, I felt compelled to stick up for the Kings trade and explain why this was a good move for the Kings.

Don't let anyone fool you: Demarcus Cousins on a 5-year, $235 million dollar contract is an immovable contract. If the Kings couldn't adequately build a team around Cousins making a modest salary at his athletic peak, they would have no shot with lesser cap room and an older Boogie. Instead, they would be guaranteed to be an average at best team the next 10 years (with a chance of being worse).

On the flip side, what do the Kings now have?
2016 number 6 overall pick -- Buddy Hield
2017 number 5-10 pick (via Kings/Sixers)
2017 13-18 pick (via pels)
2018 top 4 pick! (in another top-heavy draft)

Wait, it gets better:
in the 2018/2019 season, the Kings have player options for Garrett Temple and Kousta Koufus (8 mill a piece, both are reasonable contracts), but then?

Willie Caulie Stein team option: $4,696,874
Buddy Hield team option: $3,833,760
Georgios Papagiannis team option: $2,400,480
Malachi Richardson team option: $1,569,360
2017 lottery: rookie scale
2017 late lottery pick: rookie scale
2018 top pick pick: rookie scale

Lead NBA in cap space. In the next two years, Kings will be able to absorb other teams bad contracts (and waive them) in exchange for more picks.

Then comes 2019. The old Kings (which were run out of town by Demarcus Cousins) would think linearly. They would say, "We have no pick in 2019, so we should just use our cap space to sign best player available to make us competitive." The new Kings are smart and realize that that move will not lead to a championship. So what do they do instead?

They trade some combo of 2 of the following: (the better of) WCS, Buddy Hield, Georgios, Malachi, 2017 lotter pick and 2017 late lottery pick for a mid/late round pick in 2019 (just to keep everyone's sanity), but really for 2 picks that will be high lottery in 2020. The kings stink again in 2020 (sorry kings).

So, 2019: kings stink, but manage to acquire a pick in 2019 and 2 picks in 2020.

2019/2020 season;
Kings stink again (sorry kings).

2020 draft:
Kings have top 4 pick! (own pick!)
Second high lottery pick from (2018 trades above):
Third lottery pick (from 2018 trades above0:

2020/2021 season (kings don't stink! but still in lottery)

2021 draft:
Kings draft lottery pick
late lottery pick which they've acquire from clearing cap space:

2021 Free Agency: Kings lead league in cap scace:
Kings have a top 5 player in NBA (top 4 pick from 2018)
Kings have up and coming star -- top 35 player in nba (2020 nba draft)
Kings have another up and coming star -- top 50 player in nba (2020 nba draft)
Kings have solid role players on rookie deals (third 2020 lottery pick, 2021 lottery pick, 2021 late first rounder)

Kings sign 1 free agent to a max deal
Kings sign Boogie Cousins to team friendly deal. He comes home. He's a new, changed man, ala pedro serano in Major League II.

2021/2022 season... Kings suprise everyone with 3 seed in the west, lose a hard-fought matchup.

2022/2023 seasons. Kings are in the finals.... have an all-time great season.

Unfortunately, they run into a buzzsaw in the Philadelphia 76ers who are finishing of a three-peat in dominant fashion. (I did say I was a sixers fan). But alas, they come back in 2023/2024 and win the title.

These are your new, disciplined, smart, Sacramento Kings.

That's a pretty nice day dream. 2021, the top 5 players in the league are still going to be Russ, KD, Kawhi, AD, Harden, Boogie, Steph, etc. No third year guy is going to enter that convo, just not gonna happen. Not to mention KAT, Embiid, Jokic development. This all pretty much a fairy tale which would be nice but not realistic.

Yeah the player ratings may be wishful thinking but you can see what the vision may be. Even the low end of this scenario is better than being the 11 seed and picking 9th in the draft for the next 5 yrs.