DeMarcus Cousins and the Sacramento Kings are, following the dismissal of head coach George Karl, finally on the same page.
Whatever that means.
Per Sean Cunningham of KXTV in Sacramento:
Cousins did not travel with the team for the final two games of the season in Phoenix and Houston earlier in the week. He stayed in Sacramento to speak with Kings’ general manager Vlade Divac about the future. Although, he said he didn’t take part in a formal exit interview, Cousins stated the future for the team is positive and he and Divac remain united.
We know what we’ve got to do moving forward – we know we’ve got a lot of building to do,” Cousins said. “We don’t have to talk about it, we’re on the same page.”
Personally, I’m overwhelmingly curious: What do the Kings actually need to do?
Start winning games, we know. But there is no clearly paved path for them to do that in the Western Conference. They will have some cap space to work with this summer, along with another top 10 pick. And Cousins is a legitimate superstar. But the roster is uneven—can Willie Cauley-Stein and DeMarcus Cousins actually play together—and Sacramento will have to pay Rajon Rondo a boatload of money if they want to keep him around.
It might be time to hit reset once again, wholly and swiftly, and try rebuilding this team from the ground up. Find takers for Kosta Koufos and Rudy Gay and Marco Belinelli. Don’t get tempted by mid-end free agents asking for gobs of cash. Assemble the team around Cousins, to better complement him, and find out what, if anything, can be gleaned from the WCS-DMC marriage.
The Kings won’t do that, of course. Cousins is in the sixth year of his career and will be a free agent in 2018. They don’t have the luxury of time.
Which, really, is a damn shame.
Because there is no obvious way for them to secure the quick turn around they’ve been chasing since Cousins first entered the league.
