Kelley L Cox – USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Cavaliers may have a lot of problems, but at least they don’t have DeMarcus Cousins.
Watching the Cavaliers take on the Sacramento Kings on Monday night reminded me of why I am so interested in watching Cousins’ career, and why I am so happy with the young players on the Cavaliers.
The 6-11 center out of Kentucky is currently in his third year with the Kings, and is about as consistent as playing the lottery.
Like the lottery, Cousins has tremendous potential for reward. He handles the ball well and moves well, and he has a nice jump shot. Cousins is a great athlete, and he looks like he could dominate in the post if he ever gets everything figured out. He is averaging 17.4 points and 10.1 rebounds per game this season, and those are solid numbers.
Also like the lottery, though, he is just not dependable enough and has some nights where he doesn’t produce much at all. Some games he is huge and other games he is not worth much of anything. He also constantly seems to be at the center of some controversy for the Kings, and there have already been trade rumors surrounding him.
In the Cavaliers-Kings contest on Monday, Cousins had a pretty good game leading the Kings to victory, but he also displayed several examples of his problems. First of all, he had two bad fouls in a row on Cavaliers forward/center Tyler Zeller. First, Cousins threw Zeller down and then stared down at him. I am not sure what he thought he gained by doing that, unless it was just a way to try to intimidate an opponent. The only thing it did, though, was cost his team a possession and get him a foul.
Soon after that, Cousins tried to block a shot by Zeller and ended up with his arm wrapped around Zeller’s face. To his credit, he tried to hold Zeller up as he fell, so it may have looked worse than it was. Seeing the foul happen so soon after the other foul, though, you knew that the referees were going to make a big deal out if it, even while Cousins looked upset that they called a flagrant foul on him.
My favorite Cousins moment of the night, though, was when Tristan Thompson took a shot from the baseline and got fouled on the shot. The whistle blew and Thompson’s shot likely wasn’t going to go in, but Cousins decided to do a Kevin Garnett move and goaltend the shot for some reason.
Garnett does this when play has stopped and someone throws up a shot. Garnett does it so that the player does not get the satisfaction of seeing a made shot during stopped play, and now other NBA players have copied the move.
Cousins deciding to “Garnett” the shot when it was still live and most likely wasn’t going to go in, though, was just really stupid and led to an and-one for Thompson.
For me, it was one big highlight in the game and one great example of the problems that Cousins brings to the game. He has a ton of potential and could be a star one day, but he just makes too many dumb moves and seems to cause too many problems.
Cousins may mature and get better, but right now it seems like he has too much baggage to ever lead a winning team. The Cavaliers may be struggling now, but I like the young players for the Wine and Gold and I am confident that they can become winners in a few years. They may not have as much talent as Cousins, but I’m glad he’s playing in Sacramento and not in Cleveland.
