There are only three players in the league I'd trade dame for and cousins isn't one of them.
Lebron
Anthony Davis (I'd actually think twice about this one)
Curry
My list:
LeBron
Steph
Kawhi
I'd only do it for a proven winner, and preferably a great 2-way player. No rookies, no one with an injury history and no one who has never played on a winning team or a single NBA playoff game.
I mean seriously, Boogie has had, at times, a better supporting cast in SAC than Dame had last year. We made it to the second round while that petulant man child won a career "best" 33 games. Seriously, if that guy is so fucking dominant, why has his team won 24, 22, 28, 28, 29 and 33 games in his first six seasons? In his first four seasons, Lillard led his team to the second round twice. In his first six seasons, Cousins had led his team to the lottery six times.
Aha... light bulb goes on. Whoever asked that question is one of those ridiculous ass hats that thinks tanking is a good way to build a team and Boogie is the ultimate tankquisition. He's 6 for 6 in leading his team to the lottery, and well on his way to being 7 for 7.
And, you see, that's why tanking is stupid. Ask SAC how well it's worked for them. I know people drool over all of MIN's young talent, but they've been in the lottery 13 years in a row and all that young talent is sitting at 9-19. By the time that young talent actually figures out how to win (if ever) they will bolt for greener pastures and leave MIN with nothing to show, but more future lottery picks after 15, or more, years of futility.
Yeah, good plan. Let's suck for 15 years and hope it magically gets better in year 16.
And don't play the Duncan or LeBron card. That's twice in the last two decades, and there ain't no Tim Duncan or LeBron James in the 2017 draft, and even if there were, it wouldn't guarantee one god damn thing. SAS was a 60 win team two years before they drafted Duncan. David Robinson got hurt, sat out one season and they added the greatest power forward to ever play the game to a 60 win team.
It took CLE multiple years of sucking to get LeBron. They were in the lottery 5 years in a row before getting LeBron and two more after getting him. And it still took him going to MIA for four years, so CLE could get four more high lottery picks, including THE top pick 3 of those 4 years, AND LeBron coming back to CLE before they finally won the big one.
That's 11 combined years of suckage and lucking into one of the top 5 players in the history of the world TWICE before they finally won it all.
There is no Duncan and there is no LeBron walking through that door. I don't want to become the next MIN, or the next SAC.
So yeah, no fucking way do I, as a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers, for one nanosecond consider trading Damian Lillard for DeMarcus Cousins.
BNM