Did The Celtics Make A Mistake By Passing On DeMarcus Cousins?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Celtics have been looking for a star the past three years, yet they passed on one big name traded away for a lackluster return this weekend.
The Sacramento Kings made the DeMarcus Cousins trade official on Monday, dealing the 6-foot-11 center and Omri Casspi to the New Orleans Pelicans for a package that would have probably dismissed with laughs if it was suggested on any NBA message board: a top-3 protected 2017 first-round pick, a 2017 second-round pick, Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway and the expiring contract of Tyreke Evans.
"It was time for a change and I decided this was the best direction for the organization," Kings GM Vlade Divac said in an official statement as he took a parting shot at Cousins while sending him out the door. "Winning begins with culture and character matters."
Multiple reports have indicated that the Celtics never had serious interest in Cousins, largely due to his attitude issues, both on the court and behind the scenes. The question is whether exercising caution on Cousins was a wise move by Boston or if the All-Star center's 27 points and 10 rebounds per game were worth the potential headache for Brad Stevens and the C's coaching staff.
For Danny Ainge, I think the situation largely comes down to his ability to be picky with his next major move. The Celtics are dealing from a position of power right now. They are the second best team in the Eastern Conference and have more draft assets than any team in the league and a cache of promising young players as well.
There's no doubt that this team needs to make a move at some point to cash in those assets, but was Cousins the right player to do it on? Perhaps in a world where the Celtics lacked other appealing options they would have pushed harder for Cousins, but that's not the case here. The front office has planned vigilantly to have salary cap space this offseason, a versatile lineup on both ends of the floor and future flexibility.
Dealing for Cousins, even at a lower price than anyone in league circles could have ever imagined, would have taken away a lot of that flexibility from Ainge. Cousins will earn $18 million next season and then will hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2018, eating up a huge chunk of the team's cap room after that for any team that decides to retain him.
If Ainge and Stevens aren't sold on him as a potential building block to battle the likes of the Cavs and Warriors in today's small-ball era, using assets on him now when he eliminates some team construction options is not an enticing situation. If the Celtics believe a player like Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin or Jimmy Butler is a better fit than Cousins, then it makes sense for them to be patient (assuming they can deliver on one of those names).
It's also not clear either if Cousins/Horford would have been a frontcourt that meshed well together in today's NBA. They both have the ability to spread the floor offensively, but their lack of mobility on the defensive end could have forced Stevens into a corner on some nights. You don't want to be paying big money to two big guys when one of them is forced to the bench in end-of-game situations and that's a situation Stevens could have been facing most nights. Seeing how well Anthony Davis and Cousins co-exist together in New Orleans should help answer this question.
Ultimately, time will tell whether this was a missed opportunity for the C's front office, but there were enough question marks in play here to prevent this move from being a slam dunk for Boston. If Ainge is able to deliver a star of a different ilk at this trade deadline or this summer, people will forget about this quickly. Until then, the microscope will be on Cousins to see if he can help transform the Pelicans into a playoff team alongside Anthony Davis.
Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.
