Cousins is an asshole. A talented, possibly misunderstood asshole, but an asshole none-the-less. He will only play his best for a coach he trusts. He undermines the authority of his coaches and kills the morale of his teammates. He is supremely talented, but takes off 6 - 7 percent of his teams' possessions, often at critical times, either by pouting, arguing with the refs or otherwise acting out. By being absent on these critical plays, he kills his team's chances of winning and also looses the support of his teammates. None of his teammates, not now, not ever, will stand up to him and hold him accountable. His teammates consider him a bully. His feuding with the refs isn't limited to on the court.
The specific anecdotes of him shouting down multiple coaches in team meetings and film sessions and shouting down Bennett Salvatore during the annual preseason points of emphasis meeting were most troubling. He has a complete lack of respect for authority and no accountability for his actions.
"Nobody calls him out," the former teammate says. "It's an ongoing thing. Nobody holds him accountable, and nobody ever has. Sometimes we looked around when he was going at it, and everyone was thinking, Who's going to stop this?"
Vivek Ranadive, in spite of owning only 20% of the team has authoritarian control over all basketball related decisions. He knows less than nothing about basketball.
About the Vlade Divac hire as General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations, "Nobody in that position has ever been less qualified, less capable or a nicer person," says one league insider. Very true, nice guy and loved from his days as a player in Sacramento, but completely incompetent as an NBA GM.
"the team has turned eight years of top-eight draft picks into Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins, Bismack Biyombo (traded in a deal that eventually netted Jimmer Fredette), Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, Nik Stauskas, Willie Cauley-Stein and Marquese Chriss (traded for picks that ultimately netted Georgios Papagiannis, Skal Labissiere and Bogdan Bogdanovic)."
The trade market for a player as talented as Cousins is practically non-existent:
"One general manager says he wakes up every day hoping one of his rivals trades for Cousins. Another says "No f---ing way" when asked whether he'd ever consider dealing for him."
They will most likely resign Cousins to a deal in the $200 million range and nothing in SAC will change. Incompetent management on the basketball side plus a petulant man child who can't get along with anyone has been a recipe for failure for the last seven years, why should the next five or six years be any different?
BNM
