The NBA trade rumors continue despite the trade deadline being a month removed. Some of the scenarios would have changed the league's landscape.
The DeMarcus Cousins deal has been underwhelming so far. The tandem of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins-two of the top five big men in the league today, did not yield the anticipated results.
Thus, there is always the lingering talk of the other destinations that Cousins could have landed on, foremost of which was the LA Lakers.
The Lakers are still the league's most popular team and are on the worst three-year stretch in franchise history. Now that they have been linked to a prime talent, some fans are not pleased that the deal did not get done.
The Lakers brass did not close the deal and now the Sacramento Kings' demand was revealed by ESPN reporter Ramona Shelburne in Zach Lowe's podcast (h/t Silver Screen and Roll).
"Shelburne: (The trade) was supposed to be Ingram and D'Angelo. That was what the Kings wanted.
Lowe: Do you think when push comes to shove, the Lakers do that?
Shelburne: No. Actually, I think Jim would've. At that moment, I heard he was very in favor of doing the trade for Cousins. (Cousins) is a great player and the Lakers feel like they need a great player and every organization at some level has to have that confidence to say well it didn't work over there but we can make it work here."
This new revelation corroborated the initial assumptions that the sudden Lakers' front office overhaul was a result of the Lakers' failure to acquire Cousins. Dan Feldman of NBC reported this at the deadline.
"If she(Jeannie Buss) were unsure, perhaps Jim Buss and Kupchak failing to deal for Cousins was the final straw."
However, the issue on whether it was the right decision is still up for debate.
"There's a reasonable case the Lakers were right to hold Ingram over Cousins. Look what Sacramento got for Cousins. NBA teams clearly didn't think so highly of him," Feldman noted.
"But if Jim Buss were willing to trade Ingram for Cousins and failed to get the trigger pulled, that speaks to larger issues in process. And that, more than anything, explained why Jim Buss needed to go."
An NBA GM has to get things done, especially on a team like the Lakers. There is a tendency for fans to judge them on what they didn't do, rather than the moves they make which eventually fail. One case in point is Phil Jackson of the New York Knicks.
Jackson was applauded when he traded for Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in the summer and even if they didn't work out well, he was pressured to make a move and he did. While there are some critics who would, in hindsight, say that the team was better off not making the trade, most GMs would have pulled the trigger if they were in the Zen Master's shoes.
