THURSDAY, 3:12pm: The Kings’ internal dismay with Karl is coming far more from top exec Vlade Divac than Ranadive, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Meanwhile, all signs currently point to them holding on to the No. 6 pick (link).
1:06pm: Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is frustrated with the Cousins/Karl rift because when he was hired, the coach said he would not be involved in personnel, sources tell Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee (on Twitter).
TUESDAY, 2:34pm: Divac, sounding irritated, repeated again that he won’t trade Cousins and denied that Karl is making any push for such a deal, as Divac said to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).
7:30am: George Karl has an intense desire for the Kings to trade DeMarcus Cousins, and he and some members of the team’s front office have expressed to executives and coaches from other teams that they hope to have owner Vivek Ranadive’s blessing to trade the All-Star soon, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Ranadive and vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac have nonetheless been adamant about not trading Cousins, and Karl has been trying to recruit Divac and other Kings players to make a push to convince Ranadive to change his mind, according to Wojnarowski.
Cousins is aware of Karl’s push to trade him, and people around the Kings and Cousins increasingly believe that the relationship between the coach and the team’s star is beyond repair. Cousins tweeted emojis depicting a snake in the grass after Wojnarowski’s story emerged late Monday night.
Karl’s insistence that he can’t get along with Cousins has irritated Ranadive, Wojnarowski writes. Ranadive reiterated his long-held stance that he won’t trade Cousins in an interview Monday with USA Today’s Sam Amick.
“We have zero interest in moving Cousins, so I don’t know where that’s coming from,” Ranadive said in reference to the rumor that the Lakers are pursuing Cousins. “But if you like, you should talk to Vlade, because I know Vlade feels exactly the same way. And I’m deferring to Vlade on everything. We have no interest in moving him. From my perspective, it’s really simple: we feel that he’s a one-of-a-kind player, and we have a group of players right now and we’re going to build on it.”
Kings higher-ups believe it’ll be tough to find value for Cousins and believe they have a better chance to find the right trade for Rudy Gay, according to Wojnarowski. Sacramento is pursuing trades for Gay and the rest of its roster, Wojnarowski hears. The Lakers are reportedly pushing for Cousins and have had exploratory talks with the Kings, but Sacramento would rather take back veterans than the No. 2 overall pick, the Yahoo! scribe writes.
Cousins has privately feared that Karl wanted him out, and Karl’s remark in April that he’s never had one player who would be untradeable didn’t exactly assuage those concerns, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Cousins, who is a Relativity Sports client, and his representatives have been told he won’t be traded, and Cousins likes Sacramento, Jones also tweets. Amick hears a somewhat different story, that Cousins’s camp is clearly in favor of the center becoming a Laker. Cousins has asked not to be traded, according to Jones, so it would seem there are conflicting messages surrounding the talented 24-year-old big man.
Why would the Kings want veterans back for Cousins? They should trade him and get pick #2. They could get Okafor at 2 and possibly Mudiay at 6. That would be a pretty good duo in my opinion
They would need more than just pick 2. Most likely 3 first rounders and Clarkson and Jordan Hill. I could theoretically see the Kings trading Cousins to Denver for Lawson, Faried and Denvers First rounder this year and next (on draft day since they can’t trade back to back years picks)
Yeah, the Denver trade makes a little more sense with the “Sacramento prefers veterans” tidbit. Although, maybe a 3rd team would need to be involved to increase the value of pick that Sacramento might receive (Knicks at #4 maybe?). That way, they’d basically end up with Mudiay (at #4), Lawson, and Faried and Denver gets Cousins. Denver could then trade Chandler for Jamal Crawford….that’s a decent team.
I think this also proves that George Karl is one of the most overrated coaches of all time. His teams are decent in the regular season but he’s only been out of the 1st round of the playoffs once in the last 15 years (look it up…pretty pathetic). He’s only been past the 2nd round 4 times in 26 years of coaching.
Cousins maturity has increased dramatically under Assistant Coach Corliss Williamson’s guidance, Coach might want to look ahead not back, only He knows what works for Him. Old School????
Cousins loves Malone. Karl loves Karl and Faried. Done deal. If we have to lose Chandler, we have Jockitch, Hertzagovina and maybe Mudiay coming, so we would be great. W/Nurk and Cousins at 5 and 4, Gallo 3, Hertz and Mudiay, we would make playoffs next year. Come on Tim and Josh, got any ba_ _ s?
Excuse me. Karl loves Ty Lawson.
how you think u getting mudiay? he is one of the top 4 players in the draft and will be gone by then.
Knicks need to get in these discussions yo.
Knicks have nothing to offer that wouldn’t bankrupt us in the draft for the next few years.
Sorry. You have a young center who gave you 24/12/4 last year and shoots 78% from FT and .470 for the floor signed to a below market contract. Figure it out Karl. Fans don’t pay to see you coach.
I still dont understand why George Karl took that job.I especially dont understand why they hired him if this is his stance on Cousins.
Also, I literally cant see any way the Lakers could get Cousins, even if the Kings wanted to trade him. They can try to give them their 2 1st round picks this year (2 and 27), but the Kings would need at least 1, if not 2 more assets, and the Lakers dont have any. They have Clarkson and Randle, but I would think that Sacramento wants more than that
Anybody remember, wasn’t Karl critical in getting Ray Allen traded from the Bucks to the Sonics back in 2001? That worked out so well. (Payton was great, but….)
Are y’all reading the article???
“Divac, sounding irritated, REPEATED again that he won’t trade Cousins and denied that Karl is making any push for such a deal”
that was a recent update to the article…Personally, I figured that was the case, especially after everything we’ve heard all off season, but this keeps coming up, so there must be some truth to it. You also have to remember that these same rumors started when Karl took the job
I wouldn’t take George Karl’s advice on trading any Super Star! Yeah, NOBODY is untradeable to that HC! Well in 2000, he made the very same request when he Coached the Milwaukee Bucks! He got Larry Harris to Trade a 24 year old Ray Allen for a washed up Gary Payton & Dez Mason! Well Seattle got a HOF player in his Prime, while Milwaukee got an AWFUL has been & never will be! Whatever you do Divac, DON’T LISTEN TO THAT GUY when it comes to Personnel moves! He’s a great HC though!
Vlade and karl need to get on the same page
Adrian Wojnarowski is a cancer in the media industry and when all of this turns out to be BS will he be held accountable? NO
This is obviously a media hyped headline…they want this but not the Kings, Vlade, Vivek and definitely George Karl! F@~~the media and their lies! Kings fans love Demarcus! We want him!
What are the needs of Sacramento?
PG, wing player, rim protecting big
Boogie is going to the Lakers