It’s always good when the expectations and goals of an NBA franchise and its best player align.
Too bad that’s not happening for the Sacramento Kings and DeMarcus Cousins.
The Kings are preaching patience and process. They hired a new coach in Dave Joerger. The offense is going to be different. The defense is going to be different. They don’t have a ton of talent at point guard. Though they always seem to be scheming ways to avoid a rebuild, and while this year technically isn’t any different, they don’t appear to be lusting after a playoff berth with as much force or fervor as Cousins.
Per James Ham of CSNBayArea.com:
A season without expectations. That is what everyone, from Dave Joerger to Vlade Divac, has said entering the 2016-17 Sacramento Kings season. But on the eve of opening night, DeMarcus Cousins wants no part of that.
“I have one goal, that’s playoffs,” Cousins told media members on Tuesday before the team boarded a plane for Phoenix. “That’s success for me right now.”
Can you really blame Cousins for deviating from the Kings’ party expectations? This is his seventh year in the NBA and the Kings have yet to win even 35 games since his arrival. Of course he wants this playoff drought to end.
It’s not going to, quite obviously. The Kings don’t figure to be very good. Cousins is a superstar and Willie Cauley-Stein is a prospect to monitor, but the team has too many frontcourt bodies and not enough playmakers or two-way contributors. Sacramento, to be blunt, will be lucky to crack the elusive 35-win mark.
None of which would bode well for Cousins’ future with the Kings. He will be a free agent in 2018 and it’s entirely possible, if likely, he won’t have made a postseason appearance by then. This assumes the marriage between him and the Kings makes it that far. If Sacramento stumbles out of the gate, as we expect, and falls out of the legitimate playoff race early, as we also expect, Cousins’ name will undoubtedly crop up in trade rumors yet again.
