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Superstars are hard to find and need to be retained.
The Sacramento Kings could learn this the hard way, as DeMarcus Cousins trade rumors have started to intensify. Recent reports have speculated that Cousins could be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for the second pick in the draft and Julius Randle or to the Boston Celtics in exchange for several of the Celtics’ collection of draft picks. While both packages are enticing to some degree, trading Cousins shouldn’t even be considered by the Kings’ decision makers.
For starters, neither package comes all that close to approximating Cousins’ value. He’s one of the top big men on both ends of the floor when engaged, and the second best center in the league behind Marc Gasol. Offensively is where he shines the brightest, and he’s perhaps the most complete low post player in the entire NBA; he has the strength to get whatever he wants when single covered and the vision and passing ability to find the open man out of a double. He draws fouls at an incredible rate, and he’s a terrific free-throw shooter for a big. While he does struggle with turnovers at times, there’s no debate that his post game is a valuable crutch for a team to generate points.
Consider the recent history for trades of players of Cousins’ caliber. James Harden, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett, Carmelo Anthony, Ray Allen and Shaquille O’Neal all recouped significantly less than they were worth at the time, and the only trades that arguably worked out for the team trading away the superstar were Deron Williams and Dwight Howard, with the jury still out on the Kevin Love trade, and even then, neither trade produced an All-Star and neither the Jazz or the Magic have been back to the playoffs since trading their respective superstars.
To top it all off, Cousins is currently just 24 years old, younger than all of these other stars at the time they were traded. He has the prime years of his career ahead of him, and if there’s one cardinal rule above “don’t trade away a superstar,” it’s “don’t trade away a young superstar.” There are lots of problems with the Kings, both on the court and off, but DeMarcus Cousins isn’t one of them.
