2:21pm: The Celtics have been enamored with Cousins for years, but Ranadive almost certainly wouldn’t approve a trade that sends him out, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee.
8:23am: The “early word” indicates that the Celtics will try to trade for DeMarcus Cousins this summer, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Indeed, the Celtics will likely be in the hunt for just about every marquee player who might become available in the months ahead, Stein writes, echoing comments that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge made Thursday. LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe, Paul Millsap and Omer Asik are among the many free agents whom Boston is expected to make a run at, as A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com details. Reports conflicted about whether Boston made a run at trading for Cousins before the deadline.
A person familiar with Kings coach George Karl‘s thinking told Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck in February that the Kings didn’t rule out trading their All-Star center at the deadline, and Karl said last month that there were no untouchables on the roster. However, Vlade Divac, whom the Kings installed in March as the head of their basketball operations, is enamored with Cousins and wants the 24-year-old’s time in Sacramento to continue, and owner Vivek Ranadive has bristled at the assertion that Cousins is a trade candidate.
The Celtics have about $40MM in guaranteed salary for next season against a projected $67.1MM cap, but opening cap space would force the team to renounce its unmatched reserve of trade exceptions. None of them, even the one worth nearly $13MM left over from the Rajon Rondo trade, would be large enough to acquire Cousins and his max deal, though the exceptions could help the Celtics structure a larger-scale multiplayer deal involving Cousins or another star. Boston’s store of draft picks loom as significant trade assets, too, as Stein points out, and those won’t disappear if the Celtics decide to use cap space in July, unlike the trade exceptions.
The Celtics don’t have any player who’s truly off-limits for a trade either, according to Stein, though among the C’s under contract, Ainge has a particular soft spot for Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley, the ESPN scribe points out. Sources told Blakely that Smart and Tyler Zeller are the least likely players to leave Boston via trade, as we noted earlier. Ainge is also high on soon-to-be free agents Jae Crowder and Jonas Jerebko, Stein writes, as previous reports have indicated.
He’s not going anywhere . stupid Celtics … Better give sac the entire team haha
So the big city slicker Celtics will be happy to take DeMarcus Cousins off the hands of the yokels out in Sacramento?
The arrogance of the Celtic people to think they can pry away the best big man in the game from the Kings. For what?? A couple of mediocre guards and some ordinary, grossly over paid forwards?
Better they should go after Anthony Davis. This way DMC can kick his butt in green and white as well as those hideous NO uni’s.
our guards are better than sacs guards and what forwards on the C’s are overpaid most are still on rookie deals?
Sacramento has four guards under contract with two years or less NBA experience. The team’s last two first round picks have been guards. So they really don’t need your “better” guards.
They will not improve the Kings.
Neither will trading the games best–and getting better every year–big man.
And you can definitely keep Isiah Thomas. Kings had him already. If they wanted him, he’d still be in Sac instead of Boston.
By the way, ALL the Celtic forwards are overpaid in relation to their production.
DMC is wasting his talent in Sacramento
That’s strictly your opinion.
It is not fact.
if i didnt know any better i would have thought a knicks fan made that comment… celtics have nothing to offer the kings.. they dont have any young players to trade with a damn
the C’s can def. get this deal done, throw at least 85 percent of our picks at them and give them a promising potential filled player(s) and the deal will be done
The celtics don’t need Aldridge they need to get younger. If they are worthy of going after demarcus cousins well then they have to trade one of their picks to Sacramento and probably along with Kelly olynk too. If they are so confident at getting him in July then go after him be my guest.