If you had to take one center to build your team from scratch with, who would it be? Maybe you’d take an offensively skilled big man like Al Jefferson down in Charlotte. Or perhaps you’d take the Houston Rockets defensive monster, Dwight Howard. Joakim Noah? Marc Gasol? Well I’m about to show you why the choice should be obvious; it’s DeMarcus ‘Boogie’ Cousins.
For the sake of the simplicity, I took the time to run Cousins’ numbers against all four other centers as a group, and the results would probably surprise most. I also adjusted the stats to be on a per 36 minute basis to level the playing field for every player involved. So, let’s begin.
On a per 36 minute basis among the five, for offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, total rebounds, steals, blocks, points, field goal percentage and free throw percentage, Cousins never fell out of 3rd place and was 1st in four of the eight categories, which is something the other four centers can’t say. Oh yeah, and he’s the youngest by at least 5 years. If those numbers don’t scream “NBA’s best all-around center of today and tomorrow”, then let’s get into my favorite part: advanced statistics.
Cousins was the best at shooting the ball percentage-wise in the 16-24 foot range (with at least 100 attempts, to exclude Dwight’s meager three attempts) at 43.2%. When it comes to snagging rebounds, he led the group in rebound percentage, grabbing 20.8% of all available rebounds while he was on the court. While he finished only 3rd in assist percentage at 17.5% (still just 0.5% behind Marc Gasol), I believe as he matures and the Sacramento Kings roster improves, his turnovers will go down and his assists will go up. Each of Cousins’ numbers mentioned was a career high, and he’s only going to get better from here-on-out. And as I stated early, he’s the youngest of the group…which brings me to my next topic.
Cousins’ supposed “attitude problems” and “immaturity” seem to ruffle the feathers of league GMs and NBA fans alike. I think anyone that believes this nonsense needs to actually sit down and watch multiple entire Sacramento Kings games, because they clearly don’t know the pure passion that goes into Boogie’s play, even dating back to his days at Kentucky. When asked on the YouTube channel Grantland, in an interview by Bill Simmons, “What is the biggest thing people do not understand about you?” Cousins said it best: “My emotion on the court. They take it as me being a ticking time bomb or something like that. My main goal every night is to win the game.”
With all that being said, do you believe DeMarcus Cousins was the only of the five (besides Marc Gasol, who unfortunately had a shortened season due to injury) who deserved to be snubbed from all of the All-NBA and All-NBA Defensive teams? And keep this in mind: DeMarcus Cousins finished ahead of reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Joakim Noah, in defensive rebounding and steals & blocks combined. Admittedly, Cousins did have a worse defensive rating. But was that a product of him or his 8th overall worst defensive Sacramento Kings? And was Noah’s higher defensive rating a product of him or his 2nd overall best defensive Chicago Bulls? The numbers are all there; you decide.
Stay tuned to LWOS as we continue to bring you the latest from around the NBA.
For more on sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
Thank you for reading. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld and “liking” our Facebook page.
