cousins don't know nothin bout what up
- Thread starter Big Cuz 15
- Start date
K
From my point of view Vlade is not really fully committing to the core of DMC and Rudy and rightfully so, to me it seems like with the draft picks he took and the talent he would get in return for both Cousins/Gay he's got a plan where if things don't go right in the first 15-30 games with the new coach we move on. Now if it does work than he's got the option of packaging some of the young talent/veterans on good contracts (expiring/option deals) for win now pieces. This year to me does not seem like must win at all based on our signings to me Afflalo/Barnes/Toliver would have to have career years for us to make the playoffs barring massive amounts of injury like last season to teams competing with us.
the media is blowing this up to an extent as really its the last piece that they can push to continue the national narrative which is we are a joke/circus etc. The moves we've made have been solid.
Vlade really should have a conversation with our franchise player - that being said if Vlade's style is simply to run the front office with the proof in the pudding then we all are about to find out how this all works out Demarcus included.
It just seems slightly out of character given Vlade has quite a good relationship with Cousins that the blueprint hasnt been discussed.
Vlade really should have a conversation with our franchise player - that being said if Vlade's style is simply to run the front office with the proof in the pudding then we all are about to find out how this all works out Demarcus included.
It just seems slightly out of character given Vlade has quite a good relationship with Cousins that the blueprint hasnt been discussed.
The angle this reporter was tryig to work was the draft, but that's only because the reporter doesn't really know his subject.
Rondo was a Cousins guy, Acy was a Cousins guy. He went to bat for Curry. All those guys were let go without a fight.
The Papa pick was a bit eyebrow raising to just about everybody, but its more than a little silly to think that Cuz was shocked! they did not take Chriss or something.
And really the guy who should talk to Cuz is Joerger. He's there in town watching the USA trials apparently, and its hard not to see his fingerprints over a lot of this.
Rondo was a Cousins guy, Acy was a Cousins guy. He went to bat for Curry. All those guys were let go without a fight.
The Papa pick was a bit eyebrow raising to just about everybody, but its more than a little silly to think that Cuz was shocked! they did not take Chriss or something.
And really the guy who should talk to Cuz is Joerger. He's there in town watching the USA trials apparently, and its hard not to see his fingerprints over a lot of this.
Video is here: http://www.abc10.com/sports/nba/sac...asketball-sacramentokings-offseason/276330369
Questions at 5:35 or so.
He seems genuinely puzzled about the state of the team.
Questions at 5:35 or so.
He seems genuinely puzzled about the state of the team.
Can't say I blame him. However, Kings can't cater any longer to Cousins and bring in players that he approves of. He needs to play with the players that are coming to town and trust the front office and head coach that they know what they are doing. That said, even I don't know what they are really doing besides trying to hold teams under 95 PPG and leaving Cousins with no other reliable scoring option when a Rudy trade goes through, whether it's now or later.
Well...you watch the vid its:
1) puzzlement about the draft, which I would interpret as puzzlement about Papa given that Malachi was Cuz's guy, and later he mentions again being impressed with Skal in SL
2) likes the FAs we signed, likes the defensive focus, especially likes Barnes
3) disappointment/puzzlement about the Rondo decision
which roughly seems about right.
1) puzzlement about the draft, which I would interpret as puzzlement about Papa given that Malachi was Cuz's guy, and later he mentions again being impressed with Skal in SL
2) likes the FAs we signed, likes the defensive focus, especially likes Barnes
3) disappointment/puzzlement about the Rondo decision
which roughly seems about right.
Can't blame him too much. I think the Joerger hire is still a great one, and Cousins seems to really like him.
Starters: DC is a fringe starting PG, bottom 5 starter. This isn't 2012 anymore, Afflalo isn't as good as he used to be on either side of the floor. Gay is still a top 10-15 SF. WCS is a good defensive player, but having 0 offense makes it easy for his man to leave him and double team Cousins.
