The NBA trade rumors are taking unexpected twists and turns as speculations are going wild on prime prospects like DeMarcus Cousins.
As there are only two seasons left on Cousins' contract, all eyes are on the Sacramento Kings and when they decide to cave in to trading their prized center.
According to Zach Harper of CBS Sports, most of the executives in the NBA don't believe that Cousins will ever re-sign with the Kings. Instead, he would not waste any time taking his "last chance of normalcy."
A quote from Harper's extensive piece: "They're fooling themselves if they think he's sticking around," said one league executive. "The good news for them is his value will always be high. There isn't a point of no return in which you're not getting high value for him. Teams will bid against each other in the trade market. Maybe [Cousins] doesn't go for the biggest money in free agency but you'd love to have that card to play."
While speculation on Cousins has never really stopped, the Harper piece gave credence to the league's worst-kept secret-Cousins is frustrated with the Sacramento Kings and would leave as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
This has fueled even more speculative claims from sites like Parent Herald to report various trade possibilities.
As the infamous Kevin Love for DeMarcus Cousins proposal seems to have run its course and is now in trade rumors limbo, they claim that the Kings have made a new demand, this time involving Kyrie Irving.
From a positional standpoint, that makes more sense since the Kings need a point guard more than they need a power forward. It seems like Sacramento will employ a two-center formation even with Cousins' departure simply because their roster is filled with players at that position.
What they Kings don't have is a playmaker who can slash and create opportunities for himself and his teammates and Irving definitely fits the bill.
It was confirmed that the Cavs did inquire about Cousins. A hypothetical conversation: the Kings may have responded with "we are not interested in Kevin, give us Kyrie and we'll talk" before the Cavs hung up.
Since we're on the track of wild speculation, the looming free agency of Chris Paul could suddenly become a factor. If the Cavs somehow free up cap space (they may still have to trade Kevin Love) and trade Kyrie for Cousins, they could sign Paul as a free agent next year forming a new Big Three of LeBron James, Cousins and CP3.
That trio is more balanced, a bit older but definitely scarier and more driven to win a title (CP3 and Cousins would definitely relish their shot to win it all). This may be looking far ahead, but it's all within the realm of possibility.
As we continue to clarify, this is speculation based on the rumor that Parent Herald and other sites reported, which stemmed from Harper's CBS article.