Even a year ago, it didn’t seem as though DeMarcus Cousins would ever get his act together.
The talent was undoubtedly there. Last season, the center averaged 22.7 points on 49.6 percent shooting from the field to go with 11.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks. The man can absolutely play, and is one of the toughest to guard in the league with his unique ability to shoot from the mid-range, create from the high post and simply bulldoze his way to the basket most of the time.
The problem with Cousins has always been his attitude. He thinks he doesn’t really have one and it’s everyone else who doesn’t see things his way. Needless to say, he’s the one with the issue here since we all see that he can’t hold himself together when a whistle blows against him. He accumulated 16 technical fouls last season and was suspended for the season finale. Maturity level is the number one reason many doubt his ability to lead a team to anything.
After spending time with Team USA and surrounding himself with great professionals in a winning environment over the past summer, Cousins finally seems to be coming around.
[RELATED: Chris Sheridan Says DeMarcus Cousins Is Early Leader For MVP Candidate]
The Sacramento Kings have been the biggest surprise up to this point of the season, winning five of their first six games (they have since lost three straight, including a heartbreaking loss against the Memphis Grizzlies on this tip in by Courtney Lee). They have been defending and playing with a purpose that not many expected, and Cousins has been leading the charge. Here’s what the big man had to say about his past issues, from Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report:
“It wasn’t the greatest situation,” Cousins said. “We weren’t really playing for the future. It wasn’t about getting better. It was about saving a dollar. But whatever was negative was put on me. I had to learn everything on my own. I didn’t have a veteran I could go to. I didn’t have a coach I could go to. I couldn’t control that we weren’t making the right moves. I couldn’t control that we didn’t know where the hell our team was going to be. It was a rough start to my career. I fought through it, the best that I could.”
His goal heading into the season was to pick up no more than five technical fouls. He has one through nine games, and the one that he did pick up against the Grizzlies on Thursday wasn’t necessarily deserved. One of the refs got tired of hearing complaints from both sides and decided to get quick about calling technicals in the fourth quarter. To give you an idea of how quick those whistles were, Mike Conley was given a technical foul – the first of his entire career on any level. In a typical situation, Cousins would not have been given a technical foul for walking away from the ref after picking up his fourth foul like he did on Thursday.
So far, Cousins has done all he could to stay away from arguments and acting out in anger in general when things don’t go his way. He still shakes his head a lot and you can still see plenty of built up frustration throughout any given game. Still, it’s clear that he’s trying. He is willing to do the best he can to change himself for the better, which is great news for the Kings.
One thing he isn’t ready to do, though, is wanting to have anything to do with TNT analyst Charles Barkley. He truly, truly dislikes the former legend and here’s why, from Bucher:
Mention that Barkley doesn’t believe the cold shoulder is merited, and Cousins responds as if Barkley is standing directly in front of him:
“I have no respect for you and I never will. We have nothing to talk about. So, yes, every time we see each other, there will never be words.”
Barkley wishes he understood why Cousins holds such a grudge against him. He acknowledges that when Cousins was in high school, he went down to see him in a state playoff game. As Barkley remembers it, Cousins complained to referees incessantly, fouled out and picked up a couple of technical fouls in the process.
“I made a very conscious effort not to be too hard on him,” Barkley said. “I said he had a chance to be really good; I just told the reporters afterward that I was a little disappointed. Since then, I’ve also said he could be the best big man in the game if he’d just grow up. He’s never had a strong coach that held him accountable. I wish he’d had a Pat Riley or Gregg Popovich or George Karl or Doc Rivers that would’ve held his feet to the fire.”
[…]
“Coming up as a kid and hearing that from one of the best players ever to come out of Alabama,” Cousins said, “a guy people grow up looking up to, to hear him say, ‘Well, he’s not that good…’ I remember it like it was yesterday. Then, coming into my rookie season, you take up for your ex-coach and say I’m the worst thing that ever happened to Sacramento on national TV. Yeah, I’m going to remember.”
