There was plenty of news coming out of Sacramento yesterday, as it was reported that Shaquille O'Neal had bought a stake in the Kings and would join the franchise's ownership group. Additionally, fourth-year big man DeMarcus Cousins appears to be closing in on a long-term extension with the club, and there's a chance something could be done in time for camp. Today's Kings links deal primarily with the fallout from those two stories, so let's dive in….
- Kings GM Pete D'Alessandro confirmed today that extension talks with Cousins are progressing, but didn't offer any specific details or a timeline for the deal, tweets Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.
- The Kings held a presser today to introduce O'Neal as a minority shareholder, and Shaq suggested that when he looks at Cousins, he sees "a young Shaquille O'Neal" (Twitter link). We heard yesterday that the former Laker hopes to "teach [Cousins] a few things to add to his game."
- Shaq's share of the Kings will amount to between 2-4%, according to Mike Ozanian of Forbes.com.
- Tom Ziller of SBNation.com weighs in with five thoughts on the seemingly inevitable Cousins extension, discussing, among other things, Vivek Ranadive's role in negotiations and whether the Kings would be better off waiting until next summer.
- As Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee writes, O'Neal will continue as a TNT analyst, but plans to spend a "significant" amount of time in Sacramento.
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