Demarcus Cousins is still the biggest missed opportunity in the Ainge era.

[Roy H.]

Stevens has an equal say in personnel ( a mistake in my view), and I doubt he is interested in coaching problem players, or bigs who play mainly inside and protect the rim.  He likes bigs who can play on the perimeter. The last coach who was like that was the infamous Pitino, who was far less a success in Boston, mainly because the GM was not Ainge.

I was floored by Ainge's comment after the trade deadline that "rebounders detract from offense." Especially after he had said "our biggest need is a rim protector." Wow. That smacks of a conflict with his coach, who has said he never was able to recruit good big men at small Butler, so he had to win other ways.

I hope this doesn't mean Ainge would not trade for Bill Russell if he fell into his lap. 

"When you just add a rebounder, and he hurts your offense, it defeats the purpose"

that was the actual quote. Rebounders dont necessarily detract from the offense, but if you add a rebounder who hurts you more across the rest of the game than he brings you on the glass than it defeats the purpose.

Ainge might hate rebounding, but he is absolutely correct in this quote. If you bring someone in to grab rebounds but they cant defend the perimeter and stagnate the offense and clog the paint then that player is not a net positive.

In general, yes. However, there will be matchups where rebounding is such a mismatch that it takes on added importance.

Also, of course, none of that applies to Cousins, who ranges from good to elite as a scorer, rebounder, passer, outside shooter, and defender.

He's a malcontent ballstopper who struggles off-the-ball. He's also not a good defender. He's lazy as can be, gives inconsistent effort, and does not rotate well defensively.

Fantasy darling, chemistry killer.

You must watch the Kings play, what, once or twice per year?

Calling Cousins a ball-stopper and a bad defender is absurd.

You really think the ball doesn't stick in Cousins' hands? He holds the ball offensively and it's little wonder why no one ever seems to improve while playing with him. I'm hard pressed to think of a single player that improved when traded to the Kings.

Yes, he's a bad defender because he's lazy. He doesn't contest shooters, doesn't rotate, and rather be around the basket to collect boards then make the proper rotation.

http://i.imgur.com/vN77zdX.gifv

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/demarcus-cousins-is-slow-the-pelicans-are-fast-somethings-gotta-give/

Cousins is capable of playing fast. His Sacramento teams led the NBA in pace twice (including last season), and finished among the league’s top 10 in three other seasons. But the 26-year-old, who holds the ball longer than any NBA center, was in the midst of a career year playing in the Kings’ plodding, methodical offense, which ranks fourth slowest in pace.

It’s also worth watching whether New Orleans — a team that’s shown almost no commitment to offensive rebounding because of its emphasis on getting back defensively — will now ask its two great bigs to crash the glass more.

If it does, it will be imperative for Cousins to shed the poor hustle habits he displayed when frustrated. His temper tantrums and preoccupation with arguing his point to officials partially explain why the Kings have been an average defense following a made shot, but among the NBA’s worst at stopping opponents after they themselves have failed to score. The lack of hustle, where Cousins doesn’t even try to get back into a play, also sheds light on why Sacramento ranks last in defense after committing a turnover.

Time of possession doesn't equate to being a ball stopper. Cousins has the ball about 3 minutes per game. Marc Gasol is #2 in time of possession. Nikola Jokic is #4. Horford is #7. Those are the top four centers in terms of assists; none stops the ball.

[crimson_stallion]

Cousins wasn't available to the Celtics for the same price as NO.  They wanted a specific player.  Also, Divac said he had a better offer earlier but couldn't/didn't take it.  Has it ever come out who that was??  Could it have been from Danny?

No. It was reported the C's didn't make an offer at all because they deemed Cousins wasn't a good fit personality-wise. I think that's the part the frustrates some people around here: Danny didn't even throw his hat in the ring. I think if we tried and were outbid, that's one thing. It's another to not even try after hyping up your assets for a move just like this.

With that said, we weren't the only team to question Demarcus' attitude and ultimately pass.

No, but we may be the only #1 seed to get swept out in the first round, and by a team lead by our former player who was deemed to have poor character.

Ironic, isn't it?

Passing on Cousins was infuriating to me.

The thing that ticked me off the most is that ALL these years, Danny Ainge has been talking about fireworks, but he's kept saying that he's holding off making smaller moves because he wants to hold on to his assets from one of those moments when a huge opportunity pops up where a team that's struggling decides to seriously consider selling off a star asset.

