Hey. Hi. Hello. How are you all? Good to hear. Take care.
Oh, and real quick: Sacramento Kings general manager would like you to know he isn’t trading DeMarcus Cousins.
Per ESPN.com’s Marc Stein:
Story going online now: Kings GM Vlade Divac, weary of recent DeMarcus Cousins trade speculation, tells @espn: "We're not trading DeMarcus."
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 7, 2017
Sources say Divac recently met with Cousins and his reps to assure them the All-Star C is going nowhere as the Feb. 23 trade deadline nears.
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) February 7, 2017
This runs counter to the belief that the Kings have yet to figure out whether Cousins is a part of their long-term outlook. Sort of.
Even if the Kings aren’t sure if they want to keep Cousins around, there’s no point rushing toward a trade now, when they only have a couple weeks to hash it out and the pool of suitors is a tad smaller because most won’t have as much flexibility at midseason as they will over the summer.
The Designated Player Exception in the new collective bargaining agreement safeguards the Kings against making a hasty decision, assuming they still aren’t entirely sold on Cousins as their foremost building block. They can offer him an extension worth more than $200 million over the offseason, a deal the big man is beyond unlikely to turn down.
Cousins will be locked up for the next six years at that point, in which case the Kings can slow-play their next move. If, for some reason, it becomes clear they can’t use him as their cornerstone, then they can trade him for an even better return, since his new digs won’t be able to play the flight-risk card at the bargaining table.
So let any Cousins-related rumors go by without phasing you. Sacramento may eventually move him, but it won’t be before next season.
