Are DeMarcus Cousins & Anthony Davis even a good fit?

[Curmudgeon]

Teams will absolutely go small against that AD and Cousins. The way to beat that frontline is to speed the game up and make both of them run up and down-- alot.

[seren]

Bring Phil as coach and run triangle.

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[Biff]

I'm not a huge Cousins fan and think he's a little overrated but this should be a good fit for him. His TS% has gone up this year and playing with someone like Davis, who attracts an enormous amount of attention, should only make him more efficient.

Unfortunately the rest of the NOLA is pretty bad outside of Jrue Holiday and they have way too many 4's. Their wings are probably worst in the league. E'Twaun Moore is a decent wing off the bench but he's not starter quality. They overpaid for Solomon Hill who has regressed this year. I don't think they're close to contending unless they can get some wings that can shoot and play some D.

[Duffman100]

Man, all the **** you can say about Cousins, but that dude was loyal to a fault. A lesser person would have asked out of Sacramento a long time ago...

Will they work? They're two of the most talented big men in the league. They can both stretch the floor, work off the ball. I think they'll be fine.

[RatherUnique]

Teams will absolutely go small against that AD and Cousins. The way to beat that frontline is to speed the game up and make both of them run up and down-- alot.

AD was a guard growing up & has maintained his fluidity after his growth spurt. He's one of the most agile bigs in the game. The Kings were #1 in pace when George Karl was the coach. Boogie made all-nba that year.

Speeding the game up doesn't seem like an optimal idea.

[sixerswillrule]

When GS runs small how do KD/Green matchup agains Davis/Cousins?

[cpower]

AD and Cousins need to make the Pelis No.1 Defensive team in the league, that's the base. If they can not do that, then there is no contender talk. I dont expect twin towers to top the league offense so they have to be absolute elite in D.

[Curmudgeon]

Teams will absolutely go small against that AD and Cousins. The way to beat that frontline is to speed the game up and make both of them run up and down-- alot.

AD was a guard growing up & has maintained his fluidity after his growth spurt. He's one of the most agile bigs in the game. The Kings were #1 in pace when George Karl was the coach. Boogie made all-nba that year.

Speeding the game up doesn't seem like an optimal idea.

That's what teams will do, and it will work, because Cousins doesn't like to exert himself. He's the Jay Cutler of the NBA. Looks great at times, but can't win.

[BorkLazer]

7. Do you want any of those players getting minutes? Getting them off the floor is a positive

Motiejunas is an excellent player, of course you want him to play. And he can of course still play, especially if they trade Jones as well.

Montiejunas is also a far inferior player to either Cousins or Davis (and if memory serves correct has a long injury history). Obviously there will still be minutes available for another big, so really only 2 of the 3 he listed aren't going to play. If Monty is so useful, he will get time.

[510TWSS]

I think smart defenders like Dray will save what they want to do against AD until they need to use it. I'll use Dray's strip against AD as an example earlier this year to seal the win. He said post game he knew what move AD was going to go to based on where he caught the ball.

I wouldn't have any illusion of stopping AD especially now with Cousins, however I think there's a progression in AD's offensive game that he can still attain. I think at 23 he's still getting there but by his mid to late 20's, watch out. Skill and experience will catch up to his elite gifts.

I think Dray can still be effective against him in spurts when in crunch time until AD becomes a bit more unpredictable with his moves which I think will come with experience.

Dray could've strip AD because he knew he was getting the ball, now Green will guard AD but do you really want a Cousins - Zaza battle for the last shot? I'm not saying Pels will even win 1 game against the dubs but these two will go off I'm pretty sure of it

In addition, having Zaza out there means that Iggy isn't out there, which is one less 3 point shooter on the court and one more player that's clogging up the middle. Warriors do fine regardless of who plays center, but when it comes down to it you'd much rather have Iggy out there instead of Zaza when it matters most. Besides, even with Zaza out there, it's doubtful he'd put even a dent on Cousins. At the same time you just can't have either Durant or Green guarding Cousins either, so it's not like you can punt that idea and go centerless.

Not to say this all of a sudden makes the Warriors beatable, but it poses a big problem for them, and I'm fascinated how it plays out. Green at the 5 and Durant at the 4 more than hold their own against most frontcourts, and it accentuates what's already a godly strength of theirs. Cousins and Davis have the potential to turn this lineup against them.

I think the W's continue to double Boogie. We usually send a guard after he takes his first dribble. Sometimes they'll switch that up. Boogie doesn't really play that well against us in his career. He shoots 45% overall with a 51% TS% and about 3.75 turnovers.

Not sure what we'd do against AD other than hope he'd miss some shots he'd normally make. He does have more turnovers than assists against us this year. Maybe we turn him into more of a playmaker and have the other guys shoot.

