DeMarcus Cousins

[SmellingColors]

The better Cousins continues to play under Keith Smart, the more I think about the talks with Westphal and how everyone said he couldn't be great unless he learned next to a veteran and that he needed to be traded out of Sacramento if he was going to succeed. I think what he's proving is that more than playing with a veteran, Cousins needed a family-type atmosphere that Smart is providing. I'm so excited about this kids future and cannot wait to see him play like this for full seasons.

(Also, shout out to IT, JT, MT)

[Nanogeek]

Cousins is playing better but its only been a few months. As the Wolf Man said, "lets don't start ****ing each others ****s just yet."

[Sacballer916]

Cousins uh straight beast. This team is a Danny Granger type small forward away from playoffs

[youngthegiant]

Cousins uh straight beast. This team is a Danny Granger type small forward away from playoffs

would you guys trade your pick for wilson chandler and mozgov

[Sacballer916]

Cousins uh straight beast. This team is a Danny Granger type small forward away from playoffs

would you guys trade your pick for wilson chandler and mozgov

Haha are you serious? Nopeee

[pillwenney]

The family atmosphere is definitely a difference maker and Smart deserves credit for that. But let's not act like Cuz is behaving anywhere near perfectly. He still gets frustrated very easily, gets lots of T's, is slow to get back on D, and his effort and focus both DO waver.

It's great that (at least from all we've heard) he's not blowing up in the locker room right now, but he still has a ton to learn, and he could really use a veteran that he looks up to. There's still a lot to fix here.

[Who34]

i'm not a kings fan but i really like what i'm seeing from DMC and i think he will get a mvp atleast once in his career. too bad the kings didn't trade tyreke when he was worth something and drafted tha jimmer. aw well beast of luck to you guys, hope i didnt jinx anything

[Wolfay]

The family atmosphere is definitely a difference maker and Smart deserves credit for that. But let's not act like Cuz is behaving anywhere near perfectly. He still gets frustrated very easily, gets lots of T's, is slow to get back on D, and his effort and focus both DO waver.

It's great that (at least from all we've heard) he's not blowing up in the locker room right now, but he still has a ton to learn, and he could really use a veteran that he looks up to. There's still a lot to fix here.

You're a hard man to please.

[pillwenney]

The family atmosphere is definitely a difference maker and Smart deserves credit for that. But let's not act like Cuz is behaving anywhere near perfectly. He still gets frustrated very easily, gets lots of T's, is slow to get back on D, and his effort and focus both DO waver.

It's great that (at least from all we've heard) he's not blowing up in the locker room right now, but he still has a ton to learn, and he could really use a veteran that he looks up to. There's still a lot to fix here.

You're a hard man to please.

You've got to have high standards to win anything in this league. I'm just saying, Cuz has made progress, but he still needs to make a whole hell of a lot more, and it would help for him to have more of a veteran presence for that.

[Wolfay]

The family atmosphere is definitely a difference maker and Smart deserves credit for that. But let's not act like Cuz is behaving anywhere near perfectly. He still gets frustrated very easily, gets lots of T's, is slow to get back on D, and his effort and focus both DO waver.

It's great that (at least from all we've heard) he's not blowing up in the locker room right now, but he still has a ton to learn, and he could really use a veteran that he looks up to. There's still a lot to fix here.

You're a hard man to please.

You've got to have high standards to win anything in this league. I'm just saying, Cuz has made progress, but he still needs to make a whole hell of a lot more, and it would help for him to have more of a veteran presence for that.

I agree with all of that, but the tone I'm getting is that you're underrating the progress he has made and not having enough faith in him to continue it. To me, the Cousins now and the Cousins last season is almost night and day, and there's been a very clear upward trend in his progress in only his second season. This team has a ****ton of concerns, but Cousins is quickly becoming among the least of them.

[pillwenney]

To me, it's more like night and late afternoon. But it's mostly about the fact that Cuz should be our main concern because he's going to be who we rely on. He can't just make some progress over the next couple of years. He has to become a superstar for us to do anything. And he still is very prone to technicals, he's still very prone to losing his focus, and his intensity (particularly on D) wavers a lot. All of these things need to change if he's going to be the player we need him to be.

I'm happy with the progress he has made, and I have plenty of hope for him continuing to make progress. But I don't think we can be like "Well, that's settled now. Phew." There's still a lot of work to do.

[Wolfay]

I seemed to have jinxed him.

[SacTownKings4Life]

To me, it's more like night and late afternoon. But it's mostly about the fact that Cuz should be our main concern because he's going to be who we rely on. He can't just make some progress over the next couple of years. He has to become a superstar for us to do anything. And he still is very prone to technicals, he's still very prone to losing his focus, and his intensity (particularly on D) wavers a lot. All of these things need to change if he's going to be the player we need him to be.

I'm happy with the progress he has made, and I have plenty of hope for him continuing to make progress. But I don't think we can be like "Well, that's settled now. Phew." There's still a lot of work to do.