This season we had:

* The Magic shopping Vucevic
* The Magic shopping Ibaka (for practically nothing)
* The Knicks shopping Melo
* The Kings shopping Cousins
* The Bulls reportedly shopping Butler
* The Pacers reportedly shopping George

Plus you have Milwaukee, who have seemingly had Monroe available for the last 2 or 3 seasons now.

This season was like the trade deadline equivalent of the goose who laid the golden egg - teams all over the league offering up their stars and borerline stars. 

Yet Danny did absolutely nothing.  The moment he's been waiting for and collecting all these assets for has come, and is right there in front of him, and he sat on his butt and did nothing at all.

Why? 

Because clearly Danny will not make any moves unless he feels he is ripping the other team off.  If it happens to be a fair deal that benefits both teams?  Nooooo, that's not worthy of Mr Ainge.    We have to both make our team exponentially stronger, while also leaving the opposing team sucking for decades - anything less we won't accept.

I feel like Danny pulling off the Nets deal has changed him.  I feel it's changed his expectations on what type of deal you pull the trigger on, and I feel like he expects every deal to be highway robbery now, otherwise he just won't pull the trigger.

I completely understand why so many opposing GMs reportedly don't want to deal with him. I wouldn't either.

[vjcsmoke]

No, but we may be the only #1 seed to get swept out in the first round, and by a team lead by our former player who was deemed to have poor character.

1.  We're not going to get swept out of the 1st round.
2.  Rondo was terrible on the Mavericks.  Simply awful.  And that's the team we traded him to.
3.  Cousins has nothing to do with Rondo.

Honestly I would have liked to see us roll the dice on Cousins but it didn't happen.  We just need to get over it.

He probably would have helped a LOT but for whatever reason the Celtics did not throw their hat into the ring for his services.

Hopefully we find a way to land a good big through another way.  Robin **** Lopez should not be looking like the second coming of Tim Duncan against us.  It's ridiculous.

[dreamgreen]

Yea he was huge for the Pelicans! Remind again what their record is with him?

Remind me what Boston's playoff record is with all their "high-character" guys?

Remind me how many playoff games Cousins has played in?

[Vermont Green]

To get Cousins, we probably needed to give up Brown and a 2017 first round pick plus salary matching that probably would have included Amir but maybe Horford.  Heild and Brown are not all that much different in value but of course our BKN pick is much more valuable.  Maybe we needed to do a trade to get a lesser lottery pick.

Right or wrong, I just think Danny made the decision based on value.  He didn't think it would be a good deal.

How we would be doing in the playoffs if we had Cousins is a totally hypothetical question that no one knows the answer to.  We would have needed to give up some of the current rotation but would have gotten a legitimate star, albeit one with considerable baggage.

I am OK with not making this trade based on what I know

[LGC88]

Cousins is a big talent with no discipline. Not a good recipe for success.
I don't think you can make an adult disciplined all of a sudden.
Maybe I'm wrong and I'll be happy to realize that once Cousins wins a well deserved championship.

Divac ask 2017 pick + Brown (per Sac reporter)
Chicago and Indiana didn't answer the phone call from Danny (per Wyc).
The rest (Ibaka wanted to go Toronto anyway (Biyombo kept praising Toronto to Ibaka), Denver were high on Plumlee) isn't worth considering.
I'm tired of the people who think a GM has full control. Players have needs, other GMs have their saying too.
For what is worth, apparently Danny's offer was better for Tucker but somehow Phoenix prefered Toronto's one (pick this year was their choice over other asset). I think Marc D'amico reported it.

Danny has plan and he stick to it. I'm grateful he has a plan, because seeing Detroit, Orlando, Knicks and co (even Chicago is a mess, playoff is fool's gold as usual with bull's FO). I'll be mad to be one of these teams' fan.

[Surferdad]

DeMarcus Cousins. Taj Gibson. Serge Ibaka. Jusuf Nurkic. All guys who went for relatively cheap that Boston didn't make a move on for whatever reason, despite having all the assets needed to acquire them (wouldn't have even had to use a Nets pick for anyone other than Cousins).

Ainge's inaction at the deadline to acquire a big is indefensible, imo. The hell is the purpose of all of those assets if you're not going to actually use them? What, just keep adding rookies to the rotation while you're trying to compete, forcing them to develop with maybe ~15 minutes every other game because no one wants to risk trading the potential of guys like Terry Rozier and Jordan Mickey? Or even better, stashing them overseas because you simply don't have the roster space for them? Better that than possibly "lose" a trade.

Catching up late on this thread so I only read page 1 of the responses, but this is my feeling too.  I am a faithful Ainge supporter so that give me the right to complain.     A move for a big at the deadline would have helped in this 1st round, but this isn't about getting a little further in the playoffs, it's about giving guys like Smart, Crowder, Brown the opportunity to become truly battle-tested in a playoff run.  Getting eliminated in the 1st round multiple years in a row does not do that.

