Defending DeMarcus

but at this point I think Westphal is a bigger problem than Cousins. He’s had problems with players before Cousins ever got here and he’s still yet to install any sense of order and identity in this team. I really feel like it’s time to give him his walking papers.

The amount of b.s. a team tolerates increases based on the talent of the individual. I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I’m not overly impressed with DeMarcus to this point in his career. Skilled player? Sure. But he’s far from athletic, and I still question his work ethic. My early impression is that he looks like a middle of the road player with some upside.

I do completely agree that most of the blame falls on Westphal’s shoulders here. This is a pretty unprecedented situation, where the coach makes such a damning public statement (and not off the cuff) about a player.

But DeMarcus needs to show a lot more on the court IMO before he can be given a ton of slack for his bad behavior.

rather see westphal go if i had to chose

But he’s 21. My oldest son is a year older, and still has a way to go. It’s totally normal.

And even though he is very emotion-driven and can be inconsistent, we don’t have the epic battles we used to.

It’s all in the way a kid is handled. If he feels attacked, unappreciated, or disrespected, that’s when he lashes out. So guess what. As the grown-up, I’ve learned not to trigger his negative emotional responses while still setting a pretty high bar as far as his behavior and being a functioning member of our family. I’m calm and patient and save the heavy hammer for the big stuff. Which we try to not ever get to.

In a relationship like mother/son or coach/player, it’s nice if both parties can act like adults. But if only one is going to, it better be the one whose responsibility it is to make the other a functioning member of society (or team).

“Im keeping my mouth shut.” he probably had an idea then that he had stepped in it. And my gut reaction to that statement was that somebody i.e, Westphal, Petrie Maloof 1, Maloff 2, would not appreciate it. I can only surmise that he was talked to about his intemperate comments and he shot back that he wanted a trade. The Kings are in a pickle. More revolving coaches or more revolving players?

The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Is it the coach who has had a handful of issues with players over the last decade, or the player who has caused numerous incidents over the last year? Seems incredibly obvious to me.

You can certainly argue that Westphal has handled this poorly, and you’d probably be right. But it’s flat out wrong to argue that after all the crap DeMarcus has stirred up, that this is somehow Westphal’s fault. It sounds to me like you’re arguing as a fan hopeful for a young player with a ton of potential who happens to be playing for a struggling coach, and not as a person trying to find the right and wrong in this situation.

I can’t help thinking of Noah in his 2nd year and how he turned things around, hopefully Cus can too.

…that DeMarcus will be on it. This team, organization, and fans need him because when all is said and done and he takes his game to the next level we’re going to want him on our team.

I find it harder and harder to defend DMC. Chuck Hayes’ and Tyreke’s comments politely indicated that DMC needs to tone it down a notch. If DMC wasn’t a problem or if they believed Westphal was the cause, I would think that they would have given an answer more along the lines of “I don’t know exactly what’s going on” between DMC and Westphal.

DMC’s attitude has always been an issue and was why teams passed on drafting him. He has been suspended twice now for attitude problems. It has been documented that he tried to fight a teammate and has been involved in shouting matches with members of the coaching staff. Westphal has alluded to the fact that there have been many other issues with DMC. Based on DMC’s track record, I believe Westphal.

21 years old or not, you don’t get to show up to your place of work and act like a jerk. 16 year olds working at Sports Authority know better than to get into shouting matches with your bosses or challenge their co-workers to fights.

As to how Westphal gets the target on his back for all of this. I think that lots of fans are ignoring the fact that our starters have (generally) performed below their career averages, and that at times they have looked lost implementing a new offense.

I felt like in the 3rd quarter against the Knicks (beautifully articulated by Ziller, by the way) and in last night’s game, the ball movement and shot selection was excellent. We STILL didn’t shoot the ball very well, but thankfully the Hornets went 0 for the world from 3pt land. It all added up to a fairly easy win.

I have no problem giving PW his share of the blame in the team’s progression and current level of success. That said, you will certainly find that I’m generally in a support mode towards him on this board, in large part because I feel that most of the calls for his head seem reactionary to me. One thing I consistently am looking for and don’t find in these posts is a reasonable proposal for a replacement coach.

