For someone who is under contract until the summer of 2018, Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins sure has to deal with a lot of speculation about his future. There was a report in early May that the Boston Celtics would try to make a trade for him, and now Kings vice president Vlade Divac is having to publicly declare him "untradeable." This, of course, is because Sacramento head coach George Karl said at the end of the season that he'd never coached an untradeable player.
"Well I think coach [Karl] kind of stepped it up further than he should," Divac said on SiriusXM NBA Radio. "Of course, everybody has their opinion, but right now, if we're talking about today, yeah, DeMarcus is untradeable. He's a guy who we're going to try to build around and see where he's going to take us."
It's not as if everybody thinks the Kings are trying to move Cousins. He's their franchise player, and a report surfaced shortly after the Celtics rumor that they wanted to make a playoff run with him next season. It would be nonsensical to trade someone as talented as him rather than trying to surround him with better complementary players. This is a situation to monitor, though, as Cousins has endured five losing seasons -- and five different head coaches -- since Sacramento drafted him.
From the Kings' perspective, Divac is saying the right thing. He's the man in charge of the front office now, and Cousins is by far the most important player on the roster. Karl wasn't wrong to assert that, technically, anyone can be traded, but Sacramento fans don't even want to think about having to move him.
(HT: PBT)
