The trade deadline has come and went. With the constant buzzing of general managers, coaches, players, analysts and sports writers on the who, what, why, and where of the league it can be quite difficult to separate the rumors that offer some real insight and the ones that are, well, just rumors. That being said, every once in a while a trade comes around that is not completely inflated and over covered by media, but is none the less massively impacting on the status of the league. One such trade occurred this past Sunday, and boy was it a huge one.
DeMarcus Cousins is a New Orleans Pelican, and I would hazard to guess not many people outside of the Kings and Pelicans front offices saw it coming. That goes for DeMarcus himself, as you can see in this interview when he is sitting down to talk about the All-Star game and is informed by his agent. For Cousins it seems emotions are quite mixed (though that may not be surprising coming from a famously emotional player) as he is sad to leave Sacramento but holds a positive outlook on what the future may hold for him in New Orleans.
Fans of the Pelicans should be ecstatic, and any one that isn’t a Kings fan should at least be intrigued, because the possibilities of having DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis playing side by side on the same floor are staggering. We are talking arguably the two best big men in the modern NBA throwing each other lobs and setting each other screens. At the very least it will produce some great highlight plays, and if the best case scenario unfolds and they mesh together well we could be seeing New Orleans escaping the mire of mediocrity they have been stuck in for so long. With the right amount of luck they could push forward from their current 11th place in the western conference and make it in the playoffs as an 8th seed to challenge the Warriors. You could also argue the very fact that Davis and Cousin’s style of play are too similar and may lead to too much ball stopping and clashes of ego. It all remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure; the second half of the season just got a whole lot more intriguing.
For those interested, below is the entire press conference after DeMarcus was traded, featuring Boogie himself, his fellow traded King Omri Casspi, the New Orleans GM Dell Demps and New Orleans head coach Alvin Gentry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAhNN_KlIPE&t=822s
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