Ranking each NBA team’s All-Decade starting 5 from the 2010s
27. Sacramento Kings 2010s all-decade starting lineup
- De’Aaron Fox
- Buddy Hield
- Tyreke Evans
- Rudy Gay
- DeMarcus Cousins
DeMarcus Cousins’ six and a half year tenure with the Sacramento Kings didn’t work out for several reasons.
One was potentially due to Boogie’s inability to lead a team to the playoffs, where big men are limited in their total impact. Secondly, though, was the lack of talent to help the four-time All-Star compete in the brutal Western Conference.
Despite their youthful age, the backcourt of De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield have proven they can not only play together but thrive and complement each other as well.
The 39 wins they helped Sacramento to last season were more than Cousins ever could. Hield’s shooting draws so much attention while Fox does the same with his speed and athleticism attacking the basket.
Those are two dimensions the statistically imposing Cousins never had and should serve him well as the focus around the paint.
Tyreke Evans has worn out his stay in the NBA, but most are quick to forget the historic heights he reached as the Rookie of the Year in 2009-10.
As an oversized ballhandler, he averaged 20.1 points, 5.8 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game, first-year numbers matched only by Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, LeBron James and recently Luka Doncic.
Across more than three years with the Kings, Rudy Gay averaged 19.3 points per game. He also only played 16 percent of his minutes at the power forward spot, which, given his size and athleticism, would be his ideal position in 2019.
Fox and Evans are the ballhandlers. Gay and Hield space the court and Cousins is the intimidating presence around the bucket who could also step out beyond the arc.
It’s a lineup that makes sense from a construction standpoint, but none of those five have had much team success in their careers, making it difficult to envision how they could come together and have the discipline to do so as a unit.