Worst trade ever: looking for positives in the Kings' DeMarcus Cousins debacle

The Sacramento Kings have completed a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad trade. A trade that, by large consensus, is being called one of the worst in NBA history. A trade so bad that the artificial intelligence in NBA 2K17 won’t allow it to go through. A trade so terrible that in his press conference discussing the deal, Kings general manager Vlade Divac took on the hopeless appearance of a man held against his will, saying he had a better offer two days ago.

For all of Divac’s many failings, a list of shortcomings which are dwarfed by those of team owner Vivek Ranadivé, we must assume he is telling the truth about a better offer because the one he accepted late Sunday night could not have been much worse: franchise centerpiece DeMarcus Cousins and Omri Casspi shipped to New Orleans in exchange for rookie guard Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway and the Pelicans’ first- and second-round picks in the 2017 draft. The Kings also released Matt Barnes in the wake of the deal to clear roster space, meaning they could be held liable for however he uses his newfound free time to terrorize Derek Fisher.

There has yet to be a defense mounted for the deal outside of the Kings organization itself – and the Pelicans are obviously quite pleased with the thievery they were able to pull off to cap All-Star weekend.

But here’s the thing: at least two people alive – Divac and Ranadivé – must at least be somewhat content with Sacramento’s return in the trade or they wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on a deal that sent away their 26-year-old star with a full season still remaining on his contract. Divac undoubtedly struggled to paint a silver lining on the turd of a deal yesterday, telling reporters: “I’m responsible for making decisions in the basketball operations and I did it. When you make a deal you want to get the most. Right now was the best time, and it was the best offer we had.” Yet no one held a gun to Divac’s head to make him send Cousins away for next to nothing. (At least we think no one did based on the information currently at hand.)

So even though the Kings have now firmly established themselves as the Cleveland Browns of the NBA, let’s try to give them the benefit of the doubt and divine what they see in this deal and how it could possibly even work out for them. In the interests of science, in the interests of fairness, let’s give the trade the defense that Divac could not.

Cousins is not a franchise centerpiece

Cousins is huge, entertaining, undeniably talented and productive. He’s averaged at least 22 points and 10 boards a game for four consecutive seasons with a career-high 27.8 points per game this season. He even has shown the ability to expand his game, adding a three-pointer to his arsenal since the start of last year. Yet none of it has paid off in wins. Sacramento’s best season since Cousins arrived with the fifth pick in the 2010 draft was last season’s 33-49 slog. He simply is not the kind of player who can single-handedly turn a team into a winner like a LeBron James or ... well, that’s the whole list: LeBron James.

Granted, it would have been nice to see what Cousins could do with some legitimate pieces around him. For example, if Sacramento hadn’t waived Hassan Whiteside after the 2012 season. Or how about not trading Isaiah Thomas before the 2014-15 season for Alex Oriakhi, who has never played in an NBA game while Thomas draws comparisons in Boston to the original Isiah Thomas. Cousins-Whiteside-Thomas would be one of the best trios in the Western Conference right now. But instead, Cousins was run out there with established mediocrities Rudy Gay and Darren Collison every night.

Wait a minute. This feels like another column dragging the Kings. This was supposed to present the positive side to trade. Apologies. Let’s get back to it: Cousins wasn’t turning the franchise around so the Kings felt it best to get whatever the could for him instead of posting 30-win seasons on into infinity. There we go. Back on track.

Hield might be the next Steph Curry

Oh, jeez. For the record: not my words. That is reportedly the opinion of Ranadivé:

But if the Kings think Hield has superstar potential, they must be pleased to get him. Before the 2016 draft, there were those who believed Hield’s highest of upsides was in the Curry neighborhood and Ranadivé undoubtedly is still in that camp. But he’s the only one still in that camp, tending to a dying fire with empty tents all around him, because the rest of us have seen Hield play 70% of an NBA season and moved on. The Oklahoma product comes to Sacramento with a 8.6 points per game average, 39% shooting percentage from the floor and 36% from three. Curry’s respective numbers as a rookie were: 17.5, 46 and 43. He was also a year younger in his first year than Hield is now. Hield’s shot of becoming the next Steph Curry realistically isn’t much better than Tyreke Evans’ chances of becoming the next Steph Curry.

Sacramento could land its franchise cornerstones in the 2017 draft

Even if Hield isn’t the next Steph or Dell or even Seth Curry, the Kings now will likely have two picks near the top of the 2017 draft. Their own pick currently is held by the Chicago Bulls from the Luol Deng trade three years ago, but that pick reverts to Sacramento if they finish among the 10 worst records in the NBA this year – a near certainty now that Cousins is gone. Plus, the Kings now have the Pelicans’ pick, which currently sits at No9. Best-case scenario is that Sacramento ends up with two top-10 picks in June. The team’s first-round draft history since Cousins – Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, Nik Stauskas, Willie Cauley-Stein, Marquesse Chriss – is the stuff of basketball nightmares and doesn’t portend much hope for this year. But maybe they hit on someone special, like they did with Thomas with the last pick of the entire draft in 2011.

The Kings have cap space for miles

Keeping Cousins long-term would have required a contract totaling $200m. With him off the books, Sacramento’s highest-paid players are Gay and Collison – and both of them are set to be free agents after next season. Evans is now the only other player on the roster making more than $10m a year, and his deal is up as soon as this Kings season mercifully ends. The Kings have all the money in the world to go after Blake Griffin this July or Kevin Durant and Chris Paul next summer.

Would any talented, big-name veterans want to attach themselves to this Kings franchise, tasked with pulling it out of the basement, especially in an era when stars like to play on “superteams” with other stars and go after titles? Almost definitely not. But if Hield becomes Curry and the Kings land two other stars in this year’s draft? If all that happens, who knows. Sacramento could maybe even then sign one of the crown jewels of the 2018 free-agent class: a talented big man named DeMarcus Cousins.