Ah, there it is. Superstar or bust. THAT'S why you come off as so thoroughly unimpressed. A team is nothing without a superstar (*cough*2002*cough). If one fails to establish themselves as a superstar by at least halfway through their rookie contract, they suddenly become worthless and expendable (see Tyreke). Looks like Cousins only has so much time to elevate his game before his welcome has officially been worn out around here... Trade Cousins 2013... I can see it now...

[deNIEd]

Ah, there it is. Superstar or bust. THAT'S why you come off as so thoroughly unimpressed. A team is nothing without a superstar (*cough*2002*cough). If one fails to establish themselves as a superstar by at least halfway through their rookie contract, they suddenly become worthless and expendable (see Tyreke). Looks like Cousins only has so much time to elevate his game before his welcome has officially been worn out around here... Trade Cousins 2013... I can see it now...

And you have the attitude of a team that will never win a title.

I don't know about any of you, I don't give a sh** about simply making the playoffs. For me, its CHAMPIONSHIP or bust. I'd rather go through another decade of being in the lottery and winning a title afterwards, than becoming a Utah Jazz or Denver Nuggets (a team good enough to make the playoffs, but too bad to ever win anything).

What Mitch said is 100% correct. You need superstars to win in this league. Outside of extreme cases, every team that has won in the past 2-3 decades have all had a dominant superstar. At a certain point, you need a guy where you can go, we will beat you simply because our best guy is better than your best guy. Team ball can only go so far.

[SacTownKings4Life]

And you have the attitude of a team that will never win a title.

I don't know about any of you, I don't give a sh** about simply making the playoffs. For me, its CHAMPIONSHIP or bust. I'd rather go through another decade of being in the lottery and winning a title afterwards, than becoming a Utah Jazz or Denver Nuggets (a team good enough to make the playoffs, but too bad to ever win anything).

What Mitch said is 100% correct. You need superstars to win in this league. Outside of extreme cases, every team that has won in the past 2-3 decades have all had a dominant superstar. At a certain point, you need a guy where you can go, we will beat you simply because our best guy is better than your best guy. Team ball can only go so far.

Crawl before you run, dumbass... We might as well blow the whole damn team up right now then, cause nobody on this roster is bringing us a championship next year or the year after next. And by that time, everybody will be tired of everyone we have on the team and demand more knee-jerk trades for nameless "better players" and more draft picks. This team will NEVER have a top 10 superstar in this league because they don't grow on trees for small market teams. And since we also don't get high enough picks to snag the next Lebron James (instant superstar on day one), we're hopelessly screwed. Tyreke didn't develop fast enough, so we want him gone. Cousins won't develop fast enough either and I predict people will soon want him gone as well. Isaiah is too small. Thornton pouts too much. None of these guys are superstars, so why don't we just trade them all and be done with them? We'll never win a title with either of them as our best players anyway. Lets wait to pull a couple Miami-ish blockbuster signings in the offseason...

[SacTownKings4Life]

And you lie. Its already been half a decade in the lottery and you're already whining. Another full decade in the lottery and you will have LONG since jumped off the Kings and joined the Lakers bandwagon to quench your thirst for championship gold.

I still don't even believe this fanbase even deserves a championship anymore with the way we treat our players. If I was a superstar, why on earth would I wanna come here and play for a perennial lottery team who's fans will just run me out of town anyway should I fail to bring them a championship within 3 years of my arrival?

Scratch that, 2 and a half years. Cause I'd be traded before the deadline of my 3rd season if there's no banner in the rafters...

[boogie-reke]

The family atmosphere is definitely a difference maker and Smart deserves credit for that. But let's not act like Cuz is behaving anywhere near perfectly. He still gets frustrated very easily, gets lots of T's, is slow to get back on D, and his effort and focus both DO waver.

It's great that (at least from all we've heard) he's not blowing up in the locker room right now, but he still has a ton to learn, and he could really use a veteran that he looks up to. There's still a lot to fix here.

+1, especiely on the defence and taking plays off there from time to time.

[deNIEd]

Crawl before you run, dumbass... We might as well blow the whole damn team up right now then, cause nobody on this roster is bringing us a championship next year or the year after next. And by that time, everybody will be tired of everyone we have on the team and demand more knee-jerk trades for nameless "better players" and more draft picks. This team will NEVER have a top 10 superstar in this league because they don't grow on trees for small market teams. And since we also don't get high enough picks to snag the next Lebron James (instant superstar on day one), we're hopelessly screwed. Tyreke didn't develop fast enough, so we want him gone. Cousins won't develop fast enough either and I predict people will soon want him gone as well. Isaiah is too small. Thornton pouts too much. None of these guys are superstars, so why don't we just trade them all and be done with them? We'll never win a title with either of them as our best players anyway. Lets wait to pull a couple Miami-ish blockbuster signings in the offseason...

