Sacramento Kings Playing a Dangerous Game with DeMarcus Cousins

Four-plus years later, after surviving botched beginnings and forging renewed hope, the Sacramento Kings are still the team that isn't doing DeMarcus Cousins any favors.

Not long ago, Cousins took the hardwood as the NBA's most prominent misfit. Talented but immature. Passionate but self-destructive. Good but not great.

While a harbinger of good faith, many considered the four-year max-contract extension the Kings signed him to in 2013 the ultimate risk. Franchises cannot tether futures to turbulent talent and come out the other end unscathed.

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

Yet Cousins quickly became a pleasant exception, maturing over the course of last season, through this summer's FIBA World Cup and into 2014-15.

That contract extension and his potential as a centerpiece were no longer in question. The Kings began the season on fire by their standards, at 9-5, with Cousins at the center of it all—a superstar anchoring a possible playoff contender while battling for rights to the NBA's "best center" honor.

Mere weeks later, everything has changed, from the coach to the culture. The 14-20 Kings are fading fast. Mike Malone is out, head coach Tyrone Corbin is in, postseason basketball is but a fantasy and, most importantly, Cousins isn't happy.

"It’s clear," he told The Sacramento Bee's Jason Jones when asked if Malone's departure hurt more than most realized. "We’re not the same team."

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

Indeed, the post-Malone Kings are barely recognizable from the ones who registered the franchise's best 14-game opening since 2004-05. Such has been the cost of firing the man behind it all.

Malone is by no means a clipboard wizard, and the Kings weren't on the fast track toward title contention this season. But Malone was a symbol of better, actually digestible times, and his coaching approach resonated with players.

A slightly more efficient Rudy Gay inked an extension with Sacramento largely because of Malone, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski. Sophomore Ben McLemore began playing like a shooting star under his control. Cousins blossomed into a level-headed leader who became overtly aware of his damaging demeanor and sought to reinvent it.

Viral meningitis sidelined Cousins for 10 games—an absence that coincided with Malone's departure—but he was a pivotal part of Sacramento's onset rise. He averaged 23.5 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on 51.2 percent shooting through the team's first 15 games, playing like a surefire All-Star.

	GP	FG%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	Off. Rtg.	Def. Rtg.
With Malone	15	51.2	23.5	12.6	2.4	1.1	1.5	109.4	98.3
Post-Malone	8	48.9	23.6	11.3	3.6	1.1	1.5	106.9	106.4

Individual numbers have never been the issue for Cousins, though. He's always scored and rebounded, showcasing vast offensive range, excelling as an inside-the-elbow playmaker, blocking the occasional shot.

But Malone had him playing great basketball on a good team. The two had been mutually exclusive before now, and the Kings put that progression at risk by abruptly changing directions with little reason beyond philosophical disparity.

Ownership wanted to run, according to Wojnarowski, and Malone's offense reflected a more calculated attack. The team ranked 17th in possessions used per 48 minutes and a middling 16th in offensive efficiency at the time of his departure—obviously unacceptable placements for a front office that envisioned postmodern pace and potency.

Without Malone stalking the sidelines, the Kings are free to run. But while they're now playing at breakneck speeds, the results have been predictably underwhelming:

	GP	Pace	Rank	Off. Rtg.	Rank	Def. Rtg	Rank	Win %
Under Malone	24	95.7	17	103.6	15	104.2	19	45.8
Under Malone, With Cousins	15	95.8	16	104.7	15	103.6	15	60.0
Post-Malone	10	99.4	2	103.9	13	111.6	28	30.0

Upping the pace has yielded minimal offensive gains at best. It's adversely impacted the defense more than anything else, to the point where, despite holding steady on the offensive end, the Kings own the league's fourth-worst net rating (minus-7.7) since Malone's exit.

Cousins' individual defense is deteriorating as well. He's not getting back as quickly or consistently, and though his rim protection remains solid—opponents are shooting just over 45 percent inside six feet when being defended by him—his reactions to screens and dribble penetration have slowed to near-extinction.

