2015 Offseason Is Sacramento Kings' Last Chance to Build Around Cousins
Over the last couple of years, DeMarcus Cousins' presence and development has been the single glimmer of hope for the Sacramento Kings' future relevance.
That hope is quickly fading.
Cousins will be 25 going into 2015-16, and he will have wasted his first five seasons without dipping into the playoff waters. Despite four consecutive draft lottery selections, the Kings are yet to find a secondary star who could grow next to him.
Cousins hasn't exactly been an exemplary superstar himself. However, while most of his emotional tantrums on the court have been a sign of personal immaturity, some of them could also be chalked up to justifiable frustration with Sacramento's inability to put forward a competitive team around him. He has toned down his outbursts significantly year after year, although he could still improve in that regard.
On an individual level, he has developed into perhaps the second-best big man in the entire league. Anthony Davis' incredible versatility still gives him the edge, but Cousins is nearly as unstoppable.
He gets to the line at will, is impossible to guard one-on-one down low and has even improved defensively. The Kings allowed 6.4 fewer points per 100 possessions with the big man on the floor this year, per NBA.com. Cousins' effort still isn't consistent, as he clearly shifts his intensity down a couple of gears when he is frustrated. But he is a two-way terror nonetheless.
While Cousins has taken huge strides year after year, the talent around him hasn't increased. The Kings have mainly flipped rotation players back and forward, without making significant moves. They let go of Tyreke Evans after he regressed following an impressive rookie campaign and traded for Rudy Gay early in the 2013-14 season.
Luckily, the Kings inked Cousins to a max extension in 2013, a deal that will pay him more than $47 million over the next three seasons, per HoopsHype.com. That's a complete bargain considering his current production, but there is still a lot of pressure on Sacramento to bring in the right pieces to support him.
Cousins might be locked up for three more years, but if he hands in a trade request, things could get ugly. Dealing away such a talent in his prime is borderline insane, but keeping Cousins on board against his will if he doesn't want to be in Sacramento wouldn't be a productive solution, either.
The Kings have to display some tangible improvement or, at the very least, put an actual plan into motion sooner rather than later. Throwing together mediocre pieces and hoping they will somehow fit simply isn't going to cut it, especially not in the Western Conference.
Inconsistency on the coaching front doesn't help either. Cousins played for three different coaches last season, and has played under five in total in his short career so far. The ownership also changed, but despite feverish willingness to make bold moves it hasn't necessarily had a structured plan.
It's not like Sacramento is completely dry on talent. Darren Collison has played surprisingly well with Cousins. The Kings outscored opponents by a whopping 8.1 points per 100 possessions when the duo was on the court this season, by far the best net rating out of any two-man lineup on the roster, per NBA.com.
Teams have generally improved after trading Gay, but he has played fine and the Kings did lock him up on a relatively cap-friendly deal. He will earn a little over $12 million next season and over $14 million in his last year, a reasonable price for a versatile wing with a shaky jumper. Ben McLemore had a chance to play huge minutes this season and pulled his shooting numbers up to respectable figures.
Look deeper down the roster and it gets gloomy. The Kings managed to patch together a league-average offense thanks to Cousins' production, but there simply isn't enough shooting or two-way versatility on the team to go beyond that. The Kings ranked 28th in the league in three-point attempts.
Head coach George Karl tried to bolster the perimeter game by slotting Omri Casspi, a 35.6 percent career three-point shooter, into the starting lineup next to Gay. He performed relatively well in irrelevant games down the stretch of the season, but if Casspi is one of your starting forwards, you have no business even sniffing the playoffs in the West.
The Kings will have some cap space this summer, but they won't have much wiggle room. They should have around $8.5 million to spend, per SactownRoyalty.com. That's certainly not going to be enough to bring in the talent required to to push Sacramento into the 45- to 50-win range.
Sacramento could continue to ask Cousins for patience. McLemore will enter his third season, which is when young studs either take a huge leap or stagnate in their development. Collison, Cousins' main running mate, missed 37 games with a right hip flexor injury, and perhaps a season with fewer ailments could net some extra wins.
The Kings also have another bullet in the lottery this summer with the sixth overall pick, and they'll have to make it count. However, considering the front office hierarchy, it's unclear how much of a say the smart people in the organization have. Team owner Vivek Ranadive has been highly involved in major decisions, without really showing a deep understanding of basketball.
Ranadive has also handed the proverbial keys to the car to Vlade Divac, who will be the major shot-caller ahead of general manager Pete D'Alessandro in this year's draft, per Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee:
"“Vlade makes the decisions,” said Ranadive, noting that Divac’s title as vice president of basketball and franchise operations positions him above general manager Pete D’Alessandro. “Two people report directly to me. Chris Granger, who runs the business side, and Vlade from the basketball side. I want to make that clear as we move forward. We have a lot of work to do, and we are all in this together.”
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Divac could very well turn out to be a good choice, but his addition to the elite front office ranks is still a bold move on Ranadive's part.
The sense is also that if Ranadive takes an irrational liking to a player, he could ignore the advice of his employees. He stresses that the front office is in it together, but it's unclear how much power those under the team owner have. Grantland had access to the Kings' war room at the draft last season, and it was clear that Ranadive was pressuring his colleagues into picking Nik Stauskas.
Sacramento should look to add a big body up front with its lottery pick and perhaps add another solid combo forward. It's perhaps too early to give up on Stauskas, but having another forward who fits into a small-ball system would be great. If Sacramento can make smart moves this summer and make progress, they could perhaps convince Cousins to stick around long term.
With the impending cap boom in 2016-17, the Kings will have money to spend just like the rest of the league. If Sacramento can construct a solid core around Cousins until then, it's not entirely impossible for it to lure a big free agent, at which point things could then get very interesting.
The New Orleans Pelicans made a bunch of desperate win-now moves to put talent around Davis. They gave up draft picks to pay the likes of Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Omer Asik and Evans, players who have helped the team be competitive in the short term but don't have too much upside.
Sacramento could be forced to look for similar trades and moves to keep Cousins happy, even though it might not lead to title contention down the road.
At the same time, recent history isn't on Sacramento's side, and there isn't any clear light at the end of the tunnel. Even though the team maintains it has no interest in trading Cousins and wants to make a playoff run next season, as CSNBayArea.com's Bill Herenda reports, it's a long shot. If the Kings flame out yet again, teams will be calling up and dangling first-round picks even more frequently.
The Boston Celtics would likely be the first team to pounce if Cousins became available. They have a long list of attractive picks and could construct the perfect rebuilding package of future draft picks if Sacramento ultimately admits defeat and deals Cousins. They've already been rumored to have put out feelers for him, and will continue to monitor the situation, per ESPN's Marc Stein.
So far Cousins' future trade status has mostly been speculation created by teams interested in his services and not the player himself. But the Kings are at his mercy, and they have to act quickly to keep him happy.
All salary information is courtesy of HoopsHype.com.
You can follow me on Twitter: @VytisLasaitis
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