Comments on: Would you rather have DeMarcus Cousins or Greg Monroe?

By: khandor

khandor — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:03:12 +0000

You are free to make your own decisions about which players are actually under-sized relative to their peers at the Center position:
BOS – Perkins [6-10, 280]
NYN – Stoudemire [6-10, 245]
NJN – Lopez [7-0, 260]
PHI – Speights [6-10, 245]
TOR – Bargnani [7-0, 250]
CHI – Noah [6-11, 232]
IND – Hibbert [7-2, 278]
MIL – Bogut [7-0, 245]
DET – Wallace [6-9, 240]
CLE – Hollins [7-0, 230]
MIA – Bosh [6-10, 228]
ORL – Howard [6-11, 240]
ATL – Horford [6-10, 245]
CHA – Mohamed [6-10, 221]
WAS – McGee [7-0, 237]
LAL – Bynum [7-0, 285]
PHO – Lopez [7-0, 255]
LAC – Jordan [6-11, 265]
SAC – Cousins [6-11, 270: IMO, big rear end, grounded, w/o significant shot-blocking ability]
GSW – Biedrins [6-11, 240]
OKC – Krstic [7-0, 240]
DEN – Nene [6-11, 260]
POR – Przybilla [7-1, 255]
UTA – Jefferson [6-10, 265]
MIN – Milicic [7-0, 250]
SAS – Duncan [6-11, 248]
DAL – Chandler [7-1, 235]
HOU – Miller [7-0, 244]
NOH – Okafor [6-10, 252]
MEM – Marc Gasol [7-1, 265]

By: tarsier

tarsier — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:10:57 +0000

In what universe is Cousins undersized? He is the same height and weight as Dwight Howard. And he’s younger so more likely to add to that. His having such a great center’s body is part of what sky rockets his potential.

By: khandor

khandor — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:29:51 +0000

When all is said and done, Monroe will have a better NBA career than Cousins. Talented loose cannons who are also under-sized at the specific position which they play best, in the NBA, rarely have long and highly productive careers.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:22:00 +0000

But can’t you can’t say that when it was apparently possible to take Udoh over Monroe, since Udoh/Davis was kind of a 50/50 call. It’s like not giving Chicago any credit for beating Indiana in the first round. Again, it doesn’t deserve much, but some. As another comparison, imagine Melo wasn’t in the 2003 draft. Dumars would still deserve some blame for taking Darko over Bosh (never mind Wade–he was considered quite a reach at 5), but not much because it would have been a similar no-brainer.

By: Laser

Laser — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:14:09 +0000

zero credit. not a sliver. the pick was a no-brainer if there ever was one. your idea of the “same mistake as Golden State” can only mean drafting Ed Davis instead. that was NEVER happening and NEVER even discussed. if monroe, cousins or favors was available at that spot, they were getting picked. period. pat joe on the back for something else.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:27:15 +0000

Agreed that he got into a tough situation. Disagreed that he made the most of it. Dumars knew he was hiring Kuester into a bad team. That’s why there weren’t even questions about his job after one year. But no matter how good or bad at coaching he was, he could have avoided alienating so many players. When more than half the team hates the coach, you know he could have done something better.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:21:09 +0000

Would you at least take Cousins over Udoh? :)

By: neutes

neutes — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:00:56 +0000

I suppose with all that jibberish I forgot to make my point. There is no telling how Cousins would have ended up had he been a Piston. Say what you want about Kuester but I actually think he could have given Cousins the tough love he needed. Monroe didn’t get on the court right away, he had to work hard and be willing to do the dirty work to get on the court. I’m probably one of the very few Pistons’ fans that think highly of Kuester. I just think he got stuck in a bad situation, but to me he made the most of it. It’s not his fault it was a no-win scenario.

By: neutes

neutes — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:50:23 +0000

I gotta love Laser’s comments because he’s always the contrarian, even if he agrees, which is hard to do. I agree that I like Cousins attitude. I think that’s why Piston’s fans valued him so highly during that draft. I’m not entirely sure what happened in Sacramento though. He was pretty much allowed to do whatever he wanted on the court, and that to me creates a problem that he’s now stuck with. I look at Cousins and think he could have been and could be so freaking good, but that team was so young and inexperienced, including the coach, that I now think he’s ruined.

They gave him free reign to take whatever shot he wanted. There’s a couple philosophies to this madness. One is that by doing so he becomes a go-to player, he becomes a better shooter, he develops and inside/outside game that is unstoppable to go along with his superb rebounding. On the flip side you’re letting him take bad shots, which is something that could become ingrained in his game and something that can’t be changed.

This is where I have to give Kuester all the credit in the world with Monroe. He challenged him to do the dirty work. You look at Monroe as a college player and Monroe as a pro and they are two completely different players. That’s the case for Cousins as well, only Cousins went the wrong direction. Cousins didn’t take jump shots like they were going out of style at Kentucky. He may have wanted to we have no idea, but he didn’t. I think the player the Kings thought they were getting is a different player than they ended up with. The same for the Pistons. Only it worked out for the Pistons and not for the Kings. I could pull a Khandor and blame the lack of elite level coaching, and you know what, I think I just might. But at this point with as young as Cousins is, and the fact there is nothing around him to challenge him towards a different direction, that the player he was last year is the player he will be – inefficient and inconsistent.

The best comparison to Cousins is Randolph, and it took Randolph years to stick to the paint and become the player he is now. If Cousins has any chance imo he needs better coaching, and I can’t believe I’m even saying that.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:05:48 +0000

Sometimes the obvious choice isn’t the right one. Dumars doesn’t deserve a ton of credit for drafting Monroe. But give him at least a sliver. He didn’t make the same mistake as Golden State. The fact that another team did make that mistake shows that it isn’t a given that someone won’t do so.

And I am not a big Dumars fan.