NBA Sacramento Kings

DeMarcus Cousins Proves Himself To Be NBA’s Best Center

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By @JosephMCrevier

Sacramento Kings

Rocky Widner-Getty Images

The Sacramento Kings are (5-1). Yes, you read that correctly, five wins and only one loss. After nearly a decade of irrelevancy, the Kings are back as a competitive franchise hoping to revive the exhilarating days of those insanely fun-to-watch early-2000 teams. Sacramento began the season on a bad note, getting blown out at home by the Golden State Warriors, but since then the team has won five straight against a moderately difficult schedule, capped off by Friday night’s double-overtime thriller over the Phoenix Suns.

Sharing the sugar has been a prominent piece to the Kings’ success, but we cannot ignore the massively impressive contributions from the fifth-year man out of Kentucky, DeMarcus Cousins. Renowned for his knack to draw tons of technical fouls, Cousins’ experience with the FIBA World Cup team, alongside teammate Rudy Gay, has clearly benefited him in growing as both a player and a person. Though he will probably never fully contain his attitude — because that’s what makes him so great — Cousins has instead learned to tone it down a bit and channel that energy to grabbing boards, scoring points and playing defense. He no longer humiliates his teammates mid-game by scolding them, but has rather done an excellent job leading the pack, constantly praising the efforts of his fellow Kings.

Coming into the NBA, scouts questioned Cousins’ motivation, labeling him out of shape, lazy and a locker room poison. Cousins himself even said a scout believed he would become the next Oliver Miller. And for those of you who are not aware of Oliver Miller, he was a 6-foot-9, 315-pounder who averaged seven points and six rebounds per game for his career. For Cousins to overcome so much negativity at such a young age is remarkable, considering the level that he has elevated his game to throughout his brief career.

The former No. 5 overall pick sits here today averaging 24 points and 10.6 rebounds per game as the fourth seed in the competitive Western Conference. Cousins’ most notable performance of the season came on Wednesday versus the Denver Nuggets in which he recorded an incredible 30 points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes, showcasing his ability to dominate like so many others centers have failed to do. No, his defense has not reached Dwight Howard-esque levels just yet, but give this man some time. Even without that Howard level defense, his game is well-rounded enough to safely label him as the NBA’s best center today by quite a large margin. No other center can simply takeover a game like Cousins can, and that has to count for something.

Joseph Crevier covers the New York Knicks for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, @JosephMCrevier, and Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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