#FreeBoogie
Demarcus Cousins is officially freed
New Orleans traded Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, 2017 First rounder, and a future second rounder for the best center in basketball. Somewhere on Medium, Bill Simmons is crying that Vivek didn’t realize that the Nets’ pick was on the table.
The next-gen twin towers of the NBA didn’t get much time to play together at the All-Star game tonight but I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work (at least for the next couple months). They are both highly-skilled big men, who can shoot (Boogie can stroke threes while AD specializes in mid-rangers), switch on defense and absolutely demolish their opponents in the post. If ever there was a reason to get NBA League Pass halfway through the season, this is it. This team will be a blast to watch.
Negatives: Cousins loses the most from this deal (approximately $30 million) as he will no longer be able to sign the super-max $200 million “Designated Veteran Player Exception” extension with the Kings, effectively rendering his 6 years of trash-pickup utterly pointless. The Pelicans might have just leveraged their future for a Rent-A-Boogie 3 month trial, while the Kings lose half of their ticket sales for the remainder of the season and Vivek Ranadivé became public enemy number 1 for players and their agents. Colin Cowherd might have to eat his words about Wildcats underachieving in the NBA as Boogie and Davis now give the Pelicans a legitimate chance of making some noise at the 8-seed in the West if they beat out the Nuggets for that final playoff spot and earn themselves a showdown with the Warriors (Fingers crossed Wall, Bledsoe, and Booker join them at some point down the line).
Positives: The Pelicans now have the best chance of attracting John Calipari to join the NBA coaching ranks. Cousins and Davis might be a better big-man combo than the best version of Randolph/Gasol, and are certainly a more versatile duo. The Warriors might have a good challenge in the first round. The Kings gain yet another talented guard and a draft pick that they can… maybe this one should be in the negatives… Somewhere Jrue Holiday is smiling because his assist total (and earnings potential with it) just got a major boost.
How this affects everyone else: Like I mentioned before, the Warriors will start to miss Andrew Bogut pretty fast if they have to play the Pelicans in the playoffs. The Celtics still have the Nets’ pick and now their trade options are running out. The 76ers and Jahlil Okafor are also running out of options. Carmelo just became the patron saint of suffering superstars everywhere.
To wrap up: Boogie and AD might be the best experiment of the season (yes even better than KD on the Warriors). The Pelicans’ decision to go big while everyone else was focused on building their own death lineups may just be the most brilliant counterpunch the Warriors have encountered to date. Vivek might be the worst owner of any sports team (including the Haslams, owners of the Browns). The Kings might be the worst franchise of any sports team (including the Browns). The Pelicans just got the biggest trade steal maybe ever, definitely the biggest since Harden went to the Rockets. Celtics fans should burn Vlade Divac jerseys a la Cleveland post “The Decision.” This is definitely one of the most entertaining seasons I can remember.
***Update*** Just before I finished, I found out that the first round pick the Pelicans sent is Top 3 protected. This just keeps getting better.
