DeMarcus Cousins looks to share the ball more, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee: “I know every time I touch the ball I’m going to draw two or three defenders, so I know I’m going to find somebody,” Cousins said. Finding the open teammate has been a struggle for the Kings most of the season, but lately the Kings continue to show the willingness to pass the ball to an open teammate. Cousins has tried to lead the way. “I keep saying I feel like when this team shares the ball, we’re hard to beat,” Cousins said. “And if I’ve got to take away from my shots just to get everyone else going in the spirit of sharing the ball, I’ll do that.”
- Passing is great, but can Cousins fix his anger issues? Steve Kyler of Hoopsworld explains how it has been an ongoing problem: “Cousins has anger management issues. It’s one of the key reasons he was available to the Kings with the fifth overall selection in 2010. The Kings knew it when they drafted him and they hoped as he matured that it would get better as he had success in the NBA. The reality of the situation is all of the losing and constant upheaval in Sacramento have made the problem worse, not better. Cousins’ latest verbal tirade at head coach Keith Smart is supposedly water under the bridge now. The two sides have talked through the issue and Cousins has pledged to be a better team mate. The problem with that is this wasn’t Cousins’ first or second outburst, and it’s certainly not an isolated incident kind of thing. This is who Cousins is, for better or for worse.”
- Tyreke Evans looks to rejoin his team after receiving a second opinion on his knee, from The AP: “The Sacramento Kings hope guard Tyreke Evans will return from a sore left knee when the team gets back home next week. The Kings said Wednesday that a second opinion Evans got on his bothersome knee from Dr. Steve Lombardo in Los Angeles supported the team’s treatment and rehabilitation plan. Evans will rejoin the team in Toronto and the Kings say they anticipate he will play during the upcoming five-game homestand that starts Monday against Memphis.”
Carlos Boozer loves his team, according to Steve Kyler of Hoopsworld: “People forget we’re playing without our MVP,” explained Boozer. “[We’ve] played without our All-Star center [Joakim Noah]. You see how guys step up and we come together, it doesn’t matter what happens, we’re up by 18, things are rolling, things start coming back, we stay together no matter what. I think that’s the mark of our team, we’re very resilient and we ride for each other. “Our team chemistry is so amazing. This team is like a college team as far as our chemistry is concerned. We all go out together, we eat together. We win and lose together. We have a bad game, everybody is circling the wagons and picking each other up and when we have great game everybody celebrates no matter who has a great game or who doesn’t. We have a fun group man, I think people overlook that.”
Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis were nearly teammates, from Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld: “The Hornets’ front office worked out many players, but it was clear that Davis and Lillard were their two primary targets. New Orleans hoped that Lillard wouldn’t climb into the top ten because they loved the idea of having their point guard and big man of the future. They thought that Davis and Lillard complemented one another nicely. Davis was arguably the class’ best defensive player and he could use a great floor general to set him up on offense. Lillard was arguably the class’ best offensive player and he had thrived in the pick-and-roll in college. The only problem was that the Hornets weren’t the only team that had fallen in love with Lillard during the pre-draft process.”
Here’s something else interesting about Lillard and why the Kings passed on the talented point guard, from Sam Amick of USA Today: “According to three people with knowledge of the situation who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, part of the reason the Kings drafted forward Thomas Robinson fifth overall out of Kansas in June instead of Rookie of the Year frontrunner and Weber State point guard Damian Lillard (who went sixth to Portland) was because of internal doubt about ownership’s ability or willingness to pony up for restricted free agent forward Jason Thompson. There was strong support for Lillard among the team’s front-office and scouting staff, but the unexpected chance to grab Robinson when he slid was seen as a safer option in case the Maloofs didn’t pay the market price for Thompson and the team was left with Cousins and veteran forward Chuck Hayes on the frontline.”
Have you ever considered writing an e-book or guest authoring on other websites?
I have a blog based upon on the same topics you discuss and would
really like to have you share some stories/information.
I know my readers would appreciate your work.
If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
With havin so much content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My website has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my authorization. Do you know any ways to help protect against content from being stolen? I’d genuinely appreciate it.
Hi, Neat post. There is a problem together with your site in web explorer,
might test this? IE still is the marketplace chief and a large
component of other folks will pass over your great writing
due to this problem.
Normally I do not read article on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do it!
Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, very nice post.
Actually, worse injuries have already happened because of something at courtside. Mark Price’s career was pretty much ruined by those moving advertising things that are in front of the scorer’s table. It tore his ACL, and that was over 20 years ago. So what makes anybody think they give a damn about the players now? An all-star tore his ACL in the prime of his career, but two decades later they still have the exact same advertising setup in every arena.
I almost think these guys at the side of the court hope to hit another motherlode, like that wuss camera guy who extorted $200,000 from Dennis Rodman when Rodman kicked him in the thigh. Which might have hurt for two or three minutes at most (not kicked in the nuts like he pretended, unless he’s got nuts the size of an elephant).