DeMarcus Cousins is not perfect. Far from it. The enigma and star that is nicknamed Boogie, Cousins epitomizes the phrase “flawed genius”. He is an unstoppable force of equal amounts of power, skill, and emotion. You’ll have more fun watching him than almost anyone else in the league not named Durant, Curry, James or Westbrook. Special is a thrown around word, but Cousins is exactly that. The Sacramento Kings big is elite. He gets a lot of love and a lot of criticism, but this much is clear: he is the dominant big man in the NBA right now, and it’s not a contest.
The former Kentucky product has had his share of ups and downs in his six years in the league. He’s had clashes with fans, players, coaches, and referees, among others. He’s had his share of growing pains. Long the subject of trade rumors, Cousins’ name has even been floated around this year as to whether owner Vivek Ranadivé, general manager Vlade Divac and his front office team should consider finally trading their sometimes troubled franchise cornerstone.
Boston’s much talked about first-round pick was the main talking point of any Cousins deal, but in reality the chances of securing a haul worthy of trading the big man is simply not going to happen. The Kings could aim for a Carmelo Anthony type deal, which worked out superbly for Denver. Boston is the perfect team, with the likes of Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley and others all prime candidates to be makeweights in a deal. Divac and Ranadivé would be completely crazy to trade Cousins though. They’d need to win the lottery in NBA terms to even have a chance of finding someone as talented as the player they have now.
In years gone by, the NBA was rammed full of big men. Recent times have seen a dearth of talent, and the small ball revolution has marginalized a lot of power forwards’ and centers’ roles. Players with the skill and power of Cousins transcend such trends. Now that he can extend his range out to the three-point line (shooting 34 percent on 3.4 attempts per game this season) and it’s a skill he will only improve, his ceiling is sky high.
This season, the Kings’ cornerstone is averaging 27.0ppg, 11.3rpg, 2.8apg, 1.3spg and 1.4bpg, posting a career high in scoring. Though his field goal percentage has dropped to 44 percent (down from 47 percent last year), a natural effect of his three point rate (jumping from .008 to .166), he can get even more efficient. At age 25 he’s only going to get better. How many centers in the NBA can do this:
This is the ultimate Cousins experience. Gives great effort to stop Moore, LIVID with teammates, DESTROYS the Bulls. pic.twitter.com/aZoklmDksH
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) February 4, 2016
Or can run the floor like this:
How many bigs can do this? Handle like this? Move like this? Finish like this? There’s just so much Cousins can do. pic.twitter.com/PljD85YfAH
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) February 4, 2016
Then there’s just being completely dominant in the post with moves like this:
And then there’s this Cousins play, which is just INDESCRIBABLE AWESOMENESS . One of my favorite plays this year. pic.twitter.com/Lgtk0iLOhy
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) February 4, 2016
Wow. Nevertheless, Cousins is still frustratingly awesome. One of the biggest ways he can improve is with more focus on his defensive engagement and awareness. Cousins has been prone to switching off on possessions or staying too close to home on deep shooting big men, but this improvement should come with maturity and experience. A stable coaching situation and scheme would certainly help, something Cousins has barely had in his time in the league. George Karl’s situation in Northern California up until recently was tumultuous at best, but now seems to be stabilizing somewhat.
Cousins is also improving as a teammate and the way he can affect the game as a whole. Look at the progressive improvement in his on court rating per 100 possessions by season: -7.0, -4.7, -6.9, -1.5, +0.9, +2.8. Not only that, his on/off court rating has improved for the majority of his career also: -2.8, +3.5, -3.6, +3.9, +9.5, +10.8. The last two in particular stand out, and show his evolution as a total superstar. The Kings fall in a hole without him. They are 1-7 in the games he has missed this season. He stands 9th in ESPN’s Real Plus Minus, and is 12th defensively. Think on that, then think about his potential to improve.
DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t pretend to be perfect. In fact, he doesn’t pretend at all. But he is the greatest big man talent we’ve seen since Shaquille O’Neal, with the potential to be just as dominant inside if he reaches his ceiling as a player. He might be stuck out in Sacramento and out of the picture somewhat, but everyone should sit up and start taking notice. The scary part of it all? Boogie’s best is yet to come.
