No wonder DeMarcus Cousins isn’t member of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Sacramento Kings were asking for too much.
That’s not the vibe you get from the package they ultimately accepted from the New Orleans Pelicans—Buddy Hield, a top-three protected first-round in this year’s draft, the Philadelphia 76ers’ second-round pick, Langston Galloway and Tyreke Evans. But it’s apparently true.
During an appearance on The Lowe Post podcast, ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne revealed the Kings wanted both Brandon Ingram and D’Angelo Russell back in any Cousins trade. Here’s the dialogue between her and Zach Lowe, courtesy of Silver Screen & Roll’s Anthony Irwin:
Shelburne: (The trade) was supposed to be Ingram and D’Angelo. That was what the Kings wanted.
Lowe: Do you think when push comes to shove, the Lakers do that?
Shelburne: No. Actually, I think Jim would’ve. At that moment, I heard he was very in favor of doing the trade for Cousins. (Cousins) is a great player and the Lakers feel like they need a great player and every organization at some level has to have that confidence to say well it didn’t work over there but we can make it work here.
The Lakers ultimately made the right call. You don’t give up your two most important prospects for a star who’s one year away from free agency when you are rebuilding. There’s no guarantee he would have attracted other stars via free agency, and you have too much talent in the frontcourt already to justify pillaging through only your perimeter assets.
Maybe the Paul George-to-Lakers scenario would be even stronger now if this trade goes down. But 2018 is too far away, and as Los Angeles has already learned, you can’t bank on those pipe dreams becoming a reality.
If Jim Buss was truly committed to pulling the trigger, hats off to Mitch Kupchak for talking him off the ledge. It didn’t save either of their jobs, but such an extensive consolidation would have complicated the Lakers’ future in ways it didn’t need to be.
And, by the way, if you need evidence as to how high Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is on Hield, look no further than the gigantic difference between what the Lakers would have needed to give up and what the Pelicans actually did.
