Official DeMarcus Cousins Scouting Report (Update 1)

DeMarcus Cousins:

A truly marvelous physical specimen; he is the George Bush of collegiate big men: he has a dominant brand of basketball, but could use some better decision making.

6'11"
260 pounds
Excellent frame but needs to lose weight
Lack of great jumping ability (should improve with better conditioning)
Very Mobile feet
Soft Hands

Strengths:

DeMarcus has made me a fan of NCAA basketball.  Literally, I have watched more Kentucky games this year than any other in my entire life.  This is quite understandable, as in the past, the Pistons never really had a shot at getting any of the dominant players anyways. 

The first thing I noticed when I turned on the tv, is that you can discern him at all times on the court.  This is a true acknowledgment to his physical attributes as he is often deep in the post, surrounded at all sides by a zone constructed specifically for him and John Wall.  Needless to say (which quite frankly I would not be writing this post if it was needed), that has not slowed either of them down.

Number 15 has two things that allow him to operate in such fashion: his size and his hands.  Cousins is able to pin his back against any man with his great leg strength and then look over the top of all other players simply due to his height.  This makes it very easy for him to see the court from a very good position, and his soft hands allow him to finish from just about any pass.  His touch is so great that often times it makes up for his lack of explosiveness, as he has a great right hook that he almost always gets fouled on and more than half the time connects. 

The first time I think he's ever truly had some difficulty getting position was against DeAundre Cranston, who happens to be 260 pounds himself.  The result?  Cousins had 18 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks in 29 minutes.  Cranston?  5 points and 3 rebounds.  This is entirely due to Cousins' great footwork.  He loves to seal off his man against the basket, and then quickly spin off with said right hook.  At least the NCAA level, this move has been nearly unstoppable, as he gets fouled on just about every miss.  Which is almost just as bad for the opponent, as he is a competent free throw shooter, resulting in on average 1.3 points and foul trouble.  And if that doesn't work (which it almost always does), he simply lowers his right shoulder and bulls his way to the rim.

Another thing that has extremely impressed me is his ball handling ability.  I'll let the video speak for itself.

His shooting mechanics are very good and quite consistent, however his shot could use a bit more ark (akin to Rodney Stuckey).  He doesn't quite have the best range yet, but I can see him mastering the turn-around-glasser ala Tim Duncan in the future, employing it out to 15 feet or so.  But I almost don't want him to develop that shot because of how 3 happy CV and Sheed are.  Sheed was an efficiency machine before he developed a legitimate 3 point shot, and now he is almost perversely in love with it - which could also be due to lazyness.  The thing I like about Cousins' positioning is that, by design, he always goes to the opposite side of the paint that the guard drives on.  This is because, unlike most centers, he can rebound from just about anywhere, so it not only frees up the lane but also leaves him open on cleanup duty.  Thus we have plenty of space for (Rodney) to operate and also a guy that doesn't need plays called to score.

Lastly I'd like to talk about his (very underrated) passing ability.  Some people have pegged him as a black hole.  I disagree, CV is a black as once he starts his drives, it always ends in a shot.  Cousins deals with many double teams and I think he has done a commendable job of passing either to cutting guards or above them to Patterson.

I think a fair comparison to Cousins is a less athletic Shaq with a (potentially) better shooting touch and decent handles.  Both of them are (or were in Shaq's place) able to get excellent positioning, have soft hands and very good footwork.  The key difference is that Shaq was in monsterous condition coming out of college, and Cousins needs to hit the weight room quite a bit.  Shaq actually had a 36" vertical back then (according to draft express), while our boy seems to barely get off the ground.

Weaknesses:

I will do my best to point out his flaws in an unbiased manner, as I think it is just as important to understand our problems, before they are unfixable, as it is to recognize strengths.

The most glaring flaw is his lack of true explosiveness. It's really disappointing to see a guy with his size and ability get his shot blocked in the same manner Stuckey does because of (lack of) explosiveness. He does everything right, but plays below the rim too often, which is hurting his efficiency.  And that is the scary thing, with all his conditioning problems, he still is a demi-god from a PER standpoint.

