FanPost

Kings and Cousins

The first three picks in the draft will most probably be Wall, Turner, and Favors. Then the T-wolves pick and we've had it in our head that they just wouldn't be able to pass on Cousins. BUT, Wesley Johnson's draft stock is rising and Minnesota desperately needs a quality wing player.

So now the Kings are up with the 5th pick. Taking Cousins here makes sense in terms of their roster needs, DeMarcus' talent, and the Sactown Royalty fan support. I hope I'm speaking for all of us, that Cousins is head and shoulders above anyone else not named Wall, Turner, or Favors(going in the top three 99.99%). Swapping the 5th and 7th picks doesn't seem nearly as daunting as swapping the 2nd and 7th or even 4th and 7th, though it's just one pick higher. So, here's the trade:

Detroit gets 5th pick and Garcia

Sacremento gets the 7th pick and Hamilton

Why the Pistons do it: In a vacuum, the Pistons never ever do this trade, but there's two reasons why this makes sense in our circumstances. 1) Cousins is no ordinary 5th pick. He's a legitimate center who can score in the post and rebound. And we desperately need that. 2) Hamilton is sort of expendable since we have two starting shooting guards on our roster. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but the Pistons relationship with Rip and Tay seems like a previously good relationship realizing it has run its course. Don't sleep on Garcia though. He's young, efficient, and his offensive and defensive ratings have increased nicely since his rookie year. You didn't hear much about him, because he was out most of the year with a wrist injury. Didn't sound to serious so he should be ready for next year. And C'mon, how could we not appreciate another guy who's long, smooth, and explosive? Yes, he does have an awful contract with about $17 mil still guaranteed over the next 3 years, but on the bright side sometimes those contracts are perfect to complete big trades.

Why the Kings do it: Obviously Hamilton is a huge improvement over what they have now at the 2 spot. He'll come in and be a nice veteran voice for all their young guys, especially Tyreke. And as we've seen in Detroit, having your top guys coming from the same college just doesn't work, so naturally, they won't be too disappointed missing out on Cousins. Assuming GS takes Monroe, they'll still be able to grab Amino with the 7th pick as someone with a lot of potential that can grow along with Tyreke. A theory of the "Lebron never got a title in Cleveland, and is now looking for the first ship out" is that he never had younger players to grow up with. Sacramento is only committed to $33.2 mil next season, plus $2.2 mil for the 7th pick, pus $7.1 mil as the difference in Hamilton and Garcia's salary. This brings them to ~$42.5 mil. If the cap is at $56 mil this year it will still allow them to be about $13 mil under the cap, which should be enough to still sign a pretty good player or a couple solid rotation players.

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This still saves us our best trade asset in Tay to go after a power forward also. Boozer anybody?

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