Bench: Temple is a decent vet, but he's not the type of guy who can run an offense. Lots of things are pending on McLemore's final rookie contract year, but I could see him losing the backup spot to Barnes since Joerger is known for playing vets over younger players. Casspi and Barnes will be battling for the backup SF position, and there's no way Casspi doesn't edge out a 36yo inefficient Barnes. Tolliver is a stretch 4 with solid defense. Koufos is a solid 5. Here's where the problem arises with our bench: McLemore, Barnes, Tolliver, and Koufos all need their shots created for them. Can Temple create shots for them? He has yet to show any type of decent playmaking skills at his age of 30.
Of course, all of this is speculation. However, I think it's clear that Cousins really doesn't know what's going on with these offseason moves. What we do know is that he's been supporting our rookies. He's there at almost, if not all SL games we've had. He's talked to the guys quite a bit. If winning starts happening for Cousins, I doubt he'd care whether or not he knows what's going on. Winning just needs to start happening at this point.
- We lost Rondo, and brought in Garett Temple as backup PG....Maybe our starting PG for 1/4 of the season depending on the Collison situation. Temple won't give you much playmaking as a PG. He does provide good D, but I just don't think he's a good option at backup PG.
- Doesn't seem like he has complaints about Barnes and Tolliver since they're both veterans who are considered good defenders.
- Kings were actively trying to get a 3&D player, but only ended up with Afflalo who misses out on the D part. He's not a great offensive fit alongside Cousins and Gay. He's a bit ball dominant and loves to post up. He also clashed with Rambis after Rambis benched him for vastly underperforming this year. Afflalo played extremely selfish even under Fisher, and did not play defense. Not the attitude you'd expect from a 30yearold veteran SG.
- Kings used lotto pick on a C which basically upsets the hell out of Cousins to the point where he proceeds to make sarcastic commentary tweets for the rest of the draft. Drafting a C at 13 when your franchise player is the best C in the league does raise eyebrows.
- Used rest of 1st round picks on guys who are a few years away from effectively and positively contributing for a playoff team(Boogie's goals).
Starters: DC is a fringe starting PG, bottom 5 starter. This isn't 2012 anymore, Afflalo isn't as good as he used to be on either side of the floor. Gay is still a top 10-15 SF. WCS is a good defensive player, but having 0 offense makes it easy for his man to leave him and double team Cousins.
Bench: Temple is a decent vet, but he's not the type of guy who can run an offense. Lots of things are pending on McLemore's final rookie contract year, but I could see him losing the backup spot to Barnes since Joerger is known for playing vets over younger players. Casspi and Barnes will be battling for the backup SF position, and there's no way Casspi doesn't edge out a 36yo inefficient Barnes. Tolliver is a stretch 4 with solid defense. Koufos is a solid 5. Here's where the problem arises with our bench: McLemore, Barnes, Tolliver, and Koufos all need their shots created for them. Can Temple create shots for them? He has yet to show any type of decent playmaking skills at his age of 30.
Of course, all of this is speculation. However, I think it's clear that Cousins really doesn't know what's going on with these offseason moves. What we do know is that he's been supporting our rookies. He's there at almost, if not all SL games we've had. He's talked to the guys quite a bit. If winning starts happening for Cousins, I doubt he'd care whether or not he knows what's going on. Winning just needs to start happening at this point.
I'm confused why everyone is even talking about this. DMC was being as short as possible because...well...he doesn't know or understand the roster changes. Nothing more nothing less, doesn't even mean he wont come to appreciate them or even hate them, he just doesn't know. I think he's doing like he said, and thats letting Vlade and Joerger do their job.
Of course the media is going to twist anything that comes out of his mouth. All we gotta do is focus on building a winning team and laugh as the media shift their narrative on the Kings and DMC.
ahhhhh I hate TDOS!!!
how many more days till opening night?
Of course the media is going to twist anything that comes out of his mouth. All we gotta do is focus on building a winning team and laugh as the media shift their narrative on the Kings and DMC.
ahhhhh I hate TDOS!!!
how many more days till opening night?
I agree with these take-aways.
I don't think anything here is surprising. From DMC's perspective, they should have focused on resigning his "big brother," drafting a 1st year impact player, and adding another big time free agent. But that's not the direction Vlade & co are going, and so DMC feels the need to express his confusion.