Someone posted about a deja vu moment a few years ago, when we were blown out by the Knicks and soon after fired Theus. I actually felt like that firing was very poorly timed. The team came out of the gate strong that year, and K-Mart ended up getting hurt. I don’t want to thread-jack with that whole fiasco, but I fear the same type of overreaction (in light of who the replacement options are!) could potentially take place here.

It is easier to control a fire than to start one.

Cousins has competitive fire. He wants to win. You don’t want to extinguish that. Paul Westphal, if he is not fired soon, threatens to extinguish that fire.

And you don’t become a full grown professional over night. It is a process. And there has been maturity, as said by Ziller in his column:

Cousins spent the lockout getting into great shape — he’s much slimmer, and he’s reportedly lost 18 pounds since the start of December — and has just one touchy technical foul this season. (It was a late double-technical in the Sacramento Kings’ opener. He hasn’t complained to the officials — a rookie bugaboo — at all.) On the court, he’s struggled with his shot, missing an inordinate number of attempts at the rim. But he’s otherwise been productive, professional and good on the court. He’s No. 4 in the NBA in rebounds per game, No. 1 in offensive rebound rate and No. 2 in total rebound rate. He is working exceptionally hard.

I think time and experience will resolve most of all of the issues occurring. I think a year playing next to Hayes will do Cousins wonders. I think a competent offense will keep him happy. I think a competent head coach will allow Cousins to flourish as a player.

Time, experience and good teammates are in place. A head coach worth his paycheck is not.

And for all those who want indite Cousins as spoiled brat and malcontent, he send out this tweet yesterday:

Got out the shower and my mother was in tears on the corner of my bed …she said she never thought that she would b living a dream the way she is and said she was so proud of me but not only for my success but the fact that I changed ppl lives and am a influence to ppl in positive way and at the end of the day that’s all that really matters

I’d rather have the approval of Moms than a middle-aged egomaniac.

I think he got a pass last year after all the “don’t worry – he’s crazy” talk was kicked around. With how bad that team was on paper and in games, frankly, I didn’t mind and thought it was kinda funny. This year, however, it pissing me off that this is coming up again when the team could actually be good and needs to develop. This is a distraction that is not wanted or needed (especially when this city needs a team to play like a team and promote a new ESC).
Big Cuz needs to grow up and realize he is hurting many people – including himself. He is 21. I know he is VERY young, but there are a lot of other 21 year olds in the NBA that don’t pull this b.s. at all – what makes DMC ay different? Seriously, why should he have gotten any free passes last year? Again, just because he had some issues when he was in college or high school then we need to “expect” that someone won’t bother to change for the better?
I think PW is a terrible coach, but this has NOTHING to do with that. There are tons of terrible coaches in professional sports – it’s not the players jobs to bitch and moan about it & “demand trades” if they don’t like it. It IS there job to go out there and EARN the millions they get paid to make the “terrible coach” look average or even good…
And how about the FANS?! After the lockout mess, the moving to Anaheim crap, and losing seaons – Kings fans should NOT have to deal with this crap, too. Just stfu and play your game…

and the team’s lack of fluency with the offense. PW and his staff had an incredibly limited time frame to get a large brand-new mix of players on the same page, and then add to that the Hayes situation (also considering that the GP/PW plan is to make Hayes the “hub” of the offense). Paul came right out at the end of the preseason and stated that he thought the early portion of the season would be spotty.

Can’t we give him and his staff, say, 25 games to get things into a rhythm before blowing this thing up for the fifth or sixth time in the last eight years?

I believe that disagreements like this should be kept in the clubhouse. Regardless of who was to blame, Westphal’s disclosures to the media was out of line. The coaches job is to coach. I thought PW came across as someone trying to defend himself and putting the blame on the other party. I’m not defending Cousins. He is just another spoiled pampered athlete with a huge ego that blows up when he doesn’t get his way. The same goes for PW. Right now, I don’t like eithor one of them but let the bosses handle it not the media.

He is just a bad kid, and a seemingly bad person. As much as I love the Kings, it is hard to root for this team, because of the lack of likeable players — especially the past 2 or 3 years. This years team has more guys I like, Chuck Hayes, Jimmer, Isiah Thomas, but most that I don’t. It is painful to watch at times.

