Sacramento Kings Must Face Reality, Trade DeMarcus Cousins

The Sacramento Kings should have seen this reality check coming.

The regrettable truth is that it didn't have to be this way.

Before the Kings gave George Karl their coaching reins in February, they had one major reservation about making the move. According to USA Today's Sam Amick, some in the organization felt the potential hire "could create substantive conflict going forward" with franchise face DeMarcus Cousins.

For a lot of NBA franchises, that would have been the deal-breaker. In a superstar's league, the last thing a team wants to do is bring possible problems to its superstar.

And Cousins, remember, is far from being a typical star. For one thing, there aren't many players with his combination of size (6'11", 270 lbs), mobility and skill. Even fewer can match Boogie's production. This past season, Cousins became only the seventh player in league history to average at least 24 points, 12.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 blocks.

No one had put together a stat line like that since Kevin Garnett in 2003-04.

But Cousins is more than a mountain of statistics. And in this case, that's not a good thing.

He has a notoriously short fuse, and he isn't nearly the same player once it ignites.

"What happens when Cousins gets angry? We all know the answer," wrote Sactown Royalty's Greg Wissinger. "It throws off his game. He loses control. He either sulks...or he plays out of control trying to prove he's better and therefore, somehow, in the right."

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Cousins is volatile—both in the box score and between his ears.

Considering that's the type of player the Kings feared they might upset by making the move, most teams wouldn't have risked rocking the boat. But the Kings, of course, made that gamble. And now their ship is reportedly on the brink of capsizing.

Karl and Cousins have yet to find a common ground. They haven't spoken since April, sources told Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. And according to a recent report from Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, that might be the least of Sacramento's problems: 

"

Despite Sacramento Kings management's public insistence that DeMarcus Cousins is unavailable in deals, coach George Karl's intense desire to trade the All-Star center has made it increasingly unlikely this coach-star partnership can peacefully co-exist next season, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Karl has been recruiting Kings vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac and multiple players on the Kings' roster to unite with him in making the case to owner Vivek Ranadive that Cousins needs to be traded, league sources said.

Since the end of the 2014-15 season, Cousins has become aware of Karl's campaign to move him—including teammates telling Cousins, sources said. All around the Kings and Cousins, there is a growing belief the coach-player relationship is irreparable. Trust is a constant theme with Cousins, and he's been unable to build any with Karl, sources said.

"

This report apparently didn't take long to reach Cousins. While he didn't directly react to it, he did offer a not-so-subtle response on Twitter:

Snakes, grass and George Karl: If it feels like a familiar combination, that's because it should.

When Karl questioned Carmelo Anthony's defensive focus in 2011—after the Denver Nuggets, then Karl's employer, traded Melo to the New York Knicks—Anthony responded with the following tweet:

Coincidence? Not by a long shot. A similar rift also surfaced between Karl and another one of his former players, Andre Iguodala.

Both were on the wrong end of the third-seeded Nuggets' upset loss at the hands of the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors in 2013. Then-Warriors coach Mark Jackson said he felt the Nuggets were playing dirty and claimed to have "inside information that some people don't like that brand of basketball and they clearly didn't co-sign it," via Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver.

During a November 2013 interview with Denver sportswriter Dave Krieger, Karl was asked if he thought Iguodala was Jackson's inside man. "No question," Karl said.

In May 2014, Iguodala sent this cryptic tweet:

Cousins knew exactly what he was doing when he positioned those three emojis together. And if he's worried about the direction of his franchise, who could blame him?

"The Kings fired the one coach he ever truly connected with, and their front office has had no stability whatsoever over the past couple of years," wrote CBS Sports' James Herbert. "It appears that his relationship with Karl, who signed a four-year contract in February, is way, way beyond repair."

Some may not think this marriage has moved past the point of no return. That there's still time to figure this thing out.

Ranadive might be the leading member of that group. He's been adamant that he isn't the slightest bit interested in trading away his team's top talent.

"We have zero interest in moving Cousins, so I don't know where that's coming from," Ranadive said, via Amick. "...It's really simple: We feel that he's a one-of-a-kind player, and we have a group of players right now and we're going to build on it."

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Ranadive is right for feeling that way. Cousins should have no business being on the trade block.

Over his final 11 outings of the 2014-15 campaign, he averaged an absurd 27.2 points, 15.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.1 blocks and 1.9 steals per game. During that stretch, he had consecutive triple-doubles that included 20-plus points, 20-plus rebounds and double-digit assists.

That talent, which is clearly still growing, isn't something any team should give away. The fact he's under control for the next three seasons at the relative bargain price of $50.8 million only adds to his appeal.

Under normal circumstances, the Kings shouldn't consider dealing Cousins. But this story vacated the realm of normalcy a while ago.

The big man called this past season "a complete circus," via Michael Lee of the Washington Post. While Cousins played a part in that circus, a lot of Sacramento's sins have been beyond his control.

Cousins has only been in the NBA since 2010-11, and he's already played for five different coaches. His next All-Star teammate will be his first. He has witnessed an ownership change and multiple front-office overhauls. The Kings spent the No. 5 pick in 2012 on Thomas Robinson, then traded him the following February. Last year's No. 8 pick, Nik Stauskas, was put on the trade block in January, via CBS Sports' Ken Berger.

Now, the bridge between Cousins and Karl appears to have been incinerated. The coach didn't help himself by noting in April that he has never had a player "that I have said is untradeable," via CSN Bay Area's Bill Herenda.

Cousins hears everything happening around him. Making matters worse on Sacramento's end, it only takes one misstep to push Cousins away for good.

"He's one of those ones, if you get off to a bad start with him, ain't no coming back for you," Washington Wizards point guard and former Kentucky teammate John Wall said, via Lee.

At this point, the Kings need to realize their fate and enter damage-control mode. A fully disgruntled Boogie wouldn't be a good thing for anyone. It's far better to take whatever the trade market offers now than it would be to wait for this situation to dissolve any further.

Understand this: Sacramento won't win a Cousins trade. Teams dealing away superstars almost never do.

Plus, every league executive knows how untenable this situation has become. Low-balling the Kings could keep them out of possible trade talks, but rival clubs will adjust their offers accordingly.

The Los Angeles Lakers have reportedly set their sights on Cousins, league sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein. Armed with three picks in Thursday's draft (Nos. 2, 27 and 34) and sophomores Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson, the Lakers could stock the Kings' shelves with future assets.

But the success-starved Kings might not be thinking that far down the road, and the 64-year-old Karl almost certainly isn't. If Sacramento wants win-now additions, it could find a suitable trade partner in Denver.

The Nuggets could reunite Karl with the likes of Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler, all key members of the group Karl led to 57 wins in 2012-13. Denver, meanwhile, could find the star it's been missing since Anthony's exit, plus it could give Cousins the chance to work under former coach Michael Malone again.

Would the Kings be demonstrably improved next season? Could the Nuggets follow Cousins' lead back to the postseason? Both of those questions are impossible to answer. But this could be a meeting in the middle for two teams desperately searching for direction.

The Kings have to move forward, and that process has to involve trading Cousins. They can blame the dysfunctional atmosphere around him for letting it get to this point, but they can't exacerbate the issue by keeping him any longer.

Relieving Karl of his duties, by the way, isn't an option. He's only a few months in to a four-year contract. If the Kings dismissed him this soon, they'd have a hard time getting coaching candidates to accept their phone calls.

It's unfortunate they didn't heed those early warning signs when they spotted them, but this is now their reality. Cousins has to go. The breaking point has been passed.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com. Salary information obtained via Basketball Insiders.