This, as SB Nation's Mike Prada points out, is no surprise:

Patience and process are indeed part and parcel of any cultural shift. The Kings are attempting to implement a completely different brand of basketball, and the results were never going to be instantly positive—especially in the contender-crowded Western Conference. 

There's also something to be said about Cousins' regression. He clearly hasn't bought into the changes, and his bad habits aren't limited to defense; he's already earned one ejection since Malone's departure. And, to the Kings' credit, teams shouldn't be tasked with pandering to psychologically uneven players who appear to be taking entire possessions off:

At the same time, this is the player, however flawed, the Kings invested in. They knew the perils involved with locking him up for the long haul and proceeded to do it anyway.

Like Kelly Dwyer writes for Yahoo! Sports, the Kings did this to themselves:

"

Hovering the magnifying glass over a team near its midseason point that just made a coaching change a couple of weeks ago is no way to scout a club, but this is exactly what the Kings encouraged by making such a change. There might be a method to the madness, one that will reveal itself in the form of a new coaching staff, a new style of play, and scads of wins in the years to come.

In the meantime, though, they’re working through yet another lost season. Of their own design.

"

Management canned a coach who instilled the tactical and emotional morals in Cousins the franchise and its fans had long been waiting on, preferring instead to embrace a system and approach that doesn't play to the strengths of its best player.

Worse still, they apparently did so without ever consulting or informing Cousins of the changes to come, per USA Today's Sam Amick:

Shoddy communication isn't indicative of a properly functioning franchise. If there wasn't a disconnect between the team's new ownership regime and Cousins then, there could be now.

Knowing Cousins' reputation, the Kings should have also known his outspoken displeasure was an assured byproduct of keeping him in the dark. And if they truly consider him a potential championship linchpin, they owed him—and still owe him—the privilege of knowledge.

Perhaps there is a rhyme and reason to how the Kings are restructuring. Maybe there's something bigger at play here. After all, the new powers that be have seldom followed convention.

Rocky Widner/Getty Images

Cousins' extension wasn't a popular move, nor was Gay's acquisition. But both transactions have (mostly) panned out to this point.

The Kings also shipped Isaiah Thomas to the Phoenix Suns over the offseason in a sign-and-trade, replacing him with a less-proven journeyman in Darren Collison, who is having a career year. More recently, they've been named as a possible suitor for the ebbing Deron Williams and the $43.3 million he's owed over the next two seasons, per Wojnarowski.

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Next to nothing about the Kings' present-day approach, then, is traditional. They're willing to roll the dice on a bigger, better vision—for better or worse, it seems. Malone's dismissal is an extension of that "at all costs" mindset.

Then again, maybe the latest moves are the mistakes and misgivings of an inexperienced administration that's still learning the ropes.

Whatever they are, though, Cousins' candor isn't emblematic of a player who understands the underlying intentions or behavior of the franchise he headlines. The Kings can only take comfort in knowing this doesn't seem like a situation beyond repair.

"We’ve got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves," Cousins would later say, per Jones. "Every time something doesn’t go our way, we’re shaking our heads, myself included."

That accountability is a silver lining, however faint. Cousins remains one of the game's most productive players, and he's still on pace to have the best statistical season of his career. 

USA TODAY Sports

But the Kings are officially on the clock—with Cousins, with their pace-oriented offense, with whatever changes that will follow this season. Progress of some form is imperative if they wish to move beyond this current mess of uncertainty and doubt.

Collateral damage is always unavoidable in these situations, when the personnel and product don't align with preconceived, super-specific visions. The Kings just can't afford for Cousins' faith and individual growth to be among their losses—a basketball casualty that, as of now, after all that's changed, they're dangerously close to withstanding.

*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com unless otherwise cited and are accurate as of games played Jan. 4, 2015. Salary information via HoopsHype.

Follow @danfavale