Sacramento Kings: Is DeMarcus Cousins an All Star?

DeMarcus Cousins (R) competing with Roy Hibbert of Indiana

Last night marked the beginning of the Sacramento Kings’ 6-game road trip in one of the worst places to play, Indianapolis. The Pacers are owners of the league’s best record at 19-1 at home. Even though the Kings have looked better the last couple games, they were no match for a team that has it’s sights set on the Finals, dropping the game 116-92. The Kings faced by far and away the best defensive team in the league, and it showed on offense, as only two players were able to reach double digits in what amounted to the blowout you would expect from these two teams. Sadly, the team couldn’t bring the defensive intensity that was going to be a necessity in order to keep this game close, as an otherwise average Pacers offense was allowed to shoot 55% and net 1.08 points per possession. However, there was a lone bright spot for the Kings, and that was DeMarcus Cousins playing like a straight beast against the best defensive center in the league, Roy Hibbert.

Boogie finished the game with 31 points and 13 boards, including 19 and 10 in the third, where he was basically unstoppable, using every facet of his game to dominate the only quarter the Kings managed to win last night. The Boogieman started slow, as he seemed to be trying to do too much, forcing passes and barreling into Hibbert instead of using his soft touch and athleticism to find angles for shots. He definitely isn’t used to facing someone of Hibbert’s caliber who can stay with him on his pump and drives, but in the first quarter Hibbert did exactly that, easily thwarting Boogie’s layup attempt. However, as the first half progressed, you could see Boogie figuring out how he wanted and needed to attack big Roy. He dropped in four post points as the second quarter came to a close, foreshadowing what was going to take place in the third quarter.

In the third, Boogie displayed everything that makes him so good offensively. There was a steal and coast to coast drive and dunk that I don’t think any other center in the league could have made. Another play, he pulled down a one-handed rebound on Hibbert and then immediately put the ball in the hoop, drawing a foul. He had another put-back where he miss timed his jump and barely tapped the ball on his way down, but had a soft enough touch to still get the ball up and over the rim. Boog even showed some nice ability moving without the ball, a rarity in terms of cutting to the hoop for scoring chances, as he saw the Pacers big relax on D, allowing him to cut from the left block to catch a pass from Rudy Gay for a layup. The activity that Boogie was showing on offense is, to me, why he has improved to his current state this year. He is no longer settling for what his athleticism can get him, instead working to find scoring opportunities through early post-ups and patient creativity on drives. This was great to watch last night because this is the type of team that can slow DeMarcus down due to their great team defense and having a great individual defender to stop him, which can force him to become lazy and frustrated over how hard he has to work to get good touches.

Defensively, Cousins brought his usual mixed bag of effort, positioning, and skill that is what holds him back still as a player and no doubt All Star candidate. As I have been preaching all year, if Boogie can show effort and attention on defense, he will be truly dominant. With that said, let me note somethings I noticed on defense yesterday. His post defense isn’t that bad, he was more than game going against Roy when he caught it in the post battling him to relative standstills and even forcing Hibbs to airball a righty jump hook from 7 or so feet. He also worked to move and stay in front of ball handlers when they attacked him in the paint, whether that was off of pick-and-rolls or straight drives. However, the key word here is worked, because he still struggles to move quickly, a la Hibbert or Joakim Noah, and truly prevent a ball handler from getting a good look at the rim. For all of his athleticism, he isn’t overly quick in his defensive shuffle, therefore this is an adventure every time a driver attacks him, but he definitely showed last night that he can at least be close to affect a shot in some way down low. Where Big Cous does fail though is when he has to move quickly to pick up someone outside the paint. It seems like DeMarcus has a shock collar on that zaps him every time he leaves the paint, causing him to give up mid range jumpers to any big man that wants one. Even though Roy Hibbert isn’t a very good shooter, he still hit a couple last night because Boogie wouldn’t close out on him with any type of urgency, allowing Hibbert to essentially shoot practice jumpers. All in all, it was one of Boogie’s better defensive games (all relative), augmenting his stellar offensive showing enough to make him the best or second best (Paul George) player on the floor.

With all this said, I think I am going to fall into the Boogie isn’t an All Star camp, as much as it pains me. He has truly evolved into an offensive force this year, one of the eighth or so best scorers in the league on more than just a points per game measure. More advance stats such as true shooting percentage and PER show that, for a non three point shooting big man, he’s about as efficient as a high usage big man can be. He is proving to be one of the top passing big men in the league, on both raw assist numbers and assist percentage, something that can help him when teams inevitably send more double teams at him in the post. His defense definitely is a drawback, (only Dirk and David Lee are comparably as bad among those in consideration for the All Star game), and will no doubt contribute to him not getting in. However, I think the determining factors are going to be his attitude and the team’s lack of success. This bothers me some, a) because his attitude is somewhat better this year, though he still definitely can improve still and b) because it is not really his fault his team sucks. Just look at what the Kings start at shooting guard and power forward, players who would struggle to crack a rotation on a decent team. As far as the attitude, the All Star game should be for on court production, not on whether you like a guy or think he would be fun to play with. In the end, I am fine with him being left out of the game, I think there is still enough that he needs to work on to be a no-doubter. Let’s hope others see it differently though.

Next Game is tonight at Minnesota.