A Candid Conversation On The Sacramento Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins
By Josh Eberley
1) DeMarcus Cousins is having a monster January; not even sure that “monster” does it justice to be honest. Is he becoming an elite player and does his name warrant conversation in a top five discussion or is this just a hot month?
Davis – Cousins, regardless of how “you” may feel about his personality or any of the early-career antics, is clearly developing into an elite player at this point. The talent and potential has always been there, but his ability to put each into action and maintain it on a consistent basis is why Cousins truly deserves to be in that conversation.
The Kings are right there in the mix in what may actually be an entertaining race for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot, so the “nice stats in a losing effort” explanation commonly used against him is nowhere near as strong. He’s probably been a top-three big man for over a year, and could very well be playing the best at the center position this season.
Ginsberg – I think the “is Cousins elite” debate was settled a while ago; he most certainly is. Now, is he a top-5 player? That’s tough to justify. Assuming you’re putting Curry, Durant, and LeBron in some order for the top-3, that only leaves two spots, and there are just too many guys with legitimate (though not necessarily rock solid) arguments to be placed ahead of him (Kawhi, Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Chris Paul and Paul George come to mind first). That being said, he is certainly top-10 to me.
Rowan – I think he’s certainly a top 10 player in the league. As I’ve previously mentioned, I hate ranking players and prefer tiers. To me Boogie is just outside of the superstar tier of players like Curry, LeBron and Durant, but he’s definitely proving that he’s a star in this league and has the potential to be in that tier.
Thomas – Cousins is not becoming an elite player, he is an ELITE player. He is a player I would pay to watch and to me is in the top five discussion.
Watson – Cousins has been an elite player for a couple of years now. It’s just taken a long time for it to be noticed because he’s done it in Sacramento on a bad team that is only noticed by the national media when something incompetent is happening.
Woo – To me, Boogie was an elite player two years ago. I think he’s only just now starting to escape the narrative that his attitude was holding him back. That said, it still does more often than it should, but when he’s on a hot streak like this, it makes it much easier for people who drive the narratives to latch on. Is he a top five player? Not yet. Is he the league’s best center? Nominally, yes.
Next: Are the Sacramento Kings for real?