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Did that DeMarcus Cousins tweet calm you down a bit? Well Adrian Wojnarowski is here to make sure you don't sleep.
From his latest report for Yahoo! Sports:
The Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings exchanged frameworks of a trade centered on All-Star DeMarcus Cousins on Wednesday and discussions could intensify on Thursday, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The Kings started to engage with teams and explore possible trade scenarios beyond the Lakers on Wednesday, league sources said. Sacramento management has publicly said it won't trade Cousins, but that stance has increasingly softened and the franchise is proceeding further on moving him, league sources said.
Per Woj, Kings VP Vlade Divac has supposedly pursued a deal for Cousins that would involve the Lakers' #2 pick as well as Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and "other draft assets", with Sacramento also wanting to unload Carl Landry's contract. He also adds that the Lakers are reluctant to part with either Randle or Clarkson, which tough shit if you're trying to trade for DeMarcus Cousins.
I don't know what to believe. Woj usually has a good record on these things, but Vlade was emphatic yesterday about not trading Cousins and making things work in Sacramento. Also the Lakers don't particularly have the assets to make the Kings a better team immediately, although they do have assets that could potentially help the Kings long term. It's quite possible that this is more agent spin and malarkey that won't amount to anything, but at this point nothing would surprise me.
I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
UPDATE 9:08 PM:
From Sam Amick:
Re: Yahoo report on Cousins/Lakers, Kings' management message unchanged: not interested in moving him, focus of Thursday is on draft. But...
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) June 25, 2015
...there's always a threshold here. If that Kings' ransom gets big enough, you never know. I'm still skeptical they'd do this in division.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) June 25, 2015
UPDATE 9:46 PM:
And from James Ham, Aaron Bruski and Bill Herenda:
Continue to hear that Divac has no intention of trading @boogiecousins. Someone will have to back up the truck to get him out of Sac.
— James Ham (@James_Ham) June 25, 2015
People think this is a continuation of Kings ridiculousness. Yes, they made their bed. But this is an all-out assault on Vivek and Vlade.
— Aaron Bruski (@aaronbruski) June 25, 2015
I’m told the theoretic deal (2, Randle, Clarkson, etc) presented by Yahoo! for a DeMarcus Cousins trade isn’t of interest to the Kings.
— Aaron Bruski (@aaronbruski) June 25, 2015
Learning that Vlade’s stance hasn’t changed, still not moving Cousins, focused on draft & improving #Kings
— Bill Herenda (@billherenda) June 25, 2015