Speaking to reporters today after the DeMarcus Cousins trade was formally announced, Kings general manager Vlade Divac said that he had a better offer on the table two days ago for Cousins, according to Tim Cato of SBNation.com and Sean Cunningham of ABC10 in Sacramento (Twitter links). “I don’t want to discuss in details about the process,” said Divac, who indicated that the Pelicans’ package was the next-best offer after the one that fell through.
[RELATED: Kings trade DeMarcus Cousins to Pelicans]
Whether or not Divac’s statement is true – and there’s no reason to think it’s not – it’s unclear why he felt motivated to share that with the media today. For Kings fans upset about the team’s return for Cousins, the admission will likely just be another signal that the franchise mishandled the trade process. It’s also not exactly a vote of confidence for Buddy Hield and the other new Kings, who are essentially being told that they weren’t the club’s first choice.
Despite his mention of that other offer, Divac insisted that now was the best time to complete a Cousins deal, and that the Pelicans’ proposal was the best one still on the table for the team, tweets Aaron Bruski of Hoop-Ball.com. According to Divac, the decision to trade Cousins was made recently, but the team entered All-Star weekend knowing that the star center would likely be moved — Cousins’ value would’ve been reduced further if Sacramento had waited until the offseason, in the view of the Kings’ GM (all Twitter links via Bruski).
Although Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway were seemingly included in the trade as salary-matching pieces, the Kings have no immediate plans to waive either player, Divac said today (Twitter link via Cunningham).
Kings other offer could’ve been Lebron, Kyrie, K Love, Shumpert and JR Smith and he would’ve turned it down for the Pelicans offer lol
Ha
Can we officially call this the worst run franchise in sports? I mean the Marlins, Jets, and Browns are up there, but they really are giving them a run for their money.
Browns have a good FO now so Jets, marlins and kings
Also I guess Knicks too with Dolan running the show.
Don’t forget my Bulls
No… until the browns do something they rank up their. Just having names in the FO doesn’t make it a good one. Post a 2 win season and I will take them off the list
Kings are up there, but that is definitely the Marlins. The Marlins are the Lebrons of being a joke organization. They’re meta knight. Cleveland Browns are probably Kevin durant, Kings are right there, Knicks, Dolphins, Jets, Buffalo Bills are up there with some random hockey teams probably. This is off the top of my head, so I probably missed a couple
The Marlins have a horrible owner, but management is usually pretty good. This is a team with two World Series championships in the last 20 years, at least.
Loria wasn’t involved in either championship. He got the team the year we won in 2003, but those players were all guys developed or traded for by Dombrowski. All Loria did was sign Pudge to that 1 year deal, which anyone else would have done if they had the chance. And he acts like it was all him…and the front office has made terrible move after terrible move for the last 5 years, at least, and all of it pushed for by Loria, even ones the front office doesn’t want to do. He never tris to win, even when they have a good chance to at least make the playoffs with 1 or 2 depth moves. He always goes half way, if he does decide to do anything, and then complains when it doesn’t work. I wish I was just being biased. But unfortunately I’m not b/c I could literally talk about that organization for forever. If Loria actually sells, I’m throwing a massive celebration somehow. It will be the greatest day in south florida sports history, including the championships. It’s even right there with Castro dying in terms of general south florida history. A couple of years ago, polls said Loria is more hated than Castro…all of Canada hates Loria. An entire country…that’s how bad he is
True. The management is good when the owner doesn’t meddle.
Unfair to include the Marlins in this. They just suddenly lost the best and most valuable player to the team and fanbase in the history of the team (José Fernández). The team was actually on the right track before that tragic boating accident.
Padres also
Chargers worse than Padres
Also Casspi is a pretty good add for New Orleans too
Knicks aren’t mentioned in worst hmmm. Lakers deal was better, glad it didn’t happen no guarantee of resigning remember D12? Now Paul George or Jimmy Butler on deck.
Less value? Teams have way more flexibility before the draft, these fools are incompetent af. Seattle should be happy it’s gonna get an expansion team instead of this pile of garbage.
Cousins only has 1 more year after this one. Less value b/c trading him now allows the team that gets him to push for this year, and possibly turn him around in another trade if it doesn’t work out
the kings are a joke and I feel really bad for their fans.
