I wasn't going to post until after Christmas, but this caught my eye:
When was the last time we had something like this DeMarcus Cousins situation?
A young player who a bad team considered central to their rebuilding effort, who hasn’t disappointed on the court, suddenly winding up on the trade block for reasons other than money? No seriously, I don’t remember any off the top of my head. Let me know which ones I’m forgetting in the comments section.
The bolding is mine. Y'all know where I am going to go with this, right? Bear in mind, this is the site that I once ridiculed for calling Cousins and Howard the "two best centers in the West". Later, in the conversation, when I mentioned Gasol (among many, many others) as better centers, Sheridan told me Gasol was a power forward, presumably because he could not imagine that I meant Marc, not Pau. He ended the conversation with the ultimate Hulk Hogan Leg Drop of any basketball conversation: "Cousins is a beast." In my book, that ranks right up there with "Runs like a gazelle" as the be-all and end-all of player analysis.
OR.
We could look at all the things we want our center to do, and we could see if he does any of those things well. Just 'cause, you know, you only get points for looking like a beast if you're in a Twilight movie.
| POS | Min | WP48 | PoP48 | Wins | PTS | DRB | ORB | REB | AST | TO | BLK | STL | PF | |
| Cousins | C | 696 | .002 | -3.0 | 0.0 | 26.3 | 10.1 | 4.9 | 15.0 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 1.0 | 2.1 | 4.8 |
| Average C | C | 579 | .099 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 19.0 | 8.7 | 4.3 | 13.1 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 4.8 |
| FG% | 2FG% | 3FG% | FT% | eFG% | TS% | FGA | 3FGA | PPS | FTA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cousins | 41.4% | 41.7% | 20.0% | 76.9% | 41.6% | 48.2% | 23.3 | 0.3 | 1.13 | 9.0 |
| Average C | 49.7% | 50.5% | 28.8% | 68.8% | 50.2% | 53.9% | 15.3 | 0.5 | 1.24 | 5.3 |
And here we see that relative to other centers, Cousins is a little better at rebounding, assists, getting to the line, and steals. And these are generally the stats that tempt Arturo into picking Cousins every year in the win-score fantasy league before dropping him 2 months later. Because Cousins is basically awful at everything else you want a center to do, namely shooting, blocking shots, and turnovers. Especially shooting. The fact that he is so bad at shooting is particularly devestating because he shoots often.
Now when I say that he's bad at shooting, keep in mind what I wrote earlier on this subject: I am not saying he's not a talented shooter. But if you shoot bad because you suck or if you shoot bad because you aren't smart about where and when you shoot, the result is the same: the ball isn't going in the hoop enough. Cousins is killing the Kings with his shooting. He'd be a much better player if he stopped shooting so many 20-footers and concentrated on what he does well, and playing within his strengths.
But that would require maturity. And there is every indication that this is a quality that Cousins lacks. So when I see a journalist write that Cousins "has not disappointed on the court"...my only reaction is really just...
