Sacramento Kings: Can Team Win with the DeMarcus Cousins Distraction?

The only way the Sacramento Kings have been able to show up on SportsCenter or the headlines on a sports website was through the drama of the talent-dripping DeMarcus Cousins and head coach Paul Westphal.

Before the game last Sunday, Westphal asked the young center to stay home and re-think his position on the team.  The unpopular head coach thought that Cousins did not buy into the system and failed as a teammate.

So can this team win with the distraction? 

Reports just in confirmed that Paul Westphal has been relieved of his duties as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings.

The fans are hoping that Keith Smart, the interim head coach, can finally turn this team around like he has with the Golden State Warriors.

With the firing, the organization will not only try to take a step toward winning more ball games, but will also try to move on from the drama between Cousins and Westphal.  

Keith Smart may bring a fresh breath of air, but the lack of practices probably would continue the bad basketball the young Kings are playing.

What's the solution to all the distraction?  

To be quite honest, this team is losing so much that the players don't seem like they're even distracted by what DeMarcus Cousins supposedly said.  

It was never his production on the team that really hurt, rather it was his off-court issues; the players, however, don't seem like they're having too much trouble with him this season. 

Winning will solve everything.  It will build confidence in the young team, which is very crucial, and it will build trust that'll lead to more passes and better team basketball.  

It wouldn't be surprising to see all the losses start to numb rather than hurt, so it'll also build a winning mentality for a lot of the young players.  

The Kings have always been pretty good with keeping things behind closed doors and inside the locker room.  Now that Paul Westphal is gone, it'll be clear if DeMarcus Cousins was really the problem in the locker room.  

All the blowouts the Kings had and the angry fan voices helped the Kings make the decision to let him go, but it's clear that the organization sided with the ultra-talented center.

This team needs to start winning.  It may not be a championship contender, but it certainly seems like a team with a lot of what look to be unfitting pieces.  

However, there is a lot of talent and it should be enough to win enough basketball games to keep them out of the bottom 10 or even the lottery if everything works out. 

You're on the clock, Keith Smart.