He's still young and he'll have to learn to develop that killer, dominating attitude. Right now he deserves a little bit of criticism for not demanding the ball from his guards enough, especially in crunch time. That was a point made by the Pelicans commentators so I assume they know what they're talking about.
I am not sure that it's a given that it develops. I feel that it is something that you either have or don't. For example, Cousins's rookie year in a summer league game against the T-Wolves... we were down 1 and the game was drawing to a close, Cousins backed down his defender, spun left and hook shot = game winner. The significance of this was that the T-Wolves were one of the 4 teams to pass on him in the draft and that was certainly something that Cousins did not forget. He had this attitude from Day 1.
I have not watched AD enough to know for sure whether or not he has that "killer" gene in him. When I have watched him (probably 4-5 games worth), I don't
feel that killer instinct. I see a guy that is incredibly gifted both with skills and athleticism, but I don't see out of him what I see in Cousins. When the game is on the line, I know, you know, our mothers know who will be getting the ball down the stretch for the Kings. With the Pelicans, this isn't the case. Most of the time I have no idea who will be touching the ball (even though I know who should be). I partly blame their coach, but also AD to an extent. If he had that killer attitude, he would speak up and say "Give me the ball." Nothing else, nothing more than that. I don't consider him incapable of carrying them down the stretch in tight games, but he has got to want the ball. He's got to man up, pin his man down on the block or get the ball at the top of the key, and go to work.
AD may be more gifted than Cuz or they might be on equal terms (doesn't matter to me), but give me the guy with the "I will beat you to a pulp" attitude over the more passive guy any day of the week. If there is a difference in talent, it isn't a sharp one. Cousins any day of the week for me.