DeMarcus Cousins traded to Pelicans

KD is guarded by the other teams best player, and shoots more though.

If DMC can keep up that rate when he's forced to play outside more often, you got to think it's a win.

 

WTF Morey, where are you?

 

Cousins is a cancer, but he and AD are from Kentucky - this might just work...and they got rid of Tyreke who is death to anyone that wants a pass from him.

DD

 

You're preaching to the choir here I'm not complaining about not having high picks, I'm just pointing out that from a trade perspective you can't expect the Rockets to compete with other teams who have projected lottery picks. This is something explicitly mentioned in my previous post that quoted which is why I think you didn't even read my post before you replied to it. Some posters think the Rockets can beat Pelicans offer easily. Do you also feel the same? Dekker, Capela and Harrell is better than Hield, projected lotto pick, projected #35 pick and 10M in expirings? Just think about it from Sacramento's side, you trade away Cousins and get a former 18 pick and two 2nd rounders drafted 2 years ago. Does that seem better than a lotto pick? LOL I know that Capela, Dekker and Harrell have already out valued their position however a lot of that comes from Morey being a great finder of talent and MDA system boosting their performance then anything else. Most people include Dekker and Harrell in trade talks because they think Morey can find replacements very easily. That tells you the perceived value of these players from opposing teams point of view, they won't trade valuable players to get talent Morey can easily replace.

Held's only 23 how is that not young? Does Dekker go from young player today to old man next year since he's already 22? C'mon now get real. I don't even know why you think he's supposed to be polished and seasoned it's not even 1 year since he got drafted.

 

Crying in the closet because our assets are trash.

 

Over the last 38 games, since the end of his poor-shooting, opening month of his NBA career,

Buddy Hield is shooting 43% from 3

Remember that bad month Eric Gordon had shooting 29% in January?

 

Buddy, is that u?

 

AD + Cousins will beast over other teams - such an interesting team all of a sudden because this is a possible answer to the small ball versatile wing oriented lineups dominating the league now. Shooting the 3 ball is fine, but you can't get blown out on the boards if you do and Boogie & AD could potentially grab every rebound and slow the game down to a half court style game and just bully small ball teams.

 

That is what some of us would like to watch. An improved Memphis team with better Offense if they can click on all cylinders.

 

What about what the Pelicans gave to the Kings? Those were bad assets too.

 

Stauskas? Stauskas. Stauskas.

 

Could it be the case that you are more pessimistic about Hield than NBA GM's? Not being critical or saying you//they are right, just listing a possibility.

From my perspective, if Hield can take 4.2 3PT attempts in just 20 minutes (for perspective, that's about 7 attempts per 36 minutes) and hit 37% of them as a rookie... there is certainly hope that he can be an excellent shooter for his career. It would not be shocking at all to see him hit 40% of 7 3pt attempts next season, and that's nothing to sneeze at. (edit: as @heypartner pointed out, he is shooting 43% in his last 38 games after a rough start as a rookie. That's significant.)

He is known to have an excellent work ethic and that should help him continue to improve.

I don't think we could have ponied up a better offer to be honest. Hield is a 23 year old #6 pick who already has one excellent skill, which happens to be the most sought-after skill in the NBA right now. There is another pick from the Pels in a strong draft. Even if we take the pessimistic view that it's a #15 pick, comments on the draft tell me that this year's #15 might very well be worth more than last year's #10. Then the #35 pick, which is one of the first picks in on a very team friendly deal at a time when CBA experts are saying 2nd rounders are more important than ever.

To match their deal, we would have to match the contract. Where does $16m come from? They don't want any years on a contract unless it's a young guy, we don't have those. So we have to turn our only positive assets - Gordon/Ariza/Beverley - at least 2 of those have to be converted to an expiring contract. THEN you have to attach to that expiring contract players worth Hield, a pick in the #9-15 range, and a pick in the #35 range. One of the guys has to have an outside chance of being a star starter, and none of Capela, Dekker or Harrell are that highly rated by anyone but Rocket fans. So we probably have to deal all 3 of those guys for one better young player because Kings won't take the risk of trying to make that happen. You get the idea. It will take a lot.

If you're saying we could have gutted the team to acquire Cousins, yes sure, then every team in the league can acquire any available player. The Knicks can turn every player minus Melo into the best young player they can find, then trade all the young players for a better young player and go in. But then they don't have a roster. We're in a better spot than the Knicks, but we would be short 4-5 players easily if we went all in too. But that's not the goal. The goal is to improve and ultimately win. We would not be able to make a reasonable trade here without calling it quits on this season. That's a different trade.

Finally, if Cousins was worth more then he would have netted more. All the GM's were in the same city. Randive asked Divac for the best proposal. They picked the best one. Even taking subjectivity into account, it was not going to be much better than this. The Kings' rating of Hield probably factored into this as well, but again that's subjective and I'm not sure everyone agrees with your pessimistic assessment of Hield.

Anyways, let's see how it plays out. I think Kings fans are ecstatic to be starting over with Hield, WCS, Richardson, pels pick (9-15), their own pick (5-10), #35, #41 and soon some cap space. The best rebuilding package for Cousins was the right move for them, because replacing ownership and management was not an option.

 

This is PEAK Vivek!

 

Nik roks!