It’s been almost a week since the report of a Sacramento Kings implosion.
Following last Monday night’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs, star player and/or “perennially upset non-leader” DeMarcus Cousins blew up at first-year coach George Karl, leading to a player’s-only meeting, followed by some iteration of general manager Vlade Divac asking the players if the team will be able to move forward with its coach.
Since none of us were in the home team’s locker room at Sleep Train Arena on Monday evening, a lot of what’s been reported could be exaggerated or sensationalized. With that said, there’s no doubt that this is an organization that’s been hamstrung by dysfunction, and is in desperate need of a culture change.
It’s seemed rather evident since the moment team owner Vivek Ranadive hired Karl that he wasn’t the right fit for Cousins, and thus the much needed culture change, as the two have been reported to be at odds pretty much since Karl was brought on board back in February. Whether Cousins is still upset at the way the team handled former coach Mike Malone (who’s now coaching the Denver Nuggets), or Karl’s been stubborn about doing things his way – capiche, this was supposed to be the season the Kings turned a page, as they went out and added guys like Rajon Rondo, Caron Butler, Kosta Koufos and rookie Willie Cauley-Stein to the mix last offseason, among others.
Well Monday night marked the team’s seventh loss in its first eight games, and it looked like we might see our first fired coach of the still relatively new season. Since then, the Kings are 2-0, and it was even reported that Cousins doesn’t want to see the team part ways with Karl.
Report: DeMarcus Cousins told Kings not to fire George Karl https://t.co/DoS9jz795K
— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) November 13, 2015
Here’s the thing: everyone knows how difficult it is to compete in this current Western Conference climate, but if you placed the Kings in a line graph of how NBA teams have faired as of late, their winning percentage would pretty much be a straight line since they drafted Cousins back in 2010, and that line would be near the bottom of the chart. I’m a staunch defender of Cousins, as he’s been in the top-10 in the league in PER for three seasons now, made Second Team All-NBA last season, and has posted impressive real box plus minus numbers for the last few seasons despite playing on bad teams.
In other words it’s become undebatable that when Cousins plays the Kings are competitive, and when he sits, they simply falter.
I know it’s really easy to look at things like him taking plays off, pouting when he leaves games, and cursing at the media and make that the reason the Kings lose games, but that couldn’t be any more incorrect. If anything, let’s define Cousins’ leadership by the 36.5 points and 11 rebounds, on 50-percent shooting that he’s posted in the two games since the players only meeting.
DeMarcus Cousins has 17 straight points. He just threw down a thunder dunk. #Nets up one late in the third.
— Mike Mazzeo (@MazzNYC) November 14, 2015
Not everyone is going to lead like LeBron James does, but for some reason a lot of NBA coverage has allowed only the bad to speak for Cousins, when he’s shown over and over that he’s a top tier talent. And honestly, how can you blame Cousins for the team’s turmoil when the five lottery picks they’ve had since drafting him have been used on Jimmer Fredette (originally Bismack Biyombo but traded on draft day), Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, Nik Stauskas, and Willie Cauley-Stein. One of those five guys looks like an actual productive NBA player, and it’s the last one they took.
Again, this can turn into chicken or egg rationality with if Cousins was a better leader those guys would be better, but how can you not blame the organization for developing any of its young talent besides Cousins, who was a lock for NBA superstardom since high school? Not only are they struggling mightily to develop these players, but guys like Fredette, Robinson and Stauskas have flat out not even looked like NBA players, let alone lottery picks or franchise changers.
It seems the organization finally took note of that this offseason, spending money on veterans like the aforementioned Butler, Koufos, and even Rondo, who despite being a problem for former coach Rick Carlisle during his short-lived Dallas stint, seems to be getting along just fine with Karl. His production on the other hand…
https://twitter.com/CTowersCBS/status/665574220135579649
Through ten games, it seems like more of the same in Sacto.
Cousins is playing at a ridiculously higher level than everyone around him, but the only thing people want to talk about is how this team struggles and the fingers immediately head in their All-Star big man’s direction. I understand the hesitation to throw an established coach like Karl under the bus this early in his tenure with the team, but he was the one supposed to help Boogie win, and he isn’t cutting it yet.
This creates a huge problem. I’m not advocating for Divac and Ranadive to get rid of Karl, not even a little bit. If you fire Karl who knows if that organization will ever be able to land another reputable coach. But at the same time, is Karl really going to stick around long enough to build a winner if they decide to trade Cousins? How often does a franchise like the Kings get lucky enough to land a talent like him? Because by my count it’s just Boogie and Chris Webber over the last 20 years.
I don’t know what the answer is, in fact I think it’s entirely too early for anyone to think that an answer even exists. However, if this situation continues to move in a bad direction, and they have to choose between Karl and Cousins, I’m putting both hands in the Cousins bin, and you can keep your narratives.
