I don't understand why people think the Kings will trade Cousins for our trash. If you were a young, rebuilding team, would you trade your best prospect?
Because the Kings can't picture their team build around him? Terrence Williams, a recent lotto pick from a horrible team, was just acquired for "our trash."
Thanks, man. Larry Coon is the master. Agreed. The Kings are barely above the league-mandated MINIMUM team salary right now. Dalembert is their only huge contract (Udrih and Garcia have lousy contracts, but never at huge amounts), and his contract is also expiring. Other than purely for the insurance cash payment, the Kings have no incentive to trade a prospect like Cousins for whatever the Rockets would offer in a package centered around Yao's contract.
Anyone think BLopez can be had if we provide the Nets with a better balanced team for Melo? Budinger, PP or hill to start with....flip brooks for someone the Nets would want.. Roughly: Lowry/Ish Martin/Lee Battier/Twill Scola/Chuck/pp? Lopez/Miller
however, all signs point to that being the need to acquire additional picks to help facilitate a greater trade (carmelo). denton is a dumbass but i agree with him here. i just don't see enough bad contracts on sacramento for them to essentially give us cousins. moreover, their coach and gm are already falling through the breaking ice under their feet. The Maloof's have enough business sense to allow the next group to handle and major trades such as this.
The Sonics got sold after leaving their best players go. If a team is stuck in 40-45 win territory with big contracts that it can't get out of and that constrains the ability to make future improvements (i.e. taking up salary room, difficult to trade), sometimes a "clean slate" is worth more. The Hornets, by the way, have slowed down quite a bit after a hot start. We'll see if their season ends up a success.
Cousins is a headcase whose problems are far beyond our staff and players' abilities to rein in. We've got good chemistry going. You don't throw an acid and a base together willy-nilly. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YCY3sz3HwAM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YCY3sz3HwAM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Yes, but the Kings would be able to trade him for better basketball-related assets. An $8 million insurance payout (which still nets the team having to pay Yao a prorated $9.7 million in salary) is likely not enough to be the principal component of a trade for Cousins.
See, I think that depends, because that money from Yao's insurance goes directly to their bottom line. It makes them Instantly $8 million richer this year, and they can, if they choose, pay themselves that money as owners. And the Maloofs lost a lot of money, and may value a personal gain worth more than Cousins. I know we all look at teams as fans, but when you strip it down to the basics of money, and consider the personal side of things. They may indeed be happy, especially if you toss in a pick or a young asset too. DD
I don't believe it. I am with the "fielding calls" theory. Morey will issue a statement soon denying this.
Agreed. If the Kings made Cousins available, they can do a lot better than a big expiring contract. Their GM/Coach look like they're on the hot seat.. I would think the owners would fire them first before dealing their 5th pick, right or wrong. I've always been a big fan of acquiring Cousins.. but now I'm really having second thoughts. His antics this year point towards some mental health issues (a la Ron Artest).. I don't think the Rockets could have handled Ron in his Chicago/Indiana days. It wasn't until later in his life where he started to seek help that he seemed to calm down on the court. I'm not sure if Cousins will make that same turn.. is there any star in the league whose had repeated clashes with management as Cousins has? Spreewell? There very well might be but I can't really think of many at the moment. I mean, just look at his recent benching for making the choking gesture. He wasn't genuinely apologetic for it.. he said that if they had won the game, he doesn't think he would have been punished. That doesn't strike me as a young man learning from his mistakes.
They Maloofs may well have the current pitcher make the intentional walk before brining in the reliever. As for the trades-- First, I think they are more likely to dump DeMarcus next year than this. I think it typically takes more than 1 season for a team to decide its tired of its lotto pick, though "bad rookie" Jordan Hill was traded in his rookie year. Second, I don't think a Cousins trade, or any other trade involving good talent, will be just for salary relief. The Rockets will have to give back picks or players expected to be useful for the other team. For example, I can see the Rockets offer to trade, say, Yao, Hill or Patterson, and AB, the Knicks 2012 pick for Dalembert (13 mil, 1 year) Udrih (2 years left at about 6.5 mil each) Garcia (3 years left at about 5.5 mil each, taken with a Traded Player Exception), and Cousins (3 mil). The Kings will be saving a ton of money for the next 3 years, along with prospects and picks.
i don't think we are necessarily disagreeing with each other, but i would like to point out that both instances you pointed out of a team quickly letting go of a lottery pick were both generated by the need to facilitate the acquisition of a much higher level talent and not because they were 'tired' and 'gave up' on their lottery pick.
