If Celtics landed the 2015 #1 draft pick, would u trade it for DeMarcus Cousins?

[tazzmaniac]

Roy, you are only going to confuse triboy if you bring facts into a discussion. Stop that!!!

Well, I don't want to take a personal shot at another poster.  TB is entitled to an opinion. 

That said, it's been a weird debate.  It sort of goes: 

Step 1.  DMC critic makes blatantly false claim about DMC;
Step 2.  Other posters disagree, and post evidence;
Step 3.  No response from DMC critic;
Step 4.  DMC critic goes back to Step 1, either with the same claim or an equally specious one.

There's no give and take.  It's like "DMC should take more charges", and when told that DMC has actually led the league in charges taken for two years in a row, there's just complete silence.  How is that debate?

Roy bottom line is Kings are not a good team with cousin being the man. They will attract no key FAs either. Thats how much key FAs want to play with Cousins

I never said he was not skilled.  But he is missing " other" things that makes a player a positive teammate ,leader etc. Help a team be a better team

Maybe a guy like Smart could be a good influence on a guy like cousins. Still i would not give up a 2015 1st to take that risk

You wouldn't even give up a single 1st round pick for a young, established center that is averaging 24/12.  That's nuts!!!  Cousins doesn't have to do everything and be everything for a team.  He can be the best player on the team but other players can provide the leadership, positive energy, do the dirty work, etc.  If by some miracle we got Cousins that would just be the 1st step.  Ainge would still have to build a championship caliber team around him. 

[tazzmaniac]

To me there is more risk in picking a one and done big man out of college than picking the guy who is already producing 23/12 in the western conf.  Yeah the cap hit is way bigger, but we are getting a sure fire all star, not waiting 3-5 years to see if we picked correctly. 

But then I don't see Okafor or Towns as a sure fire multiple all star in the Anthony Davis mode like some others do I guess.

Cousins is only making 13.7M this year and he is signed for another 3 years.  So his cost is quite reasonable.   

[Tr1boy]

Roy, you are only going to confuse triboy if you bring facts into a discussion. Stop that!!!

Well, I don't want to take a personal shot at another poster.  TB is entitled to an opinion. 

That said, it's been a weird debate.  It sort of goes: 

Step 1.  DMC critic makes blatantly false claim about DMC;
Step 2.  Other posters disagree, and post evidence;
Step 3.  No response from DMC critic;
Step 4.  DMC critic goes back to Step 1, either with the same claim or an equally specious one.

There's no give and take.  It's like "DMC should take more charges", and when told that DMC has actually led the league in charges taken for two years in a row, there's just complete silence.  How is that debate?

Roy bottom line is Kings are not a good team with cousin being the man. They will attract no key FAs either. Thats how much key FAs want to play with Cousins

I never said he was not skilled.  But he is missing " other" things that makes a player a positive teammate ,leader etc. Help a team be a better team

Maybe a guy like Smart could be a good influence on a guy like cousins. Still i would not give up a 2015 1st to take that risk

You wouldn't even give up a single 1st round pick for a young, established center that is averaging 24/12.  That's nuts!!!  Cousins doesn't have to do everything and be everything for a team.  He can be the best player on the team but other players can provide the leadership, positive energy, do the dirty work, etc.  If by some miracle we got Cousins that would just be the 1st step.  Ainge would still have to build a championship caliber team around him.

I would give up our leftover 1sts for him. Multiple of em

Honestly this topic is a fantasy imo. Ainge will not give up the 2015 #1 plus Sully etc for Cousins.   

[Roy H.]

Honestly this topic is a fantasy imo. Ainge will not give up the 2015 #1 plus Sully etc for Cousins.   

Why not?  Danny has indicated that he may have been willing to give up Oden / Durant for the right pieces:

What people don’t understand is that we could’ve still done all that (the trades) and, with the No. 1 pick, maybe been able to keep a player like a Delonte West or an Al Jefferson (who were sent to Seattle and Minnesota, respectively),” Ainge told The Bee over the summer.