[PaKwAn]

both of them will fit just fine! add a 3&D type 2 guard on the pels and i think that first 5 will be scary to defend... if there teammates can defend the perimeter and will be able to hit the 3 ball goodluck trying to stop the best bigman duo in the league!

[RatherUnique]

Teams will absolutely go small against that AD and Cousins. The way to beat that frontline is to speed the game up and make both of them run up and down-- alot.

AD was a guard growing up & has maintained his fluidity after his growth spurt. He's one of the most agile bigs in the game. The Kings were #1 in pace when George Karl was the coach. Boogie made all-nba that year.

Speeding the game up doesn't seem like an optimal idea.

That's what teams will do, and it will work, because Cousins doesn't like to exert himself. He's the Jay Cutler of the NBA. Looks great at times, but can't win.

Again, he was an All-NBA player on a team with the #1 pace in basketball. Your narrative is not supported by facts.

[pelifan]

Teams will absolutely go small against that AD and Cousins. The way to beat that frontline is to speed the game up and make both of them run up and down-- alot.

I'm not sure that works. Davis probably runs better than any power forward in the league and most small forwards. Cousins can move too. And then you are just giving up a massive rebounding advantage. Just playing it straight up and scheming to keep them in the midrange is a better strategy to me.

[pelifan]

That's fine. Give me Draymond on AD with the game on the line. I like Green's chances. Green has had success against him this season in crunch time. AD is a super star, he will get his. I'd consider a win getting AD to shoot like ~10% below his average.

AD scored 31.5 on 54% shooting on Draymond in the playoffs. The Warriors did a good job of letting Draymond go 1 on 1 with him so the rest of the team couldn't go off too, but teams aren't going to slow down someone like Davis without a lot of doubling.

Also, this might not work as a perfect fit, but going small is not going to work at all with Davis at the 4. No one is going to make us pay for using Davis at the 4, that's an advantage for us all day. This idea that we should be worried about Davis playing his natural position because teams are going to be too fast for us is ludicrous. No one that can play the 4 is too fast for Davis

I think smart defenders like Dray will save what they want to do against AD until they need to use it. I'll use Dray's strip against AD as an example earlier this year to seal the win. He said post game he knew what move AD was going to go to based on where he caught the ball.

I wouldn't have any illusion of stopping AD especially now with Cousins, however I think there's a progression in AD's offensive game that he can still attain. I think at 23 he's still getting there but by his mid to late 20's, watch out. Skill and experience will catch up to his elite gifts.

I think Dray can still be effective against him in spurts when in crunch time until AD becomes a bit more unpredictable with his moves which I think will come with experience.

By the strip are you referring to the foul? AD has consistently proved time and time again that Draymond can not guard him without help. 1 play foul or not doesn't change that.

[G35]

We can compare Cousins/Davis to Duncan/DRob all day long but there are two things to consider:

1. Personality - both Duncan and DRob had a team first attitude where they did not care about stats or who took what shots where. Also, they had Popovich who was in full control mode after the Rodman/DRob pairing ended being a disaster. Point is there will have to be a ton of maturity displayed in order to maintain chemistry/order/peace amongst all the players, not just AD/Cousins.

2. Both of these guys are in their prime...Robinson willingly ceded control of the team to Duncan but Duncan still respected DRob as a mentor showing him the ropes. It's easy to say things are going to be fine but we have seen the problems on other teams e.g. CLE with Lebron/Kyrie/Love, MIA with Lebron/Wade/Bosh.

In recent memory the teams that seemed to get along seamlessly were the Kobe/Pau/Odom/Bynum Lakers who had great chemistry/fit from day one. Warriors who organically came together winning a championship and then added a top 2 player in KD. Celtics with KG/Pierce/Allen/Rondo fit very well because they all had defined roles and the leaders of the team wanted to win and sacrificed touches/stats for the ring.

Someone is going to have to take the leadership role and it will be interesting to see who that who will be now that expectations are raised for this team......

[pelifan]

Well if you're going to pick two 7 footers who can play together, this is probably as good as it gets. Cousins has the 3 point range. Davis is the shot blocker, they both can pass the ball ans score from multiple spots.

Let me play the devil's advocate and suggest that this is going to be a disaster for the Pelicans in so many ways.

1. There is only one ball, Both Cousins and Davis like to shoot from downtown, but Cousins shoots 35.4% (32.2% career) and Davis is shooting 30.6% this year, and 29% career. These are not impressive shooting percentages. Who is going to score for the Pelicans from beynd the arc?

2. If they play together, one of them is going to have to guard a quicker player. Teams will go small against them and have a field day.

3. The Pelicans will miss Tyreke Evans, especially in the pick and roll. It's going to be Boogie, the Brow and the 7 dwarves.

4. The Pelicans just traded away their pick in the draft of the decade.

5. Boogie is a rental. Will he sign an extension in New Orleans? Highly unlikely. He's going to test free agency in June of 2018.

