Hield is already 23! Only 3 years younger than Cousins himself! He's underwhelmed as a rookie. The odds of him drastically improving are slim. I'm not saying we had a chance. Our offer was, objectively, weak. But the one the Kings agreed to tonight was equally weak. They got Cousins without taking on any long-term salary with protection on their pick. The Rockets absolutely could have ponied up a better offer, not a doubt about it. The main point I'm making is that, if the price really was this low, then literally every team in the league should have been making calls. They all could have done better.
I'm obviously in the minority here, but I don't think this was as horrible of a deal for Sacramento as most people are making it to be. It's not a very good deal for them, but it's not horrible either. The Kings are terrible and they have been terrible even with Cousins. Unfortunately for them Cousins scared off other team's with him being perceived as a headcase and his agents tried to scare off other teams by saying he wouldn't re-sign with any other team- only because Cousins' could sign an extension for about 30 million more with Sacramento than any other team. From Sacramento's perspective, they have been a bad team and need to rebuild. Essentially this gives them the #6 pick from last year's draft who, although he has been a disappointment so far, still has plenty of time to grow and improve. It gives them another first round pick from New Orlenas and, in their thinking, will probably make them bad enough so that they "tank" and are able to keep their own first round pick this season. That will give them 3 young lottery guys that they can try to rebuild the franchise from. And yeah, they haven't had any luck developing young players or lottery picks in the past but they still need to try. So sure it wasn't that much of a haul for a very talented player in Cousins. But I understand why there wasn't as much of a market for him as there should have been and why they took this deal.
I am finally finished reading this thread. My first thought is that I don't know if the Rockets were willing to gamble on our chemistry with Boogie at any price. And I understand we tend to over-rate our prospects here, but I'm finding it odd that people in this thread seem to believe Buddy Hield has more value than a combination of Capela and Dekker. Both Capela and Dekker are 22. Hield is 23. Both Capela and Dekker are already playing at a much higher level than Hield. Obviously the Pelicans pick is considerably more appealing than the Rockets, but I'm not sure I can agree with anyone who thinks Hield is more valuable than EITHER Capela or Dekker much less both of them.
1) No, it was definitely horrible 2) Why would they not at least take it to the deadline to see if offers improve? Why would they not take it to the summer to see if offers improve? You don't trade from a position of weakness like the Kings did here. It's how you get fleeced. 3) The Kings don't get to keep their pick this year. They 76ers can swap their pick with the Kings this year, and the 76ers have the Kings unprotected pick in 2019. They're the next Brooklyn Nets situation
Like I said, even though I understand why they did took this offer I'm not saying it was a good move. This summer was when they would need to make the decision about giving him an extension. He would have been eligible for the largest contract in NBA history and, if he signed that extension, he wouldn't have been eligible to be traded for at least a year. So I can understand waiting until the trade deadline to see if they get a better deal, waiting until this summer would have reduced Cousins' value even more. I admittedly don't keep up with the Kings' draft situation very often, but I think that the draft pick is top 10 protected. So the Kings' thinking is by doing this deal it will make them bad enough this year so they drop into getting a top 10 pick, in which case they would have the #6 pick from last year, their own top 10 pick this year, and whatever the Pelicans' pick ends up being. That's what I've read but maybe I'm not right about that
At least he will now have someone who is good as he is to get to complain to about the rest of their team sucking. That or he tells AD to shave his brow and punches him in the face because he can't stand looking at it.
I just have trouble believing a Ryan Anderson 3 is going to yield more efficient results than Demarcus or AD posting him up 3 feet from the hoop. The second you make a team focused on 3's, play 2 interior defenders, you are making them play your game. Cousins is actually a decent mid range shooter already. If he ever gains a passable three, life is going to get MUCH harder in the west, no matter who else is on their rooster
Yep but he has shown bad decision making...remains to be seen if that was related to the enviroment or not.
