The Sacramento Kings were always expected to eventually lose DeMarcus Cousins, either in free agency in 2018 or a trade before then. But the addition of a supermax contract provision in the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement seemingly took that off the table. The potential for Cousins to sign a five-year deal worth more than $200 million was too rich for him to pass up, while keeping a talent of his caliber is almost always the better option for a smaller market franchise.

The Kings, however, quickly pivoted away from that position and solicited trade offers for Cousins over All-Star weekend and settled on a package from the New Orleans Pelicans shortly after Cousins’ new teammate Anthony Davis was named MVP of the game. 

During the lead-up to the All-Star Game, Davis was repeatedly asked questions about his future with the Pelicans despite being in the first year of a five-year, $122 million extension in which he can’t become a free agent until 2020. There were concerns about whether the Pelicans would ever be able to surround Davis with enough talent to become a perennial playoff team, let alone a title contender to match his gifts as a top-5 player in the league.

Cousins and Davis will instantly form one of the NBA’s best big man combinations in recent memory and could do so for the next decade as they are just 26 and 23 respectively. The Pelicans will be big man dominant in a small ball era, yet both Cousins and Davis are capable of spreading the floor as the most enticing bigs of this generation do. 

The Pelicans have played their best basketball with Davis at center, but that is something he has been reluctant to do throughout his career as he’s suffered from a series of minor injuries. With Cousins playing center and handling the bulkier big on defense, Davis will be freed up to take one a less demanding physical toll and also be the dominant weakside shotblocker he always been perfectly suited to evolve into. Cousins and Davis are both high usage offensive players and their ability to be inside/outside scorers will give Alvin Gentry (or John Calipari) a number of ways to construct their offense.

With Davis and Cousins as their two centerpieces, and Jrue Holiday presumably re-signed this offseason, the Pelicans can quickly grow into perennial title contenders. The Pelicans could even create max contract space to sign Chris Paul or Kyle Lowry if they decide to expand their ambition beyond Holiday. New Orleans simply needs to surround that trio with 3&D players to space the floor and get out of the way for Davis and Cousins to dominate.

There is a scenario where Cousins and Davis don't make each other better, and Cousins leaves in free agency in 2018, but the upside is so obvious and price so small that the Pelicans do this trade without being skittish about the risk.

The Pelicans have cut corners as a franchise and it will be interesting to see how they grow into their new elevated station on things such as player health, player development and the luxury tax. If Cousins becomes the best version of himself to New Orleans, this is a league-altering trade on the scale of Kevin Garnett to the Celtics except he's five years younger.

Grade for Pelicans: A+

For context on how the Kings failed to get adequate value for Cousins, the Pelicans reportedly offered Tyreke Evans and their own first rounder in 2017 to the 76ers for Jahlil Okafor. The only difference in the offers were the inclusion of Buddy Hield and Philadelphia’s second round pick. The Kings quite clearly think way more of Buddy Hield than the rest of the NBA does.

While the Kings were perhaps wise in sobering up on how toxic the situation could have become with Cousins for the one season after signing his supermax extension before he would be allowed to be traded, they dealt him away for a package that comes nowhere close to matching his value. There are countless other teams who could have beat the Pelicans’ offer for Cousins and the Kings misread what his market could have grown into, prematurely trading him before it could materialize. The Pelicans even bullied the Kings into a top-3 protection on the 2017 first rounder while not giving up an additional first rounder. New Orleans has none of the future pick upside that can come from a situation that doesn't work out as planned as Boston did with the Brooklyn trade.

The stance took by Vlade Divac both publicly and privately that Cousins would not be traded yet again makes the Kings appear both dysfunctional and as though they’re making it up as they go. 

Sacramento will surely tank the remainder of their season and hope to keep their top-10 protected pick owed to the Bulls, though they have a pick swap with Philadelphia if it is higher. The Kings owe their 2019 first round pick outright to Philadelphia and it is difficult to envision a scenario where it is out of the top-10 as they move forward with Hield, Willie Cauley-Stein and their two reasonably high picks in this year's draft.

With how dreadfully the Kings drafted during Cousins’ tenure and the assets they parted with in 2015 to create cap space, building a winning team around him was a constant uphill battle. The Kings drafted Jimmer Fredette over Klay Thompson in 2011, Thomas Robinson over Damian Lillard in 2012, Ben McLemore over Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2013, Nik Stauskas in 2014, Willie Cauley-Stein over Emmanuel Mudiay in 2015, and a pair of centers in 2016. The rebuild begins sooner than expected, but there's practically consensus skepticism that the current regime is fit to do so. This trade of Cousins, as bad as it is, isn't even the worse trade they've made as that still remains the way they used future draft assets and Stauskas to the 76ers to clear cap space for Rajon Rondo.

Cousins’ personality was often mercurial during his time with the Kings, but considering his issues that were plain to see when he entered the NBA in 2010, he handled it far better than anyone would have guessed. 

As was the case for the Pelicans and Anthony Davis, teams do whatever they can to get it right once you have a true superstar on your roster because that's always the goal and it's far easier to luck into the right role players. The Kings were given the opportunity for an extension on their timeline with the supermax, but they passed on that while not getting back enough to truly catapult their rebuild. The decision to trade Cousins isn't the issue nearly as much as what they received in return and how they approached the market.

Grade For Kings: D-

From a basketball perspective, the present and future immediately looks infinitely more promising for Cousins. But his agent was vociferously posturing against a trade even minutes before it was agreed upon and that’s for the financial hit they will take. Instead of a five-year extension this offseason worth approximately $209 million, Cousins’ next deal will be $30 million to $40 million less over five seasons due to being at 30 percent of the cap instead of 35 percent.

Cousins returns close to home and with a fellