We need to trade Cousins, but have to wait for his value to improve...

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

I'm sorry, that is just stupid. In the classic sense of the term. It is the absolute classic steal the star for a bunch of spare parts deal that keeps top franchises on top, and keeps bottom franchises on the bottom. Avery Bradley. Jared Sulinger. Yeah, cool. Maybe we can get Jeff Hornacek and Tim Perry out of it instead. Or Aaron Afflalo and Al Harrington.

Garbage.

There is a reason why the 2nd winningest team in NBA history wants to steal OUR kids, and would cheerfully do so at the expense of its own.

I suppose I should feel lukcy at this point that Geoff Petrie wants to ravage our future to save his legacy by tryign to trade Cousins for some solid vets that will let him retire with a nice little .500 team, rather than trading him for a bunch of late round draft picks so we can acquire a new stack of Omri Casspis to anchor our rebuild.

This isn't entirely fair. It doesn't matter where the players were taken if they are good. Avery Bradley is much better than a late round draft pick. Sullinger was a top 10 pick for most of his college career. Fab Melo would have went higher if he wasn't suspended during his last year in college, and Jeff Green is a better value / better everything than using two roster spots on Outlaw and Salmons.

On the flip side, it doesn't matter that Thomas Robinson was a top five pick if he can't play. Same goes for Thabeet and the countless other busts in the top end of the draft. Once you get into the NBA it just doesn't matter.

I'm assuming you were half joking about the 'veterans' move. I couldn't think of a worse get for Cousins, unless those 'veterans' are All-Stars, and they won't be. 41-41 gets you nothing in this league. I'd take this deal with Boston over an Afflalo / Harrington deal every time. Am I jaded? possibly. I've watched just about every NBA game Bradley and Sullinger have played, along with every one of Green's games since he's been in town.

Of course, every team would want to steal Cousins, I just don't think this is a steal. Not with who DeMarcus Cousins is right now. Cousins is talented, we all know this. He has is off the court stuff that I'm personally tired of talking about so I won't mention it further, but he has some glaring weaknesses in his game. He is an awful defender. Awful might not be strong enough. He also has a terrible FG%. Those are two things that as a center on a playoff team he's going to need to figure out. We are on year 3 with him, and those are two parts of his game that have been worse this year then they have ever been. His game ON the court is regressing, and his issues off the court are progressing. He isn't a sure thing anymore.

For the record, I would hold onto him. I wouldn't do the deal unless I'm hell bent on trading him, and I would think it is a fair return considering the circumstances (those circumstances being that we decide we ARE trading him / he ask's to be traded, which isn't that unlikely). Our issue right now is that we lack leadership from the ownership down. Does anyone have any confidence in this franchise? Does anyone think these guys will lead Cousins to his reaching his full potential? I don't. And I'm not sure Cousins can get there on his own.

Guys like Sullinger / Bradley / anyone else who's not DeMarcus Cousins - they can get their **** figured out without any help from the coach / front office / ownership. Cousins needs to be molded by the right people ... people we don't have right now.

[Prince_XY]

Dwight Howard rookie per 36:
13.2pts (.520) 11.1reb 1.0ast 1.0stl 1.8blk

Andre Drummond rookie per 36:
12.9pts (.577) 13.1reb 0.8ast 1.6stl 2.7blk

How about:

Cousins and TRob

for

Drummond and Monroe

Straight-up swap. We'll get bigger and Detroit gets tougher.

Petrie gets his typical finesse SOFTIE center and maybe Petrie gets happy enough to do better with filling the rest of the roster with fitting pieces. Then let's just hope and pray Monroe becomes the equivalent of Duncan and Drummond becomes the equivalent of Dwight Howard in the future. Nice pieces for Petrie to messed-up in trades again......lol

Wait, I think we are slowly becoming the Clippers of the past!...lol

[Capt. Factorial]

How about:

Cousins and TRob

for

Drummond and Monroe

I actually don't think Detroit does that.

[Anthony1]

It's so funny that people are now actually considering the possibility of trading Cousins, when a month or so ago, people thought I was batshiz insane.

The thing that needs to be remembered though, is while I was advocating getting rid of Cousins, I was adamant about not letting him go in a firesale. I'd much rather be stuck with him, than give him away at 75 percent of his true value. F that noise. We need to keep him for now, wait for a lot of this bullcrap to blow over, and then dump his arse when most of the GM's around the league have forgotten just how much of a malcontent he is.

WE CANNOT TRADE CUZ FOR PEANUTS!

[Prince_XY]

It's so funny that people are now actually considering the possibility of trading Cousins, when a month or so ago, people thought I was batshiz insane.

The thing that needs to be remembered though, is while I was advocating getting rid of Cousins, I was adamant about not letting him go in a firesale. I'd much rather be stuck with him, than give him away at 75 percent of his true value. F that noise. We need to keep him for now, wait for a lot of this bullcrap to blow over, and then dump his arse when most of the GM's around the league have forgotten just how much of a malcontent he is.

WE CANNOT TRADE CUZ FOR PEANUTS!

If I am not mistaken, nobody advocated to trade Cousins except for you and LWP777.

The only reason trading Cousins is being discussed now is - knowing Petrie is kind of STUPID lately, there really is a possibility that we will be losing Cousins.

[LWP777]

How about:

Cousins and TRob

for

Drummond and Monroe

Straight-up swap. We'll get bigger and Detroit gets tougher.

Petrie gets his typical finesse SOFTIE center and maybe Petrie gets happy enough to do better with filling the rest of the roster with fitting pieces. Then let's just hope and pray Monroe becomes the equivalent of Duncan and Drummond becomes the equivalent of Dwight Howard in the future. Nice pieces for Petrie to messed-up in trades again......lol

Wait, I think we are slowly becoming the Clippers of the past!...lol

NO CHANCE the Pistons do that. I don't even think they would swap Drummond straight up for Cousins. Why would they?

[LWP777]

If I am not mistaken, nobody advocated to trade Cousins except for you and LWP777.

The only reason trading Cousins is being discussed now is - knowing Petrie is kind of STUPID lately, there really is a possibility that we will be losing Cousins.

Ummmm, no. The reason trading Cousins is being discussed is because the team believes that he's never going to get over the maturity issue. He also shoots 41% and plays terrible defense. MassKingsFan summed it up extremely well in his above post. The team is starting to think that he's NOT ever going to be the for sure All-Star that he looked like he was going to be after his rookie year.

[UK_King]

Today KSR has spoken with a source close to Demarcus Cousins both that confirms trade talks are ongoing and Cousins is hoping a deal will be worked out soon. According to the source, the four teams that are most likely to end up making such a deal for cousins are Boston, Dallas, Orlando and Charlotte.

from sactownroyalty @ http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2012/1...tics-mavericks

[Big Cuz 15]

from sactownroyalty @ http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2012/1...tics-mavericks

sad day

[Bricklayer]

from sactownroyalty @ http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2012/1...tics-mavericks

That was picked up from a Kentucky student radio fan site I think. Saw it yesterday. Considerbaly concerned me of course, but the source was dubious. The Cousins is hoping part would be the most demoralizing of all.

[UK_King]

Agree.

I honestly don't know about the validity of that source, i still don't see what these teams listed will be offering that would entice us to deal Cousins, unless there are others involved.

[The_Jamal]

Well crap.

If a deal is imminent, I hope we do business with the Magic or Bobcats. MKG-Biyombo-1st rounder from the cats or a Vucevic-Harkless-Reddick/Afflao-1st round from the Magic would be a deals i'd like to pursue.

Hopefully, the source is hogwash though

[LWP777]

Well crap.

If a deal is imminent, I hope we do business with the Magic or Bobcats. MKG-Biyombo-1st rounder from the cats or a Vucevic-Harkless-Reddick/Afflao-1st round from the Magic would be a deals i'd like to pursue.

Hopefully, the source is hogwash though

Is this for real? Do you really think they would trade all that for a guy like Cousins? Come on, get real! They wouldn't even trade MGK straight up for Cousins, let alone Biyombo and a 1st rounder.

[Capt. Factorial]

Agree.

I honestly don't know about the validity of that source, i still don't see what these teams listed will be offering that would entice us to deal Cousins, unless there are others involved.

Well, as long as it's at least half a rumor, why not look at the teams involved and see what they have to offer? I'll start with the Celtics and make the other teams different posts, or they'd be too long.

Boston: Rondo. That's really about it. Garnett and Pierce don't enter into the discussion because however good they are, they're old. If we were competing for a championship this year, that's one thing, but trading for Garnett or Pierce would be just throwing Cousins away. Some around here have a crush on Avery Bradley, but I haven't figured that out. Sullinger is a skill guy, but undersized and don't forget the medical red flags that sunk him in the draft. Fab Melo is in the D-League right now (doing well, I hear) and has always been seen as a bit of a malcontent (though so is Rondo, to be fair).

So we would have to build a package around Rondo, or it's a no-go. Of course, Rondo would make most of our backcourt completely superfluous - he's not a great fit straight up. That means we would probably have to send Brooks to clear space. Cisco goes for money purposes. We fill it out by bringing back Sullinger, and we probably demand a first-round pick, which isn't really going to be that high anyway.

Cousins/Brooks/Garcia for Rondo/Sullinger/1st - that's kind of what makes sense talent-wise. But it doesn't really address our issues at the SF, leaves us stacked in the backcourt, and weakens our frontcourt. We still have at least a ten-man rotation.

Kings:
Rondo/IT/Jimmer
Tyreke/MT
Salmons/Johnson/Outlaw/Honeycutt (Tyreke)
Sullinger/Robinson (Johnson/Outlaw)
Thompson/Hayes

The Celtics remain weak in their deep bench, but they're pretty stacked in their top rotation guys, and they pick up a future star at the C (though they'll play him beside "C" Garnett for the time being).

Celtics:
Brooks/Bradley/Barbosa
Terry/Lee/Garcia
Pierce/Green/Joseph
Cousins/Bass/Wilcox
Garnett/Collins/Melo/Milicic

Celtics win this one big time, in my opinion, but it would hard for us to ask for (and hard for us to receive) much better.

[Capt. Factorial]

Well, as long as it's at least half a rumor, why not look at the teams involved and see what they have to offer? I'll start with the Celtics and make the other teams different posts, or they'd be too long.

Dallas: Mayo, or nothing. No, seriously. They're not going to trade Nowitzki, and at his age it would be franchise suicide to trade for him. Marion is also far too old to fit our criteria. Collison is a decent player, but nothing more than a throw-in for a Cousins trade. And they really don't have anything else to offer. They don't even have a pick to offer because their first rounder is out there to Houston with protection on it until 2017.

Can we even build a package worth mentioning around Mayo/Collison, the only two Dallas assets? Considering our backcourt is already full, how do we do that? Literally the only thing I can see looks like Cousins/Brooks/Garcia for Mayo/Collison/Kaman.

Again, this does less than zero for our small forward problem (in fact it practically forces us into small ball at the 3), and here we don't even get a guy as talented as Rondo in return. The results are ugly. Furthermore, all three of these guys are free agents at the end of the year (Collison restricted, Mayo player option) so we could literally walk away with nothing.

Kings:
IT/Collison/Jimmer
Mayo/Thornton
Tyreke/Salmons/Johnson/Outlaw/Honeycutt
Thompson/Robinson
Kaman/Hayes

Again, the Mavericks get a potential franchise-level talent for next-to-nothing. This trade is such a no-brainer for the Mavs there's not even any sense in looking at their potential roster. They destroy our souls in this trade.

[CruzDude]

For the last and final time, IMHO CUZ AIN'T GOIN NOWHERE!
He is on his way to being an all-star under Coach Smart and can take the Kings to the next level. You just gotta be patient. It takes time. Remember CWebb? Couple really volatile years, then All-Star with Kings.
Stick around folks. It's gonna happen here with Cuz.

[Capt. Factorial]

Well, as long as it's at least half a rumor, why not look at the teams involved and see what they have to offer? I'll start with the Celtics and make the other teams different posts, or they'd be too long.

Orlando: The Magic are chock-full of young guys and complementary players. I mean, hey, I like Afflalo as a complementary guy, but he's just not on the gee-we-should-trade-Cousins-for-him level, or even close. The problem with Orlando's young guys is that none of them have really shown a whole lot. There's some potential, but nothing certain at all. I'd need to really strip out their cupboards (including at least one first-round pick) to consider a deal with the Magic. Vucevic? Nicholson? Harkless? We get all of them. We've got to take Afflalo just to get some immediate talent. So we try this:

Cousins/Garcia/Outlaw for Afflalo/Vucevic/Nicholson/Harkless/1st

It's a rebuild all over again! We'd again be overstacked in the backcourt, leading to a lineup that shoves Tyreke to the 3, and we'd be super young up front, which means we'd probably have to look to deal MT for a veteran big man ASAP. Doesn't matter. This team doesn't win for a few more years at least, and it's possible none of the kids we trade for really pan out.

IT/Brooks/Jimmer
MT/Afflalo
Tyreke/Salmons/Johnson/Harkless/Honeycutt
Thompson/Nicholson/Robinson
Vucevic/Hayes

Orlando? They get a franchise center. All of a sudden the squat they got in the Howard trade becomes Boogie. They don't even hesitate to pull the trigger. Once again, we lose big time.

[Capt. Factorial]

Well, as long as it's at least half a rumor, why not look at the teams involved and see what they have to offer? I'll start with the Celtics and make the other teams different posts, or they'd be too long.

Charlotte: Maybe the only team that's interesting. And that for one reason and one reason only: MKG. I'm really not sold on Biyombo. He's athletic and he blocks shots, but he's useless on offense, is not as good of a rebounder as you'd expect, and really doesn't seem to play the game of basketball very well. We could solve our SF problem with MKG, though he's far from perfect. Hard player, good work ethic, seems to understand the game, but if our goal is a big SF who can shoot from outside on top of everything else a SF should do, he doesn't really fit the bill that well. Still, it's a starting point. The Bobcats own both the Blazers and Pistons picks (protected), and we'd have to get at least one of those.

I'd guess something like Cousins/Outlaw for MKG/Biyombo/Protected 1st. Again this sets back our rebuild, but it's probably the most attractive package out there. We still need some serious help in the frontcourt, in my opinion.

Kings:
IT/Brooks/Jimmer
Tyreke/MT/Garcia
MKG/Salmons/Johnson/Honeycutt
Biyombo/Robinson (Johnson)
Thompson/Hayes

Charlotte does this because MKG for Cousins is a no-brainer.

So looking through these, Dallas has literally nothing to offer, and Orlando is darn close to nothing. Boston can offer Rondo, Charlotte can offer MKG. I don't think any of them happens unless we are determined to cut ties with Cousins, and I don't think we are. But if one were to happen, from these options Charlotte looks to be the winner to me. Personally, I'd rather see us get a nice package from Detroit, but that's not what the rumor says, and I was addressing the rumor. My take from all of this is that the rumor isn't terribly reliable.

[LWP777]

Capt, thanks for the write up on the trade possibilities! I enjoyed reading those.

[JB_kings]

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/feature...=iref:nbahpt6a

The team was surprised when Cousins showed up for practice on Christmas Eve, thinking the suspension was indefinite. Upon his arrival, "the Christmas spirit was gone," said the league source who is familiar with the Kings. And there was not much sympathy for him afterward when Cousins tried to apologize.
"When he apologized to the team, two players stood up and said 'we've heard this bull(bleep) before,'" the source said. "'You're either going to be with us, or you're not. We don't want to hear any more excuses.'"

Good for those players. It is going to take more stuff like this and less coddling. He needs to get it here because it's going to have to happen if he gets traded. Might as well sink or swim here.