[Surferdad]

Putting 2 hotheads like smart and cousins on the same team is a recipe for disaster

Like KG, Perk and Rondo. A lot of guys on that team had fire, including occasionally losing control of their emotions.

Over time, I've come to appreciate hotheads.

Not only that, but if pressed, I would have included Smart in the deal for Cousins.  He's a better player than Buddy Hield.

[Vermont Green]

Catching up late on this thread so I only read page 1 of the responses, but this is my feeling too.  I am a faithful Ainge supporter so that give me the right to complain.     A move for a big at the deadline would have helped in this 1st round, but this isn't about getting a little further in the playoffs, it's about giving guys like Smart, Crowder, Brown the opportunity to become truly battle-tested in a playoff run.  Getting eliminated in the 1st round multiple years in a row does not do that.

This has been my point all along also.  Is it really worth giving up even modest young talent to get a big who might help us win one more round.  If anything, hasn't these first two games of the playoffs shown just how far we are from being a true contender?  Is Serge Ibaka going to take a team that can't beat Chicago and turn them into a team that contends with Cleveland?

My advice to people is be thankful that we don't totally suck while rebuilding like most teams do but also don't be seduced by the quick fix so that we end up like the Knicks.

[Surferdad]

Stevens has an equal say in personnel ( a mistake in my view), and I doubt he is interested in coaching problem players, or bigs who play mainly inside and protect the rim.  He likes bigs who can play on the perimeter. The last coach who was like that was the infamous Pitino, who was far less a success in Boston, mainly because the GM was not Ainge.

I was floored by Ainge's comment after the trade deadline that "rebounders detract from offense." Especially after he had said "our biggest need is a rim protector." Wow. That smacks of a conflict with his coach, who has said he never was able to recruit good big men at small Butler, so he had to win other ways.

I hope this doesn't mean Ainge would not trade for Bill Russell if he fell into his lap. 

"When you just add a rebounder, and he hurts your offense, it defeats the purpose"

that was the actual quote. Rebounders dont necessarily detract from the offense, but if you add a rebounder who hurts you more across the rest of the game than he brings you on the glass than it defeats the purpose.

Ainge might hate rebounding, but he is absolutely correct in this quote. If you bring someone in to grab rebounds but they cant defend the perimeter and stagnate the offense and clog the paint then that player is not a net positive.

The quotes makes sense generally, but we are talking about DeMarcus Cousins who is perhaps the most offensively talented big man in the NBA.  He can shoot threes now too.  Therefore, the point is moot.

What CBS and DA are NOT acknowledging is the huge negative impact of the lack of defensive rebounding.  The team plays great defense for almost 24 seconds, forcing up a bad shot. Then, all that effort goes to waste b/c Robin Lopez grabs the offensive board and scores on the putback.  How do you think that makes the Celtics players feel, a bit like hitting your head against the wall?  Bottom line is that any defensive intensity is neutralized by lack of offensive rebounding.  Then throw in poor shooting (and NO DOUBT DMC would have helped on that too) and there is just no reason to believe the team has a good formula to win.

[The One]

DeMarcus Cousins. Taj Gibson. Serge Ibaka. Jusuf Nurkic. All guys who went for relatively cheap that Boston didn't make a move on for whatever reason, despite having all the assets needed to acquire them (wouldn't have even had to use a Nets pick for anyone other than Cousins).

Ainge's inaction at the deadline to acquire a big is indefensible, imo. The hell is the purpose of all of those assets if you're not going to actually use them? What, just keep adding rookies to the rotation while you're trying to compete, forcing them to develop with maybe ~15 minutes every other game because no one wants to risk trading the potential of guys like Terry Rozier and Jordan Mickey? Or even better, stashing them overseas because you simply don't have the roster space for them? Better that than possibly "lose" a trade.

I think a substantial amount of the assets will be used this summer for a superstar.

[TheTruthFot18]

This has been my point all along also.  Is it really worth giving up even modest young talent to get a big who might help us win one more round.  If anything, hasn't these first two games of the playoffs shown just how far we are from being a true contender?  Is Serge Ibaka going to take a team that can't beat Chicago and turn them into a team that contends with Cleveland?

My advice to people is be thankful that we don't totally suck while rebuilding like most teams do but also don't be seduced by the quick fix so that we end up like the Knicks.

According to some on here he was the missing peice to not only get past Cleveland but compete with GS in the finals. Dang, we were so close to the finals you guys