I say ship DMC out.
1.) The Pistons could offer some pieces.
DMC for Jonas Jerebko and Greg Monroe
2.) Maybe the Nuggets, they seem to like players like DMC:
DMC for Afflalo and Mozgov
3.) Or send him down the freeway to Golden State:
DMC for Steph Curry
4.) Maybe Houston, we seem to like them:
DMC for Scola and Budinger
5.) Maybe the Pacers over:
DMC for Roy Hibbert
6.) Maybe banish him across the border
DMC and a 2nd round pick for Andrea Bargnani

Any ways, we can entice some team to take on his TALENT, no doubt. And there are plenty of teams in this league that could offer use great PIECES to build with. Build around Tyreke. This should be our plan.

I am recalling strictly from memory here, so if I am wrong, I appologize in advance..
Wasn’t Cousins high school coach also hired to the staff last year? It can be spun anyway from sunday, but if that is accurate, then I think we can all agree it was in an effort to get somebody who understood Cousins mind better than anybody else, and to minimize any on-court or locker room antics that the Kings may have already feard would happen with a volatile personality.
That worked..on opposite day.
I love his potential, but I love the Kings more.
I would love to put this on Paul. It would give me hope that a new coach, and a re-energized Cousins would give us more wins.
Unfortunately, the bare bones bottom line is, Demarcus Cousins has a bad attitude, an inflated ego, and a feeling of self entitlement that he has not earned.

P.W. is by no means, the coach of the future. I am not 100 percent sure who is available that would do better than him right now. I know there are some out there..I just dont know the names off the top of my head..but, I put this soley on Cousins.

Great win last night. Glad to see this site is hopping with activity!!!

The trade me comment , if true, was given without context.
We have learned from teammate comments that DMC is emotional and immature.
We have no knowledge of the tipping point. All we saw was the Reke and DMC comments in the paper, which were really close to being the same.
We know that PW has always been better with vets than younger players (see all PW threads at time he was hired).
My sense is that both are guilty, but I have zero evidence. I feel pretty confident that DMC had an emotional outburst.
But why the press release, in great detail, from the quietest team in the league.
My sense is that PW and DMC is an unworkable combination.
My conclusion is that life is not fair but that we need to rid of ourselves of PW so that we don’t end up making the Nelson/C-Webb choice that destroyed GS for decades.

Yes, they might not be 7 foot centers with immense talent that we all defend somewhat because it’s in the team’s best interest, but we know these types of people. If this situation had been a continuing battle between PW and Cousins, I would get that. Unfortunately, it seems as if Cousins has had run-ins with coaches at all levels, including four on the Sacramento staff. None of us as a boss or manager would put up with these shenanigans, but because we believe Cousins has the ability to make our team better, we will handle him gently, enable his behavior, and stomach his bad attitude.

As for getting rid of Westphal, and starting anew, I wonder if right now their is a coach on the planet that would:

A) be an experienced enough and successful enough coach yet still want to coach this team, with all it’s issues.

B) be able to hold a title such as “the only coach never to get laid into by DeMarcus”.

No good coach is coming to Sacramento. What good coach has Sacramento ever had? Is a team with as many problems as Sacramento able to handle one more in DMC? Yes, he’s young, but what I know about angry people is that they are like anyone else with a problem, they need to change themselves. That might never happen. Is this good for a young team?

All those questions can only be answered by DMC. It sounds like we havent heard the half of it. Who knows how many things are being swept under the rug.

I wrote a lot yesterday about how disappointed I was in the FO and PW for how the have handled this specific situation in the press, and PW’s lack of player development in general, and think he should be let go as soon as it is reasonable. I know some people agree, some do not, and I understand the view point of those who disagree.

What I do not quite understand, is how many poster’s seem to have this keen insight into the mind and emotions of a player that has played 80 games for us. Talking about DMC’s intensity, and passion to win and such. The only thing I know is that he has the passion that he is already a bona-fide NBA star. He dominates the ball with a passion, he is passionate that he never commits a foul, he is passionate that he should take the last shot, he is passionate that he gets fouled every time he gets his shot blocked. Why do we attribute that to passion about the team rather than his own personal success? If I were to guess, and of course it is a guess, because none of us see what happens at practice, in the locker room, or airplane, that it is probably equal. He wants his team to win, and he wants to be getting plenty of shots and credit for the victory. I might be correct, or incorrect (and hopefully I woefully incorrect), but the blind and reverent support in excusing his childish behavior as being a passion to win rather than narcissism or immaturity is odd to me.

I think DMC really SHOULD be rooming with Jimmer.