I don't think anything here is surprising. From DMC's perspective, they should have focused on resigning his "big brother," drafting a 1st year impact player, and adding another big time free agent. But that's not the direction Vlade & co are going, and so DMC feels the need to express his confusion.
I would have thought Vlade would have kept Cousins in the loop on the team direction. Kings first priority should be making Cousins happy so he wants to stay when he becomes a FA. I know most will hate me for saying this but the Kings have done nothing to make this team better then last season. I could see the Kings taking a step back this season. You can't expect the rookies to make a big impact and the signings of Tolliver and Temple really don't make a big impact. Tolliver and Temple are career backup players on the wrong side of 30.
K
And we wouldn't have Skal if we had done the trade. To have gotten Knight or Bledsoe, the Suns would've had to be willing to part with them for what we had to offer. We don't know it it was discussed or not and if it was, what were the terms? Papa remains a question mark that currently we don't have an answer for either way.
We failed and they haven't even stepped on the court for us yet. If you work the "magic" correctly, you end of with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. The attitude last year was one worse than a cesspool. Cousins' answers were in terms of "we" the team irregardless if he understood what was done on draft night or not. Him stating he was going to do his job and they were doing theirs is the way it should be.
I agree Joerger is a good coach but lets not forget what Karl has accomplished. Joerger would be very lucky to sniff what Karl has done. Joerger took over a team in the Grizz that had just been to the conference finals, he was set up for success.
Dont get me wrong I like Joerger but him in addition to our FA signings doesn't really move the needle. I don't think it would be crazy to think the Jazz, NO,Wolves and Nuggets have a real shot at being better then the Kings next season.
Dont get me wrong I like Joerger but him in addition to our FA signings doesn't really move the needle. I don't think it would be crazy to think the Jazz, NO,Wolves and Nuggets have a real shot at being better then the Kings next season.
Boogie just "controls what he can control", you know like his temper and the quality of his relationship with refs. 
This is classic Boogie for those following along, which is to portray yourself victim of circumstances. So when things go south he can absolve himself of blame. You don't know what is going on? Why don't you ask somebody? You don't feel like it might, just might, be a decent idea to take control of your career and get a sense of the philosophy and strategy of the decision-makers in your inner circle?
What do you talk about with Joerger and Vlade, the best buffets in Vegas?
Here's the deal. Boogie is being disingenuous. Because he knows the team is slanting towards defense. They want a grittier and grindier team ( if I can make up a word). But Boogie doesn't want to cop to that because you know, he's just along for the ride. This is immaturity and frankly a lack of intelligence. You have a new coach who has been super successful. He knows how to bring team together and get the most out of the collective talent.
Why don't you maybe pick his brain based on his past experience and success with a team that actually went somewhere besides the bottom of the lottery?
And maybe try to ascertain his vision for the future? After all, it is your career. Or does you massive ego not allow you inquiry into someone else and their experiences since it requires conversational shift away from yourself? This is my perception of what is going on here. Fans won't like but this is Boogie's personality and we are stuck with it.
The other elephant in the room is we are positioning ourself to trade Boogie for a massive haul if he doesn't get his crap together. He looks to be in great shape and can have his best year ever. If he self-implodes on schedule with a rash of outbursts or other challenges and frustrations with refs and teammates, even the coach, our front office has an escape hatch and Plan B, just like we did with the draft when we astutely swung a 3-for-1.
This is classic Boogie for those following along, which is to portray yourself victim of circumstances. So when things go south he can absolve himself of blame. You don't know what is going on? Why don't you ask somebody? You don't feel like it might, just might, be a decent idea to take control of your career and get a sense of the philosophy and strategy of the decision-makers in your inner circle?
What do you talk about with Joerger and Vlade, the best buffets in Vegas?
Here's the deal. Boogie is being disingenuous. Because he knows the team is slanting towards defense. They want a grittier and grindier team ( if I can make up a word
). But Boogie doesn't want to cop to that because you know, he's just along for the ride. This is immaturity and frankly a lack of intelligence. You have a new coach who has been super successful. He knows how to bring team together and get the most out of the collective talent. Why don't you maybe pick his brain based on his past experience and success with a team that actually went somewhere besides the bottom of the lottery?
