Three reasons the Kings are better off without DeMarcus Cousins
By David Rouben
2. They don’t have to worry about a contract extension
DeMarcus Cousins is ecstatic that he’s no longer a part of the Kings. But the Kings front office should be too now that they’ve gotten rid of their biggest distraction.
While a report earlier this season stated that Cousins was committed to signing a max deal with the Kings, front office was probably hesitant to tie their future down to one player, especially someone with such a combative history towards the organization. They can instead go into the offseason and use the money they intended to put towards Boogie on pending free agents.
It’s easy to think the Kings will mishandle this newfound money. And even if they don’t, it’ll hard to be replace someone of Boogie’s caliber. But this trade wasn’t made with the present in mind. This is the beginning of a teardown, and the Kings would probably rather collect young pieces and build a new core instead of go nowhere with a superstar.
They can also build through this year’s deep draft class. Obviously, there’s the issue that the pick they received from New Orleans is lottery protected. But as Woj detailed, this trade also increases the likelihood that they’ll keep the top-10 protected pick they sent to Chicago. Good for Woj for always looking on the bright side of things.
What direction the Kings are going in is still unclear. We probably won’t know until the offseason, but they can now go into it without having to address the elephant in the room.