“We hated trading them away. We had discussed the possibility of trading the No. 1 pick or the No. 2 pick also. And when you get the No. 5 pick, you just don’t have the same (leverage). If you got the No. 1 or No. 2 pick, sometimes that by itself gets you a lot.

If that's the case, why wouldn't he trade this year's #1?  Heck, he gave up a top-5 pick for a very old Ray Allen, and a top-10 pick for Telfair and cap relief.

[bostonsportsforlife]

Honestly, Cousins is a phenomenal player, but he has become quite overrated. Concerningly low FG% for a big man, and he's not quite a rim protector. With the #1 pick I'd rather gamble on Okafor.

[KeepRondo]

I'm very pro-Cousins, and think a lot of the criticism is unwarranted.  But according to the NBA's brand-new player tracking stats, he's dead last in distance covered per 48 minutes -- 525th out of 525 players.  Someone's got to be last, but it probably shouldn't be a franchise player.

http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/speed/?sort=DIST_48&dir=1

I wonder what Roy thinks about this stat.

The effort is not consistent. You can just tell by watching games

I think it's a fairly useless stat, honestly.  Interesting, maybe, but if your center is running all over the court, he's doing something wrong.

Did you see who else is at the bottom of the list?

David West
Chris Bosh
Marc Gasol
Nikola Pekovic
Hassan Whiteside
Brook Lopez
Dwight Howard
Andrew Bogut
Kevin Durant
Al Jefferson
Tim Duncan
Dirk Nowitzki
LaMarcus Aldridge

Those guys are all below 500th in the league on a per-minute basis.  Guys below #450th include Lebron James, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Carmelo Anthony, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, Roy Hibbert, Al Horford and Pau Gasol.

Once again, I assume that you wouldn't want any of those guys on the Celtics?  I mean, if they don't even rank in the top-450 in the NBA of running around the court, they must not be putting in effort, correct?

You can group that with the other thousand useless stats that people use on here.

[KeepRondo]

Honestly, Cousins is a phenomenal player, but he has become quite overrated. Concerningly low FG% for a big man, and he's not quite a rim protector. With the #1 pick I'd rather gamble on Okafor.

I agree. 46 percent for a big who doesn't shoot threes is not good.

Another point that nobody is mentioning is we would only have Cousins for two years. If we landed the number one pick, we would have him for at least 7 years.

[KeepRondo]

Would the Kings have 5-10 more wins with Marc Gasol instead of Cousins? ... if Marc Gasol is the popular choice for best big man in the NBA or you voted yes, why did you vote yes?

They'd probably have 2 or 3 more wins because Cousins missed 10 games with meningitis.  However, on the court I don't think Gasol would have made any positive difference.  The Kings have been very good with Boogie in the game, and I doubt that Gasol could improve on that.

Gasol is a far better all around player then Cousins. Of course he would make a difference.

[PickNRoll]

Seems like guys don't watch many Kings games.  Cousins is a force of nature.  His numbers are good, but he's even better than the numbers indicate.  When he's in the paint, he owns it - just swallows up every tough rebound.  28-19-5 with 4 blocks tonight.

[fitzhickey]

Seems like guys don't watch many Kings games.  Cousins is a force of nature.  His numbers are good, but he's even better than the numbers indicate.  When he's in the paint, he owns it - just swallows up every tough rebound.  28-19-5 with 4 blocks tonight.

I would most certainly trade the #1 pick for DMC

[fitzhickey]

Would the Kings have 5-10 more wins with Marc Gasol instead of Cousins? ... if Marc Gasol is the popular choice for best big man in the NBA or you voted yes, why did you vote yes?

They'd probably have 2 or 3 more wins because Cousins missed 10 games with meningitis.  However, on the court I don't think Gasol would have made any positive difference.  The Kings have been very good with Boogie in the game, and I doubt that Gasol could improve on that.

