The Sacramento Kings are headed to the drafty lottery.
Again.
There are many reasons.
Many will point the finger at DeMarcus Cousins. They always do about this time of the year.
Why?
He doesn’t play the game as if he doesn’t care. On the contrary, in a season that has gone down the tubes quickly, one where he has clashed intermittently with coach George Karl — and, at least once, has had good reason to — he still goes out and gives his team its best chance to win. The Kings have a bad record with him, but they are worse, 2-8, without him.
He impacts both ends of the court. If he were doing it for a winning team, he would be celebrated.
This is the point when some will say, “If he’s so great, he’d lead his team to more victories.”
All the greats do, right?
This a roll call of some of his teammates over the years: Tyreke Evans, Francisco Garcia, Samuel Dalembert, Jason Thompson, Marcus Thornton, Jimmer Fredette, Rudy Gay, Chuck Hayes, John Salmons, Derrick Williams, Travis Outlaw and Isaiah Thomas.
Many of those players are very talented. This is not a slight on them. But the fact of the matter is none has been an indispensable cog in winning anything of consequence in the NBA. So why would they be in Sacramento, where the coach changes almost every year, where the general manager changes every couple of years, and where questionable decision after questionable decision is made?
Who wins in that environment?
Nobody.
Cousins, since he arrived in Sactown as the fifth overall pick in 2010, is nearly the only constant. In six seasons he has had five coaches (including interims) and three general managers. He has seen five lottery picks for the Kings. He has had countless teammates constantly rotating through the turnstiles. It’s impossible to get comfortable with that much change and upheaval, let alone thrive. Show me great players doing championship-level things and I’ll show you a stable organization making it all possible.
We’re still talking about someone in the top 12 in the league in player efficiency ratings — higher than Damian Lillard, Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge — and higher than his former teammate who became an all-star in Boston, Thomas. Cousins is an elite player and an effective player. But put him in a tumultuous situation, and he’ll be volatile.
He has worked on calming down and not flying off the handle at the drop of a dime and, by and large, he doesn’t anymore. He does lead the league in technical fouls. He’ll have the occasional eruption, but what team doesn’t need players with that kind of passion? If you have to live with 15 technical fouls in the 58 games he has played into get 27.3 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.5 steals per game, wouldn’t you do it?
And as traditional a center as he is, dominating on the block, Cousins is also a “stretch five.” His 34 percent shooting from the 3-point line says so. If he played for the Nuggets, he’d rank fifth on the team in that statistic among players who have played in at least 55 games.
In defense of Cousins, he shouldn’t be expected to be happy in a losing culture. But he doesn’t mail it in. He plays. He plays well. He doesn’t accept games and nonsense from a coach or an organization and isn’t afraid to voice it. And that’s fine.
This doesn’t have the look of a player failing an organization.
This has every bit the look of an organization that to this point has failed him.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
Spotlight on …
Stephen Curry, G, Golden State
Though the months change, one thing in the NBA hasn’t — Stephen Curry’s dominance on a weekly basis. In the thick of a battle with San Antonio to finish with the West’s No. 1 seed, Curry is The Denver Post’s player of the week.
What’s up: In four games Curry averaged 31.8 points, 6.3 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.0 steals. He shot 53.5 percent from the field, including 50 percent from the 3-point line, and he did all of this in just over 32 minutes per game. The Warriors won all four contests.
Background: This is how you average 31 points in just 32 minutes per game — by being a plus-21.3 when you’re on the court. That’s an astronomical number, meaning Golden State simply obliterated the opponent when he was on the court. And when you take care of business in the first three quarters, you can sit out of most of the fourth. Curry’s best game of the bunch was against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday. He logged 31 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, and he had just one turnover.
Dempsey’s take: If another player gets a first-place MVP vote this season, well, let’s just say he shouldn’t. And that includes LeBron James, as great a player as he is. No player has been as outstanding as Curry this season, and it’s not even close. He has been the most dominant player in games against other dominant players. And his Warriors are on track to break the single-season victories record.
