Why the Cousins Trade is good for Sacramento
At first glance, the initial viewer or novice NBA fan might look at that Sacramento/ New Orleans trade as a complete sham or a travesty. " How can anyone think this is a good trade?" I read one person on an ESPN board say. I seem to be in the minority when it comes to this, but I think this was a fantastic trade for the kings.
In 2010, when Cousins was drafted, it was the franchises best draft pick in 10 years. Everyone knew who Cousins was when it came to attitude, passion, and enthusiasm towards the game. Everyone can agree he is extremely talented, but with all talent there has to be a line that is drawn in the sand. For a guy who averages 21 PPG, 10 RPG and 3 APG there is way to many off the court or I guess you could say on the court issues for someone with that kind of talent.
Go back to draft night on 2016, the Kings drafted Georgios Pappagiannis, to which Cousins tweeted " Lord give me Strength", how can you be the face of the franchise and expect a locker room to grow and have good cohesion between one another when you are tweeting this out without even playing with the guy? This is on top of a tussle with Bucks players outside the locker room after a game in November 2015 and his issues with previous Coaches and other Kings players off the court you have to wonder when does a team say enough is enough?
I'll take it one step further and refer to his on the court issues, just this year alone, he already has 17 technical fouls. He acts like a child on the court and for a franchise that is barely hanging on by a thread ( Remember if the NBA wouldn't have stuck it to Seattle one more time by helping the Kings finance their arena, this team would be in Washington) they could not allow that type of behavior and culture to continue. Would the Wizards allow John Wall to act like this? The Bulls Jimmy Butler? Hell even the Phoenix Suns and Devin Booker.. The answer to that is NO. At some point, "superstars" are held to higher standards than regular players, and for the Kings, the need to make this move shows how desperate they truly are to rid themselves of a troubled player albeit talented.
Don't get me wrong, Cousins was not the only issue in Sac-town, but as a face of the franchise to continuously act like this, I would have traded him for 3 players and two picks as well. In a draft as deep as this one in 2017 is supposed to be, it's worth the risk especially if Buddy Heild can play as well as he did in college. The foundation and culture can change there and should change there, but for Cousins this better be a sign to clean up his attitude and his image before his actions lead him out of the NBA.