Are you that stupid to understand how the NBA works today? You want to either be contending or god awful. Anything in the middle is the absolute worst scenario possible. If you are in the range of 10-25th, you are hopelessly screwed.

You NEED superstars to win (hopefully you aren't too big of a dumbass to see that one). So how to you get superstars? For a small market like Sacramento, it's draft and draft only. Our only hope to win a title is the draft. Unless we luck out and draft a Rose, Durant, Lebron, Dwight, we will NEVER win anything. The reason players like DeMarcus and Tyreke need to either be a superstar or shipped out, is because either we build around them, or we need to continue to gather high draft picks to find a superstar.

There is a natural ceiling for every team. Once you start to compete for playoff positioning, you can only improve so much by free agency (cap restrictions), drafting (late picks), trading (having to give up talent), and player development. If you start to contend prematurely, you will hit your ceiling and that ceiling will not be a championship level team.


And I'm whining because this franchise doesn't have the balls to commit to a rebuild. We refused to rebuild for 3-4 years which set the team back a half decade or so. Then we make (Please Use More Appropriate Word) moves like trading down in the draft to get a hack like Jimmer. This team needs to acknowledge the fact that our chances of winning a title are so slim, we need everything to be absolutely perfect. When you are not a big market, you don't have the luxury of making any mistakes.


Either DeMarcus or Tyreke needs to develop into a superstar, or we need to continue to wait and draft one.



Not sure if you noticed (since you aren't a dumbass...), there have only been 9 different teams that have won in the past 30 years or so. So yes. Unless a player is a superstar, we shouldn't be happy with where the roster is at because we would have no shot at ever winning. But I mean, perhaps being 5th best is good enough for some people...

[SacTownKings4Life]

You said our best path to superstardom is through the draft, but Sacramento NEVER gets high draft picks anyway. We've seen it time and time again. We're not going to GET a Rose, Durant, Lebron, Dwight because we never pick high enough. The only way this team gets better is by the same mold in which we excelled in 99-03 - getting the right pieces of the puzzle together and getting them to mesh. There WAS no superstar, go-to guy on that team. We didn't have a Kobe, a Shaq, a Duncan, a Garnett, a Dirk, an Iverson type guy, a guy who you KNOW is going to carry the team entirely on his own back. We had a team of average-to-very-good players who knew how to play together as a TEAM and it took 8 men to STOP US from winning a championship.

So please explain to me, oh wise one, how a lottery team jumps to the championship overnight? You don't wanna pay your dues by working your way up the ranks and proving that you can even MAKE the playoffs, you just wanna jump STRAIGHT INTO the NBA finals and win it all. Just like that. NEWS FLASH! This isn't a movie! It doesn't work like that in the real world. That's why I said "crawl before you run." You want this team to start running and it doesn't even know how to balance in its own 2 feet yet. You might as well go bandwagon with a playoff team if that's all you're looking for, because this teams has a lot more time to develop AS THE YOUNGEST ROSTER IN THE ENTIRE NBA before we can start talking about championships. Let's get our offense together first. Let's get our defense together first. Let's learn to win 4 games in a row first. Let's try to make a push for the playoffs first. Let's try not to get swept in the first round first. Let's try to win a series first. IT'S A PROCESS! You have to learn HOW to win before you can actually win anything. Did you totally miss everything that predated 2002?

1999 - we made the playoffs, but lost in the first round in 5 games. Good enough to make the playoffs; not good enough to win a title; not bad enough to score a high draft pick; no superstar FA signings.

2000 - we made the playoffs, but lost AGAIN the first round in 5 games. Good enough to make the playoffs; not good enough to win a title; not bad enough to score a high draft pick; no superstar FA signings.

2001 - we made the playoffs, won a series, and ultimately lost in the 2nd round in a sweep. Good enough to make the playoffs; not good enough to win a title; not bad enough to score a high draft pick; no superstar free agent signings. (By your criteria, we should have traded everybody by now for being a middle of the road team, good enough to make he playoffs, but neither having a superstar player OR winning a championship fast enough)

2002 - it was the Williams for Bibby trade (the final puzzle piece) that put us over the top as a legitimate championship contender, NOT the drafting or signing of a particular superstar player.

I swear, you must have been one of the many people who jumped on the Kings bandwagon when they suddenly got good in 2002 and have been spoiled and whiny ever since our window of opportunity closed...

[OGSactownballer]

Thank you for providing an EXCELLENT explanation of how it works on the professional level in sports.

Teams do not become INSTANT finals contenders even when they get that superstar player unless the complimentary pieces are already in place - which cannot be the case with a lotto team team that wins the number one overall with the rare exceptions of San Antonio (Duncan) and Orlando (Shaq - not Howard), and those teams were only there because of injuries to multiple key players that year.

If - and I stress that this is only my conspiracy theory - we get the #1 overall because Stern wants to cement the arena deal and provide a reward for getting it done, I would say that barring anything REALLY stupid we are in contention in two years with Anthony Davis next to DMC, and likely to take at least two championships.