Barkley can be brutally honest sometimes. In this case, Cousins felt the analyst jeopardized his future with that honesty, so you can see why the grudge is very much real.
Aside from that, Cousins is having another stellar season from a statistical standpoint, averaging 22.1 points on 49.6 percent shooting from the field and 11.2 rebounds. He’s still fouling at an alarming rate (already leads the league with 44 fouls), but try he does. Despite blowing a sure-win against the Grizzlies and dropping to 5-4, Cousins and the Kings are playing a general brand of basketball that teams don’t want to go up against. That is the first step towards building a good foundation. If the big man can mentality keep things together, the Kings are on their way to relevance once again, and that’s something we haven’t heard in a long time.
OTHER NEWS AND ITEMS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:
Shaun Livingston opened up about the toe injury he suffered last season and how unknowingly playing on it made the process of healing that much longer. Stefan Bondy of Daily News has the story: “I don’t want to say I was misdiagnosed, but they couldn’t really figure out the issue. They did all these MRIs and X-rays and it was still hurt,” said Livingston, who broke his toe in the 77th game of last season and subsequently played 326 playoff minutes. Livingston’s broken toe healed after it was placed in a cast, but he still required surgery after signing with Golden State. “They found out there was a lot of scar tissue because once I broke it, I continued to play on it in the playoffs,” Livingston said. “Basically, I just shot it up with cortisone and went out there and played on it.”
Kobe Bryant is hoping to see the San Antonio Spurs again in the playoffs. He also discussed their greatness in depth, from Sam Amick of USA Today: “I would love to get another crack at them in a playoff series,” Bryant, who leads the NBA in scoring at 26.7 points per game, told USA TODAY Sports this week. “I would love that. Some of my finest memories are against them.”… “You’ve got Manu there. You’ve got Tony there. Those guys have been through the ups and downs and they have that familiarity, and then they build with pieces around that. The same coach. The same system. Here, I’ve had to go through so many different coaches, so many different systems, it’s crazy. But I love watching (Duncan). What they’ve been able to do is something else.”
Here’s a really, really touching story on Ryan Anderson and what he had to deal with during and after the death of his girlfriend, from Chris Ballard of SI: “The first thing Ryan saw upon entering Gia’s fourth-floor apartment were her knees. His recollections of what followed are fragmentary. His screaming and running to her. The vacuum-cleaner cord hanging from the second-floor handrail of the spiral staircase, so tight around her neck that at first he couldn’t loosen it. Gia’s dog, Bentley, running to him. A neighbor arriving and dialing 911 as Ryan tried to revive Gia. Seeing the three-word note in her handwriting on the dining room table: Mom gets everything. Paramedics rushing in. Ryan calling Donna. Donna cursing at him, screaming that he knew Gia was sensitive, that he was supposed to protect her. The police pushing through the door. Ryan answering questions, sobbing, blaming himself.”
- To something a big lighter now, poor Yao Ming. He’s too big to take shotgun, even in a large, comfortable SUV.
- Ronnie Price has been suspended for one game for this head shot on Austin Rivers.
- The Atlanta Hawks screwed up Paul Millsap’s jersey by spelling his name wrong. The Utah Jazz and Hawks twitter accounts went at each other from there.
Derrick Rose suffered another injury late against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday. Joakim Noah defended his point guard emphatically after the game, from Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago: “Everybody needs to chill out.” Says Rose will be fine. Noah on Rose: “Sometimes he’s portrayed as something that he’s not. You don’t come back from the injuries that he’s coming back from . “You don’t come back from the injuries that he’s coming back from without unbelievable commitment.” Noah said he was disappointed by some of the media’s coverage of Rose’s comments — “because I know how much (Rose) cares about this game. I see it every day. I think we’re all in this together. This is not a one man team. But at the end of the day, we need him. We need him and I don’t want to see him down. I know sometimes it’s frustrating, you got injuries, you got tweaks. Every time something happens to (Rose) people act like it’s the end of the world and that’s f****** so lame to me. Relax. He’s coming back from two crazy surgeries … so everybody needs to chill the f*** out.”
James Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.