The Sacramento Kings made a huge move before the trade deadline as they finally decided to part ways with All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins, trading him to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Many teams had attempted to trade for Cousins over the years, and among those teams were the Los Angeles Lakers, who have lacked a true superstar since Kobe Bryant retired.
The Lakers made a run at Cousins before the deadline again this year, but they reportedly were not willing to include rookie forward Brandon Ingram in a potential deal, so the Kings moved on and eventually traded him to New Orleans.
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton recently went on the Bill Simmons Podcast with Bill Simmons, and he talked about how big of a fan he is of Cousins and that he would have loved to coach him despite his reputation of being crazy:
“I’m a huge Boogie fan. I know people say he’s crazy or whatever. I would love to coach him. I like crazy, I grew up in a chaotic household with my dad and my crazy brothers, but I like crazy. Draymond Green, he’s one of my favorite players and when I was interim head coach he probably cussed me out three times and I enjoyed it. That’s fun to me, I want that type of energy out there. And I played with Kobe.
It is no secret that Cousins has developed into one of the best big men in the league over the last few years, as he was recently named to his third straight All-Star team. In 58 games between the Kings and Pelicans this season he is averaging a career-high 27.6 points to go along with 10.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists.
He leads the league with 18 technical fouls though and has already been suspended twice this season because of that, so there are clearly some issues there.
While Walton said he is a fan of Cousins, he did not say that he would’ve included Ingram or any of the team’s young players in a trade for him.