And maybe try to ascertain his vision for the future? After all, it is your career. Or does you massive ego not allow you inquiry into someone else and their experiences since it requires conversational shift away from yourself? This is my perception of what is going on here. Fans won't like but this is Boogie's personality and we are stuck with it.
The other elephant in the room is we are positioning ourself to trade Boogie for a massive haul if he doesn't get his crap together. He looks to be in great shape and can have his best year ever. If he self-implodes on schedule with a rash of outbursts or other challenges and frustrations with refs and teammates, even the coach, our front office has an escape hatch and Plan B, just like we did with the draft when we astutely swung a 3-for-1.
I disagree with you. Karl won coach of the year in 12-13 that's not that long ago. It's easy to dump on Karl because of turmoil season he had here but at the end of the day he's one hell of a coach. He led the Nuggets to 9 out of 9 seasons in the playoffs before coming to the Kings. Denver hit the reset button and traded Melo and the Nuggets still made the playoffs.
Boogie just "controls what he can control", you know like his temper and the quality of his relationship with refs.
This is classic Boogie for those following along, which is to portray yourself victim of circumstances. So when things go south he can absolve himself of blame. You don't know what is going on? Why don't you ask somebody? You don't feel like it might, just might, be a decent idea to take control of your career and get a sense of the philosophy and strategy of the decision-makers in your inner circle?
What do you talk about with Joerger and Vlade, the best buffets in Vegas?
Here's the deal. Boogie is being disingenuous. Because he knows the team is slanting towards defense. They want a grittier and grindier team ( if I can make up a word). But Boogie doesn't want to cop to that because you know, he's just along for the ride. This is immaturity and frankly a lack of intelligence. You have a new coach who has been super successful. He knows how to bring team together and get the most out of the collective talent.
Why don't you maybe pick his brain based on his past experience and success with a team that actually went somewhere besides the bottom of the lottery?
And maybe try to ascertain his vision for the future? After all, it is your career. Or does you massive ego not allow you inquiry into someone else and their experiences since it requires conversational shift away from yourself? This is my perception of what is going on here. Fans won't like but this is Boogie's personality and we are stuck with it.
The other elephant in the room is we are positioning ourself to trade Boogie for a massive haul if he doesn't get his poopoo together. He looks to be in great shape and can have his best year ever. If he self-implodes on schedule with a rash of outbursts or other challenges and frustrations with refs and teammates, even the coach, our front office has an escape hatch and Plan B, just like we did with the draft when we astutely swung a 3-for-1.
This is classic Boogie for those following along, which is to portray yourself victim of circumstances. So when things go south he can absolve himself of blame. You don't know what is going on? Why don't you ask somebody? You don't feel like it might, just might, be a decent idea to take control of your career and get a sense of the philosophy and strategy of the decision-makers in your inner circle?
What do you talk about with Joerger and Vlade, the best buffets in Vegas?
Here's the deal. Boogie is being disingenuous. Because he knows the team is slanting towards defense. They want a grittier and grindier team ( if I can make up a word
). But Boogie doesn't want to cop to that because you know, he's just along for the ride. This is immaturity and frankly a lack of intelligence. You have a new coach who has been super successful. He knows how to bring team together and get the most out of the collective talent.Why don't you maybe pick his brain based on his past experience and success with a team that actually went somewhere besides the bottom of the lottery?
And maybe try to ascertain his vision for the future? After all, it is your career. Or does you massive ego not allow you inquiry into someone else and their experiences since it requires conversational shift away from yourself? This is my perception of what is going on here. Fans won't like but this is Boogie's personality and we are stuck with it.
The other elephant in the room is we are positioning ourself to trade Boogie for a massive haul if he doesn't get his poopoo together. He looks to be in great shape and can have his best year ever. If he self-implodes on schedule with a rash of outbursts or other challenges and frustrations with refs and teammates, even the coach, our front office has an escape hatch and Plan B, just like we did with the draft when we astutely swung a 3-for-1.
The Kings drafted a center at 13 that was projected to be a 2nd rounder. Clearly Cousins didn't see that coming. Cousins has called Rondo the best PG in the NBA for years, refers to him as his big brother and was clearly surprised that the team didn't try to re-sign him. I don't think it's a good quality for a pro athlete to have but Cousins is very thin skinned and wears his emotions on his sleeve.
He had a coach last year that was super successful. That slanted his team towards running and playing fast and won games with that. And it didn't work out. He IS along for the ride. From the time he was drafted this team has been built and rebuilt over and over again. How many players went through the revolving door when PDA was GM? There is ONE other player left from the roster that opened the season three years ago - Ben McLemore. There are four other players left from the roster that opened the season two years ago - Ben, Rudy, Darren and Casspi and the first two are apparently on the trade block. Divac made a trade to open up cap room to sign free agents last summer and two of the three guys he signed - Belinelli and Rondo - are already gone and the third - Koufos - is reportedly also on the trade block.
Counting Lamar Patterson the Kings have 16 guys signed to deals right now. 9 of them are new this season. 7 of them are holdovers and again, three of those guys are rumored to be on the trade block.
Cousins said his job is to play and management's job is to put together the team and he's staying in his lane and you hammered him for it. If he'd said he was involved in shaping the roster I'm guessing you would have hammered him for that.
Right now he's gaining invaluable experience playing for the U.S. Olympic team so I'm inclined to cut him a bit of slack in terms of not being involved in the day-to-day operations of the Kings, and other than being in the loop I don't think he SHOULD be involved in that side of things. And there's not a lot of point in picking Joerger's brain now since they can't implement anything until they have the team together and start practicing. There's training camp and preseason to see what his new coach's vision is and the ability to see it play out with the actual roster the team will head into the season with instead of as a conversation in Las Vegas.
But really what it sounds like to me is that YOU are already setting Cousins up to be the source of blame if things go south while absolving everyone else in the organization of blame.
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I don't have a narrative I am just expressing my opinion. And I am wholly capable of spreading the blame around. I was calling for Karl to be fired around the holidays, bemoaned our back hole at SG all year, was one of the first to want Marco shipped out of town for his incompetence and passivity, and questioned the prudence of Vlade and his decision-making process when he was ready to give a max contract to Wes Matthews and pass on Mudiay because he "hadn't seen him play". Believe it or not, I want Boogie to succeed. I want him to be great! His greatness is more likely to come to fruition if he would (could) grow up.
I was calling for Karl to be fired around the holidays, bemoaned our back hole at SG all year, was one of the first to want Marco shipped out of town for his incompetence and passivity, and questioned the prudence of Vlade and his decision-making process when he was ready to give a max contract to Wes Matthews and pass on Mudiay because he "hadn't seen him play". Believe it or not, I want Boogie to succeed. I want him to be great! His greatness is more likely to come to fruition if he would (could) grow up.I am not sure if Danny would do that because Blake's athleticism is on the decline. Does Blake has 3-4 more years of peak production? I don't know. There is a sentiment that players like Griffin, undersized 4s with incredible athletic ability fade fast when they approach their 30s with string of injuries, and once he loses his explosiveness he will turn into a jump shooter.
Bradley and potential Top 3 pick in a loaded 2017 draft would be a lot to give up for a player who is prone to breakdown. But if the Celtics think he can be that missing superstar that they need, and they are tired of young guys with 2-3 years to develop, they could roll the dice and go get their "superstar". Their window is open and the East is wide open and the Celtics need a dominant scoring threat to go with their defense and share-the-ball system.
From the Kings standpoint, it would be a home run, since perimeter defense was our biggest problem last year and Bradley can shutdown PGs and SGs alike. He's coming into his own as a scorer too.
Bradley and potential Top 3 pick in a loaded 2017 draft would be a lot to give up for a player who is prone to breakdown. But if the Celtics think he can be that missing superstar that they need, and they are tired of young guys with 2-3 years to develop, they could roll the dice and go get their "superstar". Their window is open and the East is wide open and the Celtics need a dominant scoring threat to go with their defense and share-the-ball system.
From the Kings standpoint, it would be a home run, since perimeter defense was our biggest problem last year and Bradley can shutdown PGs and SGs alike. He's coming into his own as a scorer too.