6. Jrue Holiday is leaving, Boogie or no Boogie. Who will play the point for the Pelicans next year?

7. Asik, Motiejunas and Ajinca become useless dead weight on the bench. And where will the Pelicans find minutes to develop Diallo?

Here's what's going to happen: the dumber members of the media (i.e. most of them) and the Kings fanboys will castigate Kings management for making such a terrible deal. Then, when the Kings make the playoffs this year because they've rid themselves of this obnoxious millstone, these same journalists and the Kings fanboys will castigate Kings management for not embarking on a Hinkie-style deep tank.

I would like to address these one by one because they are some offbase assertions even if you don't believe in them and are playing devils advocate

1) reasonable assertion but the simple answer is shooters. Cousins and Davis aren't great 3 point shooters but they are already one of the best spacing/shooting front courts in the league.

2) Anthony Davis is one of the quickest forwards in the league period. Small forwards included. He's not great on the perimeter defensively but he's certainly not going to have trouble gaurding anyone unless teams go reallly small, and then the Pelicans have more advantages than they are giving up.

3) no. if you think the pelicans are going to miss Tyreke Evans I don't know what to tell you. Jrue is that guy

4) highly unlikely pick 10ish turns in to a player as good as Cousins, and that that player develops in time for ADs prime

5) still worth it even if he does. All we need is the opportunity and chance at relevancy which we weren't going to get through the existing avenues.

6) Wanna bet? Jrue is not going to turn down more money while uprooting his new family not to mention leave a franchise that let him take half a season off in a make or break year for personal reasons. If we max him he'll stay.

7) not a concern. Cunnigham plays some 4 too. Diallo is 2 years away from being 2 years away not worried about trying to find him minutes until he develops more skills.

[510TWSS]

AD scored 31.5 on 54% shooting on Draymond in the playoffs. The Warriors did a good job of letting Draymond go 1 on 1 with him so the rest of the team couldn't go off too, but teams aren't going to slow down someone like Davis without a lot of doubling.

Also, this might not work as a perfect fit, but going small is not going to work at all with Davis at the 4. No one is going to make us pay for using Davis at the 4, that's an advantage for us all day. This idea that we should be worried about Davis playing his natural position because teams are going to be too fast for us is ludicrous. No one that can play the 4 is too fast for Davis

I think smart defenders like Dray will save what they want to do against AD until they need to use it. I'll use Dray's strip against AD as an example earlier this year to seal the win. He said post game he knew what move AD was going to go to based on where he caught the ball.

I wouldn't have any illusion of stopping AD especially now with Cousins, however I think there's a progression in AD's offensive game that he can still attain. I think at 23 he's still getting there but by his mid to late 20's, watch out. Skill and experience will catch up to his elite gifts.

I think Dray can still be effective against him in spurts when in crunch time until AD becomes a bit more unpredictable with his moves which I think will come with experience.

By the strip are you referring to the foul? AD has consistently proved time and time again that Draymond can not guard him without help. 1 play foul or not doesn't change that.

We're gonna start arguing things neither of us can prove. Dray stated post game he scouted Davis and knew exactly which way and where AD would position the ball on the strip. Davis is great, but he still has things to learn as an iso and low post player.

AD eats against anyone he goes against. Dray has as good a shot as anyone to make one stop. Is he going to do it consistently? No. No one will. I will use that one play to illustrate how smart a guy like Draymond is on defense. Can he stop AD all game? Nope--didn't say that. Can he do an effective job on AD in a single posession game? I'll take my guy's chances, just like you'll take yours.

[Prokorov]

Teams will absolutely go small against that AD and Cousins. The way to beat that frontline is to speed the game up and make both of them run up and down-- alot.

problem is AD is athletic enough to gaurd tweener small 4s or even wings and Cousins good enough to defend small 5s.

also, good luck with no shot blockers or rebounders defending that duo

[Winsome Gerbil]

AD and Cousins need to make the Pelis No.1 Defensive team in the league, that's the base. If they can not do that, then there is no contender talk. I dont expect twin towers to top the league offense so they have to be absolute elite in D.

Twin Towers will completely pummel teams inside and on the glass. That controls games and pace without even game planning to do so. People forget these guys have both been putting up epic numbers as solo stars carrying two opponents on their backs on offense for years. Now all of a sudden teams have no way to double team them. Single coverage against a Boogie or a Brow is just going to be deadly. And every shooter on their team is going to be wide open.

I have little confidence Gentry is the right guy to maximize this, but he's got about 30 games to prove it, get them to the playoffs, and make some noise, so we'll see.

[Heej]

When GS runs small how do KD/Green matchup agains Davis/Cousins?

By having Klay and Iggy help off the pathetic cast of shooters.