Tag: DeMarcus Cousins

After Signing Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter, Are the Celtics Done Making Moves?

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Boston Herald – A few days before the Celtics hit Las Vegas, it’s fair to say Vegas isn’t big on the Celtics…Having placed the Celtics last fall at a low of 8-1 to win the 2019 championship, the wise people with the sharpened pencils and crystal balls at Westgate SuperBook now put them at 25-1 to be the last team standing next June.

And even that seems optimistic to some. One athletic accountant of our acquaintance believes the C’s are only rated that highly because of what could happen between now and then and because they’ll still draw some interest at that price.

The Celtic roster you see today will not be all that you see in the middle of October. The club is not done making moves, and according to teams around the league that we spoke to Monday, the C’s are very active in trying to see what free agents may still shake loose and what kinds of sign-and-trade deals could free up a better chunk of money to attract a large person.

Granted this article is a bit vague and devoid of many specific details, the fact that its coming from Steve Bulpett is why is sticks out to me. Bulpett is one of the most connected and longest tenured NBA writers in the country so when he says something like this I take note.

I have no idea what this could really even mean because the Celtics are already strapped for cash after the Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter signings. You would need to trade Gordon Hayward and his max salary (which as I said on The 300s Podcast last week I don’t think the C’s will ever do) or some combination of Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and another asset of  your choosing (Yabusele, Timelord etc.) to get a big time deal done. A sign and trade with DeMarcus Cousins was the big one Mattes and I kept going back to as a swing for the fences possibility, but I have zero idea how to finagle the numbers to make that work.

After picking three times in the first round this year, the Celtics are just about out of the beaucoup assets they sat on for the last half a decade. The Memphis Grizzlies pick (top 6 protected in 2020 or unprotected in 2021) and a TBD Charlotte Hornets pick added in the Terry Rozier sign and trade are the only assets the Celtics now own aside from their own picks. No longer can Danny Ainge dangle a treasure chest of future lottery picks in front of rival GMs. Technically the Rozier sign and trade is intentionally unfinished as the C’s debated including a third team (which would have allowed for a Horford return before he signed with Philly) in the transaction.

That opportunity is still there if the C’s want to try and squeeze a little more juice out of Rozier, which Charlotte will be more than willing to do because without the S&T they can’t afford Scary Terry. The C’s own Bird Rights on Rozier so they can pay him the big money he wants and then trade him to Charlotte in the Kemba S&T.

Man, the NBA salary cap rules are a trip huh?

At the very least, maybe Danny is trying to do Terry a solid for not napalming the team in the media like Kyrie did for months.

TLDR; the Celtics will have to either get creative as all hell or yet again tear down their roster and rebuild on the fly by trading multiple starters if there is a big move still to be made .

I Would Trade Every Player On the Celtics Roster for Anthony Davis

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The Vertical – “Rival executives expect Boston to be keeping close tabs on New Orleans, which is entering a critical season. The Pelicans are committed to seeing if an Anthony Davis-DeMarcus Cousins frontcourt can work, but if the season goes awry, it’s widely believed the Celtics will make a strong run at Davis, who is under contract through 2020.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: there are growing rumblings around the league about the future of Anthony Davis and how the Celtics could be in on any potential deal. If the New Orleans Pelicans start off poorly next season and the DeMarcus Cousins pairing doesn’t mesh, a lot of smart guys around the NBA like Chris Mannix expect the Pelicans to start listening to offers for Davis.

I am one of the biggest Anthony Davis guys you’ll find. He is a top five player in this league, he’s a future MVP and I just want to state for the record that I would trade every single player on the 15-man roster plus everyone on the Maine Red Claws to get Anthony Davis. He is literally the only guy in the league that can put up a 40 and 20 game. I will buy that AD jersey TONIGHT.

You can have whatever the fuck you want if it gets me Anthony Davis. Sure you can point out that the C’s would be in the same situation the Pelicans are in right now with Anthony Davis and no one around him. But I will take Danny Ainge and Anthony Davis and let them figure it out. I have faith in that pairing. Love you Jaylen Brown. You look like a pretty good player so far Jayson Tatum. Isaiah you’re my guy, but if I can get Anthony Davis I will play one-on-five if I have to. Get me the Brow and we’ll go from there.

Danny Ainge is Wary of Becoming the Knicks By Trading All His Assets and I Can’t Blame Him

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I’m as frustrated as the rest of you that the Celtics didn’t make any trades, not a single move, but at the risk of sounding like a Green Teamer did we really want to blow up our team for another guy? If you believe the rumors of what Larry Legend wanted for Paul George (both Brooklyn picks and 3/4 of Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder) then there’s no way in hell you make that deal.

I don’t even need to leave the Atlantic Conference to point out the last blockbuster trade a team gutted their roster to acquire a new stud; the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony.

The Knicks sent Wilson Chandler (16.4 ppg that year), Raymond Felton (17.1 ppg that year), Danilo Gallinari (15.9 ppg that year), Timofey Mozgov and a 2014 first-round draft pick and two second-round picks to the Nuggets. All this when Melo was set to become a free agent like 4 months later. So say what you want, but the Knicks did themselves no favors in gutting the roster. “Felton, Gallinari, Mozgov and Chandler were four of New York’s top six players,” this 2011 ESPN article reminds us.

