Part of the reason the Sacramento Kings received an underwhelming haul from the New Orleans Pelicans for DeMarcus Cousins was, apparently, owner Vivek Ranadive's belief in guard Buddy Hield.
"Vivek thinks Buddy [Hield] has Steph Curry potential," a source told Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com.
Holmes reported the Kings have a "fixation" on Hield, who was the No. 6 overall pick in last June's NBA draft.
This is why the Kings are a dumpster fire.
The Kings spent the last two years mortgaging their future to build around Cousins, to then turn around and trade Cousins for 50 cents on a dollar. Now they want to rebuild, but all of their assets are gone.
They traded Stauskas, the right to swap picks with Philly in 2017 and their 2019 pick so they could open up cap room to pay Rondo, Kosta Koufus and Marco Bellinelli. Insane.
"Vivek thinks Buddy [Hield] has Steph Curry potential," a source told Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com.
Holmes reported the Kings have a "fixation" on Hield, who was the No. 6 overall pick in last June's NBA draft.
This is why the Kings are a dumpster fire.
The Kings spent the last two years mortgaging their future to build around Cousins, to then turn around and trade Cousins for 50 cents on a dollar. Now they want to rebuild, but all of their assets are gone.
They traded Stauskas, the right to swap picks with Philly in 2017 and their 2019 pick so they could open up cap room to pay Rondo, Kosta Koufus and Marco Bellinelli. Insane.
Interesting that Rondo's name came up. I classify him similar to Cousins despite them being totally different players and playing opposite ends of the position spectrum. The last decade every time Rondo got traded everyone here at the RX would talk about what a great trade the team getting him made and how unselfish he is and how is just what they needed. Every time I would come on here and say he won't help them and may even hurt his new team. That despite Rondo getting lots of assists he is not unselfish at all, he dominates the ball and can't shoot hence the great assist numbers.
In addition Rondo looks silky smooth doing it, which makes him seem better then he is.
Cousins is very similar, dominates the ball as much as a big man can. He doesn't play off of the ball very well at all. He looks super smooth a flashy for a big man, which makes him seem way better then he actually is. He also compiled lots of big numbers on bad teams. Time will tell, I'm just telling you the Pelicans didn't get a superstar like a few players in this thread seem to think, I don't care if he was averaging 32pts and 14 rebs for Sacremento, he is not a superstar and never will be.
Best case scenario is he becomes what former hot head of the league Rasheed Wallace became. Sheed was all everything in high school and college. He just didn't have what it takes to be a NBA superstar. Eventually he went to the Pistons, decided to become a great defensive player and not play nearly as big a role on offense. He was still an excellent post player and good 3pt shooter, he played great "D" and became an excellent role player on a championship team!
BTW. Stauskas is absolute garbage and a backup at best in the NBA, this is coming from a Sixers fan.
Cousins doesn't have to hit your best case scenario for this trade to be a heist. I don't disagree that he's a bad teammate who is prone to sulking, emotional outbursts, selfishness and non-existent defense. The issue isn't what his actually ceiling is. The issue is that the Kings got horrible value and botched this situation in every way possible.
By the way Buddy Hield is basically Nik Stauskas.
The 76ers are an unintended beneficiary of the Kings' trade of DeMarcus Cousins. They can swap first-round picks with the Kings as the result of a 2015 trade. The 76ers are currently 2 1/2 games behind the Kings in the standings. The 76ers also own the Lakers' first-round pick, though it is protected if it is in the top three.
