The DeMarcus Cousins trade rumors are still alive and well. The Los Angeles Lakers remain the top suitor in the picture and it's now a possibility they dangle the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft, D'Angelo Russell, to help better position themselves to land the All-Star center.
Prior to the draft, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported the Lakers and Sacramento Kings "exchanged possible frameworks of a trade" and the Kings have also discussed trade scenarios with other teams. Perhaps the latter news worried the Lakers a bit.
Los Angeles could be separating themselves from other suitors for Cousins.
"A league source tells Forbes.com that the Lakers would still trade newly-drafted D'Angelo Russell for Cousins," writes Mark Heisler of Forbes.
"Crazed as it was to even discuss sending such a potential force to a division rival, the Kings did, although with an astronomical asking price: The Lakers' No. 2 pick which became Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, and more future picks."
The Kings granted DeMarcus Cousins' agent, Dan Fegan, to pursue a trade before the draft last week, as it's been said Cousins is not happy with head coach George Karl initially wanting to ship him out of town. Additionally, it appears Kings' owner Vivek Ranadive may eventually submit and allow the trade of Cousins after vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac selected Kentucky big man Willie Cauley-Stein with the sixth overall pick last week with Emmanuel Mudiay and Stanley Johnson still on the board.
However, Divac said he would not let somebody change his mind by putting pressure on him to trade the team's star player, according to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports.
There are other options. Divac can set up a meeting to help clear the air between Cousins and Karl, which would probably be the best-case scenario. Or he could fire Karl, which was previously contemplated, but that would look bad and be a big waste considering the team just signed him to a four-year, $14 million contract.
"Look, we're going to have ups and downs in the next couple months. And you're going to hate me, you're going to love me, but believe me I'm going to do the best I can to make this thing work," Divac said, via Amick. "With me, with DeMarcus, with George, or without me, without DeMarcus, without George, I don't know. But we'll make it work."
We'll see what happens as the Lakers continue to entice the Kings to trade Cousins.
