NBA Power Rankings: All 30 Starting Centers
By Shane Young
3. DeMarcus Cousins — Sacramento Kings
John Wall, Evan Turner, Derrick Favors, and Wesley Johnson.
There’s your four 2010 Draft selections that went ahead of Boogie Cousins, and you could easily point out that all four aren’t going to be as phenomenal as Sacramento’s star. Well, I assume the Kings have two stars by our definition, but Rudy Gay doesn’t have the “sky is the limit” ceiling.
Cousins just turned 24 years old, and already has posted a season in which his PER reached 26.18 before the Kings’ season ended without a playoff berth.
One of the only knocks on Cousins’ game is that he hasn’t put together a season where he has shot 50 percent or better from the field, which is always something you feel that you must have from your star post player. Just take a glance at the players around him in the list, and they’ve all registered 50 percent or greater seasons in 2013-14. Except Noah, who we already established can’t be trusted to make something happen for himself.
Will the attitude change for Cousins as he continues to mature out of the troublemaker reputation he built in his first few seasons? He vows that he doesn’t have a problem with anyone until you begin to mess with him, so I’m not digging too deep in criticizing his basketball ability for it. It’s not like he’s actively getting suspended for his actions, and he doesn’t even get as many technicals as some of the older generational players.
As he told Bill Simmons earlier this offseason, his primary goal is to win for the team, and he does everything — anger involved — is for the passion he has for the game, and Sacramento. As tough as that is to believe, I’ve learned not to question Cousins. One of the few things I wish I could go back and retract is when I claimed he wouldn’t be a prominent scorer with the big boys, and that his game was just suited for college.
He’s proving an entire nation wrong, year by year.