I think its time for divac and the owner needs to just let basketball people handle basketball moves and stop trying to be jerry jones. this is the more poorly ran team in the nba more so then the knicks.
#trainwreck
shut up shut up shut up already Vlade
Sorry Vlade. This wasn’t the best time to make the deal (it rarely is when a better offer was on the table 2 days earlier). You don’t even know at this point where the N.O. draft pick will fall.
He’s not a FA this summer; he’s eligible for an extension (only from his existing team, and larger for his original team). So, you could have read the 2 markets and gone either way – trade him with a year left on his contract (no big difference in value, as Bird rights are still there) – OR – sign him to the extension (yes, he would have signed) and trade him next year (when he’ll be locked up for 4.5 more years, albeit at a very high price). All 29 teams in the running, and with so many owners looking to make a splash, and so many GMs looking to save their jobs, someone would have bettered this offer (maybe many times over).
So I’m not defending the trade, I think it was stupid, but I’m trying to offer a different view here. So it would’ve been much harder to trade Cousins post extension. If he signed, that’s one more year (at the least he has to stay in Sacramento, because of CBA rules). So that’s another two years of lunacy in Sacramento. Once Cousins can actually be traded, then the team has to find another team with the cap space and/or contracts to match salary. At that point, Sacramento is either getting bad contracts or a bunch of high salary, expiring contracts. Adding extra players into the deal for salary purposes only makes it harder to complete the deal (as more players are changing teams).
Hire Hinkie
I understand vlade really wanted a draft pick in this years draft .. but he gave up one of the top 20 players in the nba for a pick that will probably land in the 18-24 range and I don’t know if he has noticed BUT SAC doesn’t get those top 20 types of talents often despite their usually high draft order.
I agree it’s volatile for major piece in a major trade, BUT it’s # 8 right now. Even if they make the playoffs, it’s hard to see it moving lower than 15-18.
If the Kings finish in the bottom 10 I think they get to keep their pick, so by losing they will als earn their own pick back instead of shipping it t Chicago. That’s a big part of this trade not enough people are mentioning, still seems like cousins is worth a legit semi star and 2 first round picks in lottery, but I don’t know all the offers maybe this was the best or second best. Cousins is a cancer, he needs to quit being an emotional tough guy who wants to blame coaches, teammates, and refs for why his teams don’t win. He acts like he is the only player to ever have the refs miss a call on. He is young though he can change, hope so cuz dude has skills and It would be cool to see him having fun playing ball on a good team. The bad boy image doesn’t work as well in today’s game, but sometimes when people gang up and hate on you so much, people that done really know you, it makes you want to double down and be what they don’t like even more. Fresh start for big cousins! If they get some shooters and defensive perimeter players they are gonna be fun.
if the kings pick is in the top 10, the sixers have a swap option.
Either way, the Kings should have a good shot at a top 10 pick. Philly would have to go on a run (that would coincide with Sacramento falling) in order for it not to be.
Can’t really blame Divac for the crap show which is the Sacramento Kings. We really have no idea how much control he has over Front Office operations, and this statement is him pretty much telling everyone that he tried to trade Cousins two days ago for a better offer, but got shutdown by ownership.
I prefer blaming Divac for his part in all of this.
The owner has proven to be terrible. Not trying to deflect total blame off of Divac here, he does deserve his fair share. But I’m more inclined to believe that Ranadive is exerting more power than is being made known to the public.
They are tanking so they don’t have to give the IDGITS known as GARPAX for team HOTMESS (bulls) their first round choice this year which is top 10 protected and has been for past few years. This year pick turns into a second rounder if it’s a top ten which with this trade it will now most certainly be
“Unclear why he felt motivated to share that with the media today” that Divac had a better offer two days ago?
Unclear? What’s the mystery about it? He’s hearing how everyone thinks he got a terrible return for Cousins, and he wants everyone to know he liked a better offer from a few days earlier. Still can’t read between the lines? He’s saying this trade went through at someone else’s behest, in case you were thinking he’s the problem with the poor decision of this trade. It’s an advertisement saying I’ll be looking for work soon and I just want everyone to know that I would have done better than this if I had a say.