How every team can get Cousins

[Bucketgetter]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25223142/a-guide-to-your-favorite-nba-team-trading-for-demarcus-cousins
A funny article on what every team would have to give up to get Cousins. They have us trading Wallace, Smart, KO, Sully, 16, Mavs 1st, and Grizzlies 1st. We also get Nik Stauskas back. Seems like an awful lot, but hanging on to all Brooklyn picks, remaining financially flexible, and throwing in the #8 pick last year, I think I would have to do it. Thoughts?

[Clench123]

Yes.  Definitely would have to do it.  It's so worth it in my opinion as long as we don't give up Smart in any of the deal.

[jpotter33]

That's a lot, but I think you'd have to do it. One would think that'd virtually lock us up for one of the major power forward free agents (Love or LMA), and we'd keep those valuable Brooklyn picks.

[Clench123]

Smart is going to be a superstar some day soon.  He should be off limit.

[MJohnnyboy]

You know, Golden State has a fair offer for Cousins. Green/Barnes/Bogut/Speights for Cousins/Landry. Along with trading the #6 pick for Lawson, thats a good team. Just saying. I mean George Karl seems to want to build a perennial 45-50 win team that will be ousted in the first round year after year.

All kidding aside, could you imagine Curry and Cousins playing together?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4t8KisRznQ

[KG Living Legend]

If you look at all the trades we honestly have one of the best chances of landing him some trade proposals are horrible including only one first round pick they have us giving them three first round picks and 3 good young players we have by far one of the best offers

[tarheelsxxiii]

If Mozgov, Love and #24 could get it done... wow. The league would come to a screeching halt.

[LarBrd33]

Most of these trades include the Kings giving up Nik Stauskas.   I would love to snatch Stauskas on the cheap.   I wasn't all that high on him heading into the draft last year.  I think I had him 10th on my board.  And I actually spent a lot of time on this forum arguing with fans here about McLemore vs Stauskas.  It was basically me vs everyone else. I was convinced that McLemore was going to improve in year 2 ... and everyone else kept telling me how 'vastly superior" Stauskas was.   Then McLemore shows major improvement (one of the only players in the entire league to start all 82 games) and Stauskas gets straight up buried.   Now everyone thinks he's trash, apparently. 

Yes, he struggled in Sacramento, but that entire team was dysfunctional.  Pre all-star he averaged a disgusting 3.4 points in 13.6 mpg with shooting percentages that would make rookie Avery Bradley uneasy:  .328/.261/.857  ... That's awful.  Just awful.   Hard not to look at his rookie season and call him anything other than a brutal disappointment.   

All that said, the opinion on Stauskas has swung too far in the negative direction.

Here's what's funny about this... 

Stauskas WAS a lights-out shooter in College.  His Sophomore year at Michigan he shot: 17.5 points, 3.3 assists, 2.9 rebounds, 47%/44%/82%. 

Like McLemore before him, a rough rookie season doesn't necessarily mean you're an automatic bust.   He has legit size for a shooting guard.   

In Chad Ford's draft preview, he polled teams around the league to determine their draft "tiers".  http://hawksquawk.net/community/topic/394690-chad-ford-ranking-draft-prospects-by-tiers-2014/ ...   Stauskas was in "Tier 3" (guys who project as NBA starters) along with Gary Harris and Doug McDermott.  Interestingly enough, those guys were all ranked higher than Tier 4 players which included Zach LaVine, Jusuf Nurkic, Elfrid Payton and James Young.   Guys in Tier 3 this year:  WCS, Winslow and Mario...      This gives you an idea of how Stauskas was perceived pre-draft. 

To further highlight how he was perceived pre-=draft, check out the Kings war room on draft night: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEN6ad_Aw-M

Skip to the 6 minute mark if you haven't seen it.  They were actually concerned that Boston was going to take Stauskas at #6... and actually celebrated when Boston selected Smart:  "That's good for us!!... That means Randle is going 7th!... We'll get Stauskas!" ... Btw, watch that video immediately if you haven't seen it.  It gives you great insight into what a disaster that Kings front office is.  It's utterly fascinating to see Vivek Ranadive meddling.  It's one thing to read rumors about it.  It's another to actually see it in action.


So yes, Stauskas was a brutal disappointment in the few minutes he got off the bench for the Kings.   But once George Karl arrived, there was actually a small glimmer of hope.

March numbers:  14 games - 19.6 mpg, 7.4 points, .455/.471/.850 

Those shooting percentages were extraordinarily high.   His post-allstar numbers in general had him shooting 42%/42%/86%.   

There is more evidence to support the idea that Nik Stauskas is an elite-level shooter than not. 


From a guy who wasn't high on him before the draft... if you can get Nik Stauskas as a "throw-in" in a Cousins trade... that's pretty rad.   I'd gladly give him a shot as the starting SG in a Brad Stevens offense.    Are you telling me that you wouldn't want to see him on a competent franchise in a functional offense with a intelligent coach... without Rudy Gay's ballhoggery and a muddled roster situation clouding his path?

[D.o.s.]

Smart is going to be a superstar some day soon.  He should be off limit.

I don't think this is reasonable, or true, or likely.

[Hemingway]

Smart COULD be a star one day. He certainly showed us some flashes and his D is already very good and he seems to have the right attitude that can't be said about every young player. I would rather keep him in any trade but for a real top guy, especially one that plays the 5, I think you have to make a move. Smart will probably be a star, Cousins already is.

I hope that the Kings try to make it work a little longer because I think we will get beaten out by a team with a top pick if a DMC trade goes down at the draft. By trade deadline time, those top picks will either be playing well and their teams won't want to trade them or they will be struggling and the Kings will value them less. I hate to say it, but Rondo to Sac could be great for us if it goes south quick. Though Rondo could come in and turn the team around, who knows...

[greece66]

Blow up our roster for his Majesty?

What about... NO.