Why do fools fall in love (with uncoachable big men)?

The well know definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.  By this definition, the Sacrament Kings are the crazy team in professional sports.

According to sources at ESPN, the Kings plan to re-sign center Demarcus Cousins for $219 million. The contract would extend through 2023.  Apparently, the Kings have gone so long without making the playoffs, that they’ve decided that’s where they are comfortable.

The Kings will never make the playoffs with Boogie Cousins.  How do I know this?  Because they never have.  Cousins has been arguably the best “big man” in pro basketball since he joined the Kings in 2010, but in six seasons the Kings haven’t come close to making the playoffs.  Consider: in 2016 the Kings had two players on the US Olympic team before the 12-man roster cut, Cousins and Rudy Gay, plus they had a future Hall of Fame coach in George Karl.  Despite that, they still finished 8 games out of 8^th place in the Western Conference.

Cousins’ problems are well known.  He’s been hit with over 100 technical fouls in six and a half seasons.  He pretty much chased Karl out of town; he wasn’t the first, Paul Westphal also left after a tumultuous season in 2011-12 during which he sent Cousins home after a home loss.  The next year Cousins was suspended by the league for two games for threatening a San Antonio color commentator; he was later suspended indefinitely (for two games) by the team.  He was suspended one game in 2013-14 for punching a member of the Detroit Pistons.  In 2016 he got into an altercation with a reporter from the Sacramento Bee.

The Kings have had horrible luck in the draft, getting poor lottery choices in years where quality players were available.  Cousins is easily their greatest property.  But he has been there six years with getting close to the playoffs.  He of course is not entirely responsible; the Kings management has been beyond incompetent during his tenure with the team.  But still, a team with an all-star, Olympic Gold Medal winner should at least compete for a playoff spot, even if his supporting cast isn’t that good, and Cousins has had some quality support like Rudy Gay and great coaches like George Karl.

Why Cousins would want to sign with the Kings is obvious—under the NBA collective bargaining agreement he can make $80 million more by staying put.  He also does seem to like playing in Sacramento, but how much of that is avoiding the pressure that would come with playing with a larger market team with legitimate playoff aspirations? 

But why would the Kings want Cousins?  He might help fill their brand-new arena, but brand new arenas are more of a draw than a center on a losing team.  They’ve tried to win with Cousins for six seasons and have failed; it may be time to marshal their resources differently.

But then the question becomes, how much can the Kings get if they trade and short-term player with a history of attitude problems?  If anyone had made the Kings a good offer for Boogie Cousins, they would have taken it.  If Cousins has decided to split, teams know they just need to wait until he becomes a free agent.  So maybe the only alternatives are re-signing or losing him to free agency.

It would be interesting to see if a functional organization could do a better job of coaching Boogie Cousins than the Kings have done.  But the way things work, he’ll probably end up going to another dysfunctional team, like the Knicks.