Since making the trade the Knicks have finished:

  • 2011: 36-30 (lost in the 1st round)
  • 2012: 54-28 (lost in the Eastern Conf. semis)
  • 2013: 37-45
  • 2014: 17-65
  • 2015: 32-50

Not great. And with exactly two playoff appearances, never making it past the second round. My point is just taking every asset you have and throwing it against the wall to get one player doesn’t guarantee success. In fact its the main reason Carmelo is so untradeable now, he’s got an albatross of a contract that is weighing down a team’s cap so much that they can’t justify giving up much of any assets for him at all. Oh the irony.

I didn’t mention Boogie Cousins because I 100% wanted him but for whatever reason the Celtics were never in on him. They just flat out did not want the guy. So as shitty as it sounds, Trader Danny will continue to lay in the weeds waiting to bite some unsuspecting GM in the ass. Or the price of Paul George or Jimmy Butler goes down.

PS – Regardless of the fact the Knicks still aren’t any good, that Melo MSG “Coming Home” commercial still absolutely BANGS 6 years later.

Demarcus Cousins Would Be the CT of the NBA in Boston

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Pro Basketball Talk – [Cousins] scoring 55 points on 17-of-28 shooting, leading the Kings to 126-121 win over the team they are chasing for a playoff slot. Near the end of the game, Cousins got ejected after barking at the Trail Blazers bench and his mouthpiece coming out — one referee thought he either spit it or threw it at the Blazers bench and gave him a technical, Cousins’ second. He sprinted to the locker room to avoid doing anything stupid. Then the officials talked, decided the mouthpiece coming out was accidental, and rescinded the technical.

People love CT from the Challenge because he is a Masshole through and through, for better or for worse. Guy is an animal, dominates the game, is a total asshole and disregards what anybody tells him, but is also loyal to his guys and hates losing with a fiery passion. Sound like a certain mercurial someone in the NBA?

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Demarcus Cousins would be worshipped here in Boston because of those qualities, not in spite of them. Don’t let the morally righteous sports writers of this city tell you otherwise. Do I agree with Cousins spitting his mouthguard out at an opposing assistant coach? No. But in the midst of a MONSTER 55 point game against a team your fighting for a playoff spot, all while on a winning team in Boston?? Fans around here would be FIRED UP about that and be tripping all over themselves to say how uber competitive he is, like a young KG. And so would I.

Don’t get caught up on a guy being a miserable prick when he’s on a team thats been in the basement of the league every year of his career. You gotta take some chances to win in the NBA if you don’t have a LeBron fall into your lap like Cleveland. So I’ll take a chance that this guy would thrive in Boston and be embraced by this city.

People used to point to the Pacers in the early part of this decade as a team that did it right and built through the draft without any real superstars. They did it on depth, good coaching and some pretty good players in Paul George (who has grown into a star), Roy Hibbert and David West. They were a fun team to watch and root for. But what happened? They never won shit and they got beat every time by bigger, badder teams like the super team the Heat had a few years ago. They slowly got worse and the team hasn’t gotten close since.

Take a chance on a super talent. Or don’t and be the Pacers for the next decade.

DeMarcus Cousins Subtweets Draymond Green Because He’s Got the Heart of a Champion

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Yahoo Sports – DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t seem to like Draymond Green. Why? Well, it’s quite possible that Cousins feels his own reputation is unfair and that Green would have a similar reputation if his team wasn’t potentially the greatest of all time.

You say petulant asshole, I say a guy sick who is sick and tired of losing. Sure it might just be the rationalizing stage of Celtics denial, but I think if you get a guy like DeMarcus Cousins with a solid coach like Brad Stevens, stable ownership and a strong squad around him this guy could flourish in Boston.

Not everyone handles losing well, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s like this guy from my college flag football team. A total hero who would lose his shit on people for dropping the ball, but the guy could ball and when we were rolling I was more than happy to have him on my team. Who knows, it’s a bold strategy, but maybe not playing for a garbage lottery team year after year helps Cousins grow up and finally become a dominant force in the NBA.

 

Rondo Tossed With 6.7 Seconds Left in the Game

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Legitimately laugh out loud funny. Rajon Rondo has proven more and more since he left the Celtics that he just does. not. care. – pair that with Boogie Cousins and you have a Bash Brothers duo of basket cases. Rondo getting tossed with 6.7 seconds left, while UP by 14 pts (and Cousins earning a 1 game suspension for receiving his league leading 16th Technical Foul of the season) is outrageous.  Rondo has that Happy Gilmore simmering rage that will inevitably explode on a mini-golf clown.

The sarcastic clap is like something you do in a Rec league when you’re getting run out of the gym at the Y. I will forever love Rondo because he was such an odd cat, super competitive (laying the wood on kids in Connect 4), and always relished the audience of big games — but notice how over the years he went from “mercurial” in Boston to now a guy who routinely gets in fights with coaches and refs and gets ejected at a pretty good clip. Goes to show how easy it is to lose your focus when the Big Ticket isn’t screaming in your face 82 nights a year.