Gasol is a far better all around player then Cousins. Of course he would make a difference.

Other than being a worse rebounder and scorer, completely correct

[saltlover]

Honestly, Cousins is a phenomenal player, but he has become quite overrated. Concerningly low FG% for a big man, and he's not quite a rim protector. With the #1 pick I'd rather gamble on Okafor.

I agree. 46 percent for a big who doesn't shoot threes is not good.

Another point that nobody is mentioning is we would only have Cousins for two years. If we landed the number one pick, we would have him for at least 7 years.

Cousins is signed through 2018, with no player option/ETO.  C's would have three seasons of an All-Star big, and more if they re-signed him (which would be the intent presuming it worked out).  His final two years will be a bargain given the salary cap increase as well.  The contract is not worth being concerned about.

He's 24, and a dominant player.  His best years are ahead of him.  He would be franchise-altering if acquired.

[KeepRondo]

Honestly, Cousins is a phenomenal player, but he has become quite overrated. Concerningly low FG% for a big man, and he's not quite a rim protector. With the #1 pick I'd rather gamble on Okafor.

I agree. 46 percent for a big who doesn't shoot threes is not good.

Another point that nobody is mentioning is we would only have Cousins for two years. If we landed the number one pick, we would have him for at least 7 years.

Cousins is signed through 2018, with no player option/ETO.  C's would have three seasons of an All-Star big, and more if they re-signed him (which would be the intent presuming it worked out).  His final two years will be a bargain given the salary cap increase as well.  The contract is not worth being concerned about.

He's 24, and a dominant player.  His best years are ahead of him.  He would be franchise-altering if acquired.

Has he been franchise altering in Sacramento?

What makes you so certain he would be here? Also, the length of his contract is a big deal. If this dude Cousins left after 3 years while the number one pick went on to be an all star, people would want to walk Ainge out of town.

[Tr1boy]

Honestly, Cousins is a phenomenal player, but he has become quite overrated. Concerningly low FG% for a big man, and he's not quite a rim protector. With the #1 pick I'd rather gamble on Okafor.

I agree. 46 percent for a big who doesn't shoot threes is not good.

Another point that nobody is mentioning is we would only have Cousins for two years. If we landed the number one pick, we would have him for at least 7 years.

Cousins is signed through 2018, with no player option/ETO.  C's would have three seasons of an All-Star big, and more if they re-signed him (which would be the intent presuming it worked out).  His final two years will be a bargain given the salary cap increase as well.  The contract is not worth being concerned about.

He's 24, and a dominant player.  His best years are ahead of him.  He would be franchise-altering if acquired.

Has he been franchise altering in Sacramento?

What makes you so certain he would be here? Also, the length of his contract is a big deal. If this dude Cousins left after 3 years while the number one pick went on to be an all star, people would want to walk Ainge out of town.

+1

[FreddieJ]

Honestly, Cousins is a phenomenal player, but he has become quite overrated. Concerningly low FG% for a big man, and he's not quite a rim protector. With the #1 pick I'd rather gamble on Okafor.

I agree. 46 percent for a big who doesn't shoot threes is not good.

Another point that nobody is mentioning is we would only have Cousins for two years. If we landed the number one pick, we would have him for at least 7 years.

Cousins is signed through 2018, with no player option/ETO.  C's would have three seasons of an All-Star big, and more if they re-signed him (which would be the intent presuming it worked out).  His final two years will be a bargain given the salary cap increase as well.  The contract is not worth being concerned about.

He's 24, and a dominant player.  His best years are ahead of him.  He would be franchise-altering if acquired.

Has he been franchise altering in Sacramento?

What makes you so certain he would be here? Also, the length of his contract is a big deal. If this dude Cousins left after 3 years while the number one pick went on to be an all star, people would want to walk Ainge out of town.

The Kings are 2-22 this year and last year without him

I agree with the last part though, and it's part of the risk in the hypothetical