Calipari made an interesting comment, he said that against Vanderbilt, Cousins would have to really jump hard.  This made me wonder if he is horrifically unathletic as he seems at times or if that is a manor of laziness due to supreme ability at a non-elite level.  I think it is a combination of his weight issues and also mindset. However, Blair has certainly shown that once he lost the weight, he became much more explosive and is a dominant rebounder in the NBA despite his size.  Just imagining what he could do with DeMarcus' body gives me wet dreams.

Getting onto mindset, draftexpress has him picked very low for his talent level due to this attitude.  He does, in fact, pick up cheap fouls here and there due to anger issues.  But honestly, I like that in a player.  I think its that desire to win that lets him rebound at such a high clip and get such great positioning.  A key example of this is Robin Lopez, who shattered a glass door when he lost in a 3 on 3 drill.  Lopez has been exactly what Phoenix needs, as his mean-streak brings a guy who defends the post, rebounds, scores efficiently and blocks shots (you really have to wonder why he wasn't playing before).   

Believe it or not, but I think he also needs more upper body strength.  His legs are great, but his hands are almost too soft.  Often times he will get great positioning, jump and get the ball, only to have someone slap it out of his hands.  I think a bit more upper body strength (without hurting his touch, of course) will help him out a lot in that department, as he simply cannot overpower NBA players on a consistent basis as long as this is a problem.

Imminent Thoughts:

Being a classical muscian, every time I watch him, Mars by Gustav Holst comes to mind.  He is without a doubt dominating all lower competition, and he isn't even close to scratching his potential.

What our boy needs is a mentor who knows the weight room better than his own Body, understands timing and positioning and knows the leadership aspect of the game.  A guy like Ben Wallace.  *Bearded Thundar double takes 3 times* 

What a Coincidence!  WE have a Ben Wallace!  And here I thought that old dude was just some rich fan that got to join the team because Joe owed him a favor. 

It is no secret, I am a huge fan of Cousins, to the point I would actually draft Wall purely to trade him for Cousins and a future first round pick. Wall will be a very good player, but quite frankly I think Darren Collison has shown that understanding the position is more important than elite athleticism; and Rose is a smarter player in my humble opinion.  Cousins, on the other hand, has the potential to be an unforced 20 and 10 player for years to come.  By this I mean scoring not only by creating for himself and others, but also by simply being the clean up man.  We have sorely been missing a big man who will not only clean up the glass and get put backs, but also score at any time at a high clip.  As long as Ben Wallace is helping to help him out past retirement, and honestly I don't think there is any chance Big Ben stops working on his conditioning, Cousins will become a dominant player in the NBA.

I will close with this final remark: as important as it is to be a great player, we need someone that knows how to be a fun teammate for the sake of chemistry.

Sheed vs Cousins

Update (2/13/2010):

I think I finally understand what draftexpress meant by saying attitude issues.  DeMarcus Cousins is a very emotional player.  This is what drives him to get so many rebounds, but at the same time allows him to lose his composer due to immaturity. 

This was the first time I had ever seen Cousins truly neutralized.  One could blame this on the facts that it is the 13th or that John Wall may just be one of the worst passing "superstar" points guards I have ever seen, but I'd like to go with Tennessee's big men.

Granted it took a zone, designed specifically to contain him and Wall, and had 3 people constantly getting in his face and pushing him around to stop; but the disappointing thing is that in the end, it wasn't the opposing bodies that stopped him, but rather his own frustrations.  He only had  points, going only 1-8 at the line.

He is a very good shooter for a big man, but is very inconsistent due to his emotions.  He has gone 8-8 and 9-10 on some nights, and then turns around and goes 3-8 or 1-8 on others. 

Part of the reason he went 1-8 and only had 6 shots tonight was that Calipari was constantly yanking him every time his temper flared, meaning his play time wasn't consistent and thus couldn't get into a good rhythm.  But the other part was that Tennessee was extremely physical with him and the refs let a lot of it slide on both ends.  Not getting the calls he wanted, his temper started going wild and he got the tech (that benched him for the rest of the half).  And thus you have an extremely talented player who fails to hit 6 points despite having 8 free throws.

