Three reasons the DeMarcus Cousins-Anthony Davis pairing won’t work in New Orleans

The New Orleans Pelicans’ decision to pair Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins together is exciting, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to work.

With the wider NBA community having waited on a DeMarcus Cousins trade for so long, there was certainly no lack of drama and intrigue surrounding the deal that ultimately led to the 26-year-old being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.

First reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, with ESPN’s Marc Stein and Mike Scotto of the Associated Press adding further detail, the Sacramento Kings are said to have traded Cousins and Omri Casspi to the Pelicans in exchange for Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, and 2017 first and second round picks.

Having previously been reported by Chris Mannix that the Kings were not looking for equal value in exchange for Cousins’ services, for as puzzling as the deal is from a Sacramento perspective, it wasn’t all that surprising either.

For the Pelicans on the other hand, the deal is a no-brainer. Picking up a player who has made All-NBA teams in the last two seasons in exchange for pieces that don’t seem likely to be central to the franchise’s future is good business. It can be termed as a gamble worth taking for the Pelicans, but does that mean it’s likely to work in a basketball sense? The answer could be no.

3. Roster imbalance

Although the idea of pairing two players with valid claims to be among the 15-20 best players in the NBA always sounds like a great idea in theory, there needs to be some consideration of positional needs in order for that to make sense.

In spite of the duo’s exceptional skill, Cousins and Davis both still require teammates to help them when it comes to creating. Unfortunately for the Pelicans, that is a department where their options are now more threadbare than ever.

In moving Evans, Galloway, and even Hield to some extent, the Pelicans more than halved their ball-handling options. Jrue Holiday is a good point guard, but with a lengthy history of injuries there’s a real risk in New Orleans now having to rely on him to drive their dynamic frontcourt duo forward.

Holiday is in the middle of his best season since his sole All-Star appearance as a 76er back in 2013. The 26-year-old is averaging 16.3 points and 7.5 assists per game on the season to date, while tracking for career-best shooting marks at 46.8 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from behind the 3-point line.

If Holiday can stay healthy and maintain that standard of play, the Pelicans may be able to make it work, but both of those are currently significant question marks. The addition of Cousins could theoretically be argued as making things easier for Holiday by adding an extra target, but in reality he may find himself trying to thread the needle to find one of two guys who will want the ball in similar spots.

If injuries were to resurface as a factor for Holiday, the only real playmaking option for the Pelicans becomes Tim Frazier. Although Frazier has proven solid in a backup role in the past few months, again the responsibility now being placed on his shoulders could easily lead to problems.