Even now, with the New Orleans Pelicans headed for the lottery, the DeMarcus Cousins trade remains a good one for Louisiana’s finest. If you can get Cousins for what will be a mid-end first, Buddy Hield and filler, you do it.
Contrary to popular belief, and initial reactions, the move was not a no-brainer, though. The package itself is one you give up without hesitation. But the Pelicans traded for Cousins when he was months away from being eligible to sign a five-year $200-plus million with the Sacramento Kings (assuming they still planned to offer it). He is no longer able to sign that Designated Player Exception deal, since you have to be with the team that drafted you or have been moved while still on your rookie-scale deal.
With Cousins slated for free agency after the 2017-18, the Pelicans made a calculated risk, gambling on the ability to sell the prized big man on a future in New Orleans that, while lucrative, doesn’t hold the raw earning potential it did in Sacramento.
The jury is still out on whether the Pelicans will succeed. If they don’t, though, it won’t be because Cousins harbors resentment for the timing of his trade. He told The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears as much:
It was never about the money. I don’t play this game for money. Anyone that knows me knows that I don’t play for the money. I had money before. I’m perfectly fine. To say it doesn’t help me would be a lie. Of course I want it. It wasn’t about the money. It never was.
I wanted my legacy to end in Sacramento. I invested so much time and energy. Everything I had, my whole heart was into that city. Just for it to end the way it did, that was the part that was f—-. But it was never about the money. I don’t give a s— about the money.
To say he doesn’t give a shit about money has to be a stretch. At the same time, we’re talking about so much money, it really may not matter. Cousins has already made, including this season, more than $61 million in NBA salary before taxes. He’ll be closer to $80 million by the end of next season. The $180 millionish deal the Pelicans can still offer will set him up for life. And the difference will be much less than $30 or $40 million when you factor in that Louisiana’s state income tax is substantially lower than California’s rate.
So, again, if Cousins leaves the Pelicans in 2018, it won’t be about money. To the contrary, he’ll earn even less by bolting for another squad that doesn’t own his Bird rights. But should that happen, it doesn’t sound like it’ll have anything to do with him being bitter about how New Orleans came to employ him in the first place.
