DeMarcus Cousins (Photo : Getty Images/Ezra Shaw)
The NBA trade rumors about DeMarcus Cousins took a backseat for a while as other names apparently became available.
Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls were at the forefront of trade talks with Rose eventually getting traded to the New York Knicks. Kevin Love also reclaimed his title as king of the trade rumor mill after the Cavs beat the Golden State Warriors while he had a concussion-with the implication that the Cavs could do well without him.
With the Rose trade and the Cavaliers winning the championship, the trade chatter is wide open especially with the draft coming. On Draft day, both the Sacramento Kings and Cousins himself reminded everyone just how disconnected they continue to be, as Sporting News pointed out showing Cousins "Lord, give me strength" tweet.
Cousins was obviously not pleased with the draft moves that the Kings made on draft day. They were very active, as ESPN noted.
"The Kings sent Washington's Marquese Chriss, whom they selected with the No. 8 pick, to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for the Nos. 13 and 28 picks this year, a second-round pick in 2020 and the draft rights to Bogdan Bogdanovic, the league announced," ESPN reported.
What did the Kings do with the 13th and 28th picks they got for Chriss, a top 5 player in some recent mock drafts? Draft two centers.
With the 13th pick, Kings selected Georgios Papagiannis from Greece and the 28th pick, they were lucky to still find Skal Labissiere on the board. Skal would be the third Kentucky center in the Kings roster with Cousins and Willie Cauley-Stein.
Aside from all those centers mentioned, they also have Kosta Koufos which gives them a total of five centers-even more than the Philadelphia 76ers.
Sporting News pointed out that Papagiannis would probably be a "stash operation" but Sean Gentille of SN took on Cousins' point of view.
"That's not the point, though; whether the new guy sticks or not, Sacramento opted not to pick a player ready to help immediately. That's reason enough to be mad even before you factor in Cousins' weird relationship with the franchise," Gentille said.
With all these happening, Marc Stein tweeted something interesting.
Sacramento has been heavily engaged in trade talks all week and sources say one player they've tried to land is the Lakers' D'Angelo Russell
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 23, 2016
D'Angelo Russell is very valuable to the Lakers and there is only one asset that they would take from the Kings to give him up and that's DeMarcus Cousins.
There are still no further reports regarding this development, but the recent Kings activity is not so encouraging for Boogie.
