Detailed NO/SAC Trade Analysis

 I honestly can see both side. Boogie was a problem child that finally got cut off. Sac must be thinking hey he’s not our problem anymore. 

This is put up or shut up time for Cousins. Which could be great or very bad. I’m of the opinion that both teams win. Sac needed to get rid of him. (Divac probably hoping he sabotages NO) 

the west being dominated by the warriors small ball…I do think this is how you counter it. Two bigs that can do everything. 

Sacramento loses this trade everytime because they got 50 cents on the dollar at best. I find it hard to believe they couldn’t have gotten a better deal than this. I’ve been saying they needed to trade him and blow it up so it’s good they finally did it, but it really felt like they rushed it.

New Orleans deserves no less than an A for this. Any team can get role players like Buddy and Tyreke, the hardest thing is to get stars. Now they have 2 established superstars and possibly the guys best at their position in the league. Yeah their backcourt is slim but they can fix that in the offseason or by maybe moving Terrence Jones; they’re not expecting to win a championship this year anyway so it’s definitely not something you can knock them for after the trade

Sacramento loses simply because they passed on so many much better offers, New Orleans wins because nobody thought anyone could get Cousins this cheap.

 Regardless of whether the Pelicans make the playoffs, this trades really sets them up for next year, they’ll have some salary space and will be a very appealing destinations for guards who want to try to win a championship. They’ve went from a team that was seemingly going nowhere to a team that might be very good very soon.

 Cleveland throws in TT and shumpert now that’s a deal

 The pairing of Davis and cousins could be awkward at first. Both are used to be the unquestioned focal point and having the offense run through them. They are both extremely talented and should figure things out but it might not happen overnight.   If Davis doesn’t have quite as much burden on offense, maybe he can focus more of his attention on the defensive end of the floor and really become the defensive force he was projected to be coming out of college but has only really shown glimpses so far in the NBA.

 Hopefully, boogie’s attitude will improve if he sees he has the chance to be part of a winning environment and potentially something special. I can already see the potential for distractions with him in New Orleans and how that could be a cause for concern. We’ll just have to see how this plays out. This is still an excellent deal for new Orleans I think. It signals that they are serious about contending now and will aren’t afraid to shake things up to do it. Players of cousins caliber just aren’t available very often and it seems likely that they could be in position to acquire another big name player in free agency in the future.

People are bashing Sacramento for this deal, but I think that they had to trade cousins and the longer they waited the less they would have been likely to get in return. It wouldn’t make sense to max cousins out. They are not going anywhere with him and it would be impossible to really rebuild with him on the roster. Now they can move on from the cousins era and really focus on building the roster. You can argue about whether the timing was right or they could have gotten more in return, but I really don’t think you could argue that trading cousins wasn’t the logical decision. Ultimately, this trade will be judged in time by the unknown pick and how good of a player hield becomes. 

You have to remember that a lot of times trades aren’t necessarily to help the team at the present time but more so in the future. While it looks on paper like the pelicans fleeced Sacramento in this deal, you probably won’t actually be able to judge it for at least five years. People hammered the grizzlies for trading gasol for pennies on the dollar in 2008, but in retrospect it actually turned out to be an excellent deal for them and helped lay the groundwork for the sustained period of success they have had over the past 6-7 seasons.

We don’t know what other deals were on the table, if Boston had wanted to do something then they would have done so as far back as last summer I reckon when they had 3rd pick. Toronto too had picks available and would probably have moved by now if they had wanted to.

It seemed as if the deal was almost rushed, unless NOP said it was only on the table for a certain amount of time. I’d have thought Sac-Town might have waited to see if any of the big money franchises had joined the bidding war.

Also I’d have wanted less protection on this year’s pick and another possible future first rounder too.

 Sixers are huge winners of this trade because the right to swap picks is Philly and with Cousins gone and Gay hurt the Kings are gonna plummet.  

 If the Kings  win the lottery the Sixers can and would elect to switch picks.  

Plus the Sixers own the Kings 2019 first round pick unprotected. 

So Sam Hinkie won this trade

New Orleans has more or less been set up to get Davis numbers, and while it has given them a headline "STAR!" it hasn’t given them wins. For seven years, we have seen Cousins show himself to be a dominant offensive big man with possibly the best skill set of all the young centers in the game, but he regularly loses games by being a pouty head case who has minimal attention to detail and sporadic interest in helping his team get stops. By virtue of them coming together, the numbers and opportunities for both are going to drop. Statisically speaking, Terrence Jones has been really productive when starting, and they seemed to give that an extended run over the past month. I wonder if New Orleans can get someone to buy into that 17-7 as a starter and find a taker before the deadline. Here is what will be interesting, you are putting two stat monsters who never won anything together with a healthy Jrue Holiday factoring in as well. For this season, with minimal practice opportunities to figure one another out, how much better offensively are they going to be with Davis, Holiday, Cousins, Moore (figuring to get more minutes now), and the wing pu pu platter than they were lately with Davis, Jones (15 PPG on 49 % from the field and 1.6 offensive rebounds per over the past month), the myriad of 2s and 3s, and a healthy Holiday who was statisically playing about as well as ever (they are 21-21 with him)? I don’t know if it is enough to move the needle much beyond the .500 team they have been since Holiday came back and they settled on a rotation.

As for the Kings, it was seven years. It never worked. Five coaches were fired. Two GMs were fired. It is ok to decide to change it up. As talented as Cousins is, he wasn’t going to take them to a title. Committing another half decade to a project that has accomplished nothing to date would not have made sense.

 Nice analysis but the Kings will keep the pick even if Philly falls out of top 10, Philly can just swap