There's two ways to look at this:

1.  He's got extremely fragile mental toughness and could end up as a combination of Sheed and Darko, very firey and unable to handle the media.  You could even add a pinch of Eddy Curry into this stew, as he already has mediocre conditioning.  Judging that he already has bigger boobs than the average high school girl, his team should probably hide all forms of ice cream from him.

2.  His skill level is off the charts and once he learns how to channel his anger into his game, such as LeBron or Shaq (in his prime), will be an unstoppable force. 

As I have mentioned before, having the right mentor will make the world of a difference in his development.  Part of the reason why Kwame flopped so badly is that Jordan was absolutely the worst person to have as a support buddy, a guy like Kuester would have been much better for him.  I personally don't think there's any coincidence that Rodman went insane in Chicago. 

Cousins will need a hardass on his tail, akin to Sheed.  Ideally, Larry Brown would be the best coach for him to have.  But clearly that is not an option.  However, this could just be me, but I firmly believe Ben Wallace had just as much, if not more to do with Sheed's containment than LB.  The reason for this is that Sheed performed just fine in 05-06 under Flip, but never (regardless of coach) after that.  Not to mention Larry Brown got completely fed up with Stephon Marbury, who arguably is more pompous but less explosive than Sheed.  Coincidence?  I think not.

There's just no way you get into the face of a full Fro'd Ben Wallace back in the early 2000s.  I have no doubt that Big Ben will want keep up his conditioning, but the question is how much longer will his body allow him to?  We all know he is the perfect member for Cousins, but at best he's get a few years left of being in the league, even as a mentor ala Chucky.  I'm willing to be he'll take some personal years, and then come back as an assistant coach because of his passion for the game.  So in that time, what coach will we have?  How strong will that coach be?  Will Body's work have perminently rubbed off or will be just a band aid, like it was with Sheed?

These are the questions that Joe will be asking himself if Cousins is still on the board.  I personally have liked just about everything Kuester has done excepted for his rotations, which seem to reveal a bit of Curry in him.  If he doesn't have the balls to bring Tayshaun off the bench after coming off a major injury, how can he work with someone as emotional as Cousins?

Now in his defense, he has been very good with the young guys.  Say what you will, but Rodney has made definite strides in his game, especially decision making.  If you take out that zero assist game against Indy (where everyone sucked), he's averaging 9 assists and  1.6 turnovers over the past week.  And that would be only 1 turnover if he hadn't run out of gas in the fourth quarter against Sactown. 

Coach Q knows his shit, and Joe has said he's got job security.  If (or once) Tay is moved, I think the lockerroom will settle down.  He seems to be the only person who really doesn't want to be a Piston anymore, even Rip has settled for the role of facilitator instead of scorer.  Cousins is still extremely young (especially mentally) and that's why he blows up on the court.  I think he's at a stage where the guys he looks up to will determine whether he plays like Blair or Perkins (who mind you is right behind Sheed in techs).  IMHE, the impact Ben will have will stick and Kuester's positive nature will be the perfect situation for him to grow into the next Shaq.

The other fact of the matter, which I purposely left out until the end, is that he still had 6 offensive rebounds in the limited, inconsistent minutes, finishing with 12 boards.  Really my only complaint is that he stopped hustling down the floor onto defense consistently once he got the tech (which is why he didn't get that many defensive boards), but even still played good defense, always staying close to his man.  In fact, the primary reason for having so few defensive boards is that he had to make extra rotations to contest perimeter shots that Kentucky's guards left open.  In other words, his attitude is primarily affecting his offense, and not as much his defense, which I think is a very big sign that he has matured since the start of the season.

The most important unknown: will he still be on the board come draft night?

If anything, this outburst does us a favor more than hurts Cousins in my book.  We already have a great situation for him to grow, perhaps the only better place would be under Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan (and Blair for that matter).  With how much Blair dropped in the draft and yet still ended up dominating the NBA, I don't think DeMarcus falls any lower than 7th overall.  However, I don't think he's going to go second anymore either.  If anything, he should end up closer to 5, which puts him in prime position for us to snatch.  All that remains is for Joe to make the call to David Stearn on draft night.

Please post your thoughts on Cousins.  I'd like to develop a great resource for all who want to follow the draft, but do not have access or the time to watch NCAA games.