Sacramento Kings: Cousins Once Again Seeks Gold

The interim between NBA seasons, though it continues to shrink, always carries the post-champagne headache that fans know is coming. For millions of enthusiasts, the lull begins early, with their team’s playoff hopes dashed in March, February, or even earlier. While the rest of us are left to feign an interest in pre-season football (and its garbage-barge news cycle) or the writhing sun-drenched slug that is regular season baseball, the league’s top players almost always have something to which they can look forward.

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DeMarcus Cousins has needed that something more than most, given his tumultuous 2014-2015 season caught the Sacramento Kings’ crossfire. Prior to all the team’s human resource Boggle and its subsequent decline, the All-Star center brought home the gold in the 2014 FIBA World Cup, giving him some positive momentum heading into that year’s NBA campaign. As has been well documented, that momentum did not stave off things out of Cousins’ control.

Having emerged from the recent gloom that surrounded his relationship with Kings head coach George Karl, Cousins seems once more to be eyeing a gleaming prize on the world stage to counter his struggles at home.

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During his 2014 gold rush, Cousins used his explosive and varied skill set to crank tight the vice of an expected American victory. Finally, surrounded by elite players on his level, he could showcase himself as a working part of a larger mechanism, rather than an unmounted engine sitting patiently on the assembly line. He was the lightning quick security measure for a team where little was left unsecured. His ten rebounds in the gold medal game against Serbia came in just seventeen minutes of play, as did his thirteen points.

Having used Team USA’s international platform to remind the basketball world of his skill, Cousins once again finds himself in the hunt for a major prize while team success in Sacramento cruelly eludes him.

The rotation of coaches that have come through Sacramento since Cousins’ 2010 debut (Paul Westphal, Keith Smart, Mike Malone, Tyrone Corbin, and now Karl) have given him exposure to a number of personalities, but none has been linked to triumph as much as his time with Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski has praised Cousins’ distinctive presence on the court, and has shown a genuine interest in making the most of it. As he noted during the 2014 FIBA run, the legendary Duke coach saw a drive and markedly positive attitude in Cousins that George Karl likely wishes he saw during the end of the Kings’ 2014-2015 season.

When one considers Cousins’ surroundings on Team USA or in Sacramento, it’s easy to understand how that mindset can be on a dimmer switch. Surrounded by Kyrie Irving, Kenneth Faried, and Klay Thompson, Cousins’ strengths can be used not only to shore up defensive boards, but to facilitate high-intensity offensive plays for amply-talented peers. Beyond that, spending time backing up Anthony Davis not only lends him time to learn a thing or two from the NBA’s other premier center, but to observe ways he can counter him during regular season games.

The Kings’ 2015-2016 schedule does not begin with a gentle thrum of the engines, but a bang as they face the Los Angeles Clippers twice in a four-night stretch. Shortly thereafter, they’ll have meetings with the Grizzlies, Rockets, Spurs, and Warriors to test the strength of their new infrastructure.

As the 2016 summer games in Rio de Janeiro loom on the horizon, Cousins appears to be ready to support his fellow countrymen in bringing home some precious metal. His team-leading 24 points in the August 13 Team USA Showcase make it look like he’s in as fine a form as ever. This is not a surprise so much as it seems like a high water mark that may be hard to reach come the beginning of the NBA season.

In Sacramento, Cousins’ aptitudes have not yet been a buttress for a grand cathedral, but a keystone for an unsolidified arch. As Kings vice president for basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac has moved to give Cousins as many decent building blocks as he could afford (though some might question his spending habits), successful outings with Blake Griffin, Kawhi Leonard, and Draymond Green are likely going to cast a very cool shade on his time with Rajon Rondo, Caron Butler, and Mario Belinelli this year.

One hopes that Cousins’ promise of future Olympic glory drives him to help create a worthwhile present in Sacramento.

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