Voisin: Kings center DeMarcus Cousins needs to get away

[VF21]

DeMarcus Cousins desperately needs a break. His foot hurts, his body is bruised, his mind is sprinting in a million directions. His mood has darkened noticeably during the final days of this turbulent, conflicting, bizarre season.

There is much to ponder; five losing seasons would seem to prompt a healthy dose of reflection and introspection...

My favorite part:

But start with this: Vlade Divac, the Kings’ new vice president of basketball and franchise operations, is mesmerized by the center’s talent. He describes Cousins as a mini-version of the Lithuanian great Arvydas Sabonis. Divac looks at Cousins and sees a commingling of muscle and finesse, enormous skills, an increased willingness to pass and the potential for greatness. Though Cousins could make his teammates better – the litmus test for greatness – more consistently, he has progressed in this facet, too.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article18544970.html#storylink=cpy

 

[pshn80]

I haven't yet read the whole article but I agree Cuz needs a rest to get his mind and body healed. Hope it works for him and us, the fans.

 

[Siranthony]

I haven't yet read the whole article but I agree Cuz needs a rest to get his mind and body healed. Hope it works for him and us, the fans.

Cousins didn't really get an off season last year so he probably needs one.

 

[Albatros]

There's more team USA competition this summer? Or am I wrong.

 

[Gilles]

There are no Olympics or Worlds this year. Maybe some continental competition?

 

[Albatros]

There's the pan american games in Canada.

 

[King Baller]

So many are under estimating the toll on his health meningitis took. It is a very serious ailment that knocks an average person on their butt for months. DMC came back and played in the NBA while surrounded by the turmoil that has been the Kings of 2014/2015. All this at 24 years old. Because he is a 6' 11" power house it is easy to forget he is a young 24 year old man trying to find his place in the world. He is a good citizen and everything an NBA fan could want on the playing floor. Yes he is emotional and sometimes overly so. But would you rather have him not care?

The Kings were rolling when he went down with meningitis. It was no ones fault, $%& just happens. The circus that became Malone's firing undid all of the good work up to the point. Malone had the Kings rolling with very little depth. It was obvious to most old NBA fans they were not much unless ALL THREE of Cousins, Gay and Collison were on the floor. But when the starting five was on early this season under Malone there was some magic.

So folks cut the young man some slack. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and consider what is important in life.

 

[funkykingston]

Nice article. The sting of having Jason Jones as the Bee beat writer is occasionally alleviated by Voisin doing a good piece.

The other thing I took away from that article was mainly to do with the picture they used and that's that Vlade is a couple inches taller than Cuz. Given that Boogie measured out at 6'9.5" in his socks that would mean Vlade is a legit 7 footer.

 

[macadocious]

I ran into Vlade at a game a few weeks ago (literally ran into him after doing the which way do we go dance) he is a Legit 7" +. First time I had been next to him, much larger than I would have guessed.

 

[LPKingsFan]

Anyone else think of the old Southwest Airlines commercials they'd play all the time during games?

 

[kingsboi]

Cousins isn't the only one that needs to get away

 

[IfAt1st]

Nice article. The sting of having Jason Jones as the Bee beat writer is occasionally alleviated by Voisin doing a good piece.

I'm replying to this and bumping this thread because this link is applicable here (I haven't seen this article mentioned):
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/kings-blog/article18657375.html

(IMO) Jason Jones actually wrote a good article!

Analysis: Kings’ season was doomed when Michael Malone was fired in December
---
Players were confused and, consequently, played as if their effort didn’t matter. That’s the message many players took when general manager Pete D’Alessandro said the team’s 5-1 start or 9-6 record before DeMarcus Cousins contracted viral meningitis didn’t matter because the concern was the style of play.

It was a stinging message to a locker room with many players who had not been part of a winning team. A general distrust of the front office resulted because it seemed winning was not the ultimate goal. Instead, the aim appeared to be an entertaining style, even if the roster was not built for it.

Karl inherited a disenchanted bunch. By the end of the season, he was saying the Kings needed another wing defender, more shooting and more facilitators – exactly what Malone wanted.

But that wasn’t the message before the season, when Ranadive said this campaign would be about “wins and losses” and not changing the culture, which he boldly declared in September had been changed after a 28-54 season under Malone.

 

[gunks]

I don't care if it's beating a dead horse.... I love that PDA/Vivek's tanking of the season in the name of jazzketball is STILL getting blasted by the media.

Never forget. Never forgive!

 

[CruzDude]

Arlene's article rings very true and very real as to Cousins' situation. We all forget the season previous leading up to Team USA and him playing July into September then showing up for Training Camp in October. No real rest then. A new coach season under Malone, new learning new procedures, new plays and not a good enough group of supporting players, some of whom got injuries at the wrong time, DC mainly. Then this past season he really began to assert himself, went thru another new coach whose style didn't help then finally Karl arrives 50 games into the season at the all star break.

Getting into a new coach, new plays, new style, new rules, new philosophy with only 1/3 of a season to absorb it is tougher yet. Interrupt that with the meningitis that normally has a long recovery period and he did better than well. As his final 3-4 games showed, he is the special talent we all knew but now it yet another system. But more than anything the Big Guys like Demarcus and the really good bigs before him, get beat up something awful during a season as teams find using double and triple teams is the only way to guard him. And the term "guard him" really means "lets beat him up to try to slow him down", 30+ minutes a game 82 times in the season after Team USA thru an entire summer.

All really good players play hurt to some degree but when you are the face of the franchise and the best at your position then there is extra effort to put forth for the team. Temper that with a mediocre supporting crew who forget team play and throw it in to Cuz every chance they get and the pounding becomes more and more until body parts weaken from continuous pounding. Can't be helped other than with rehab and rest.

So yeah, he needs some time off. April, May, June, July, then stop in for viewing summer league then into conditioning and more rehab before the serious business starts in September. So kudos to Ailene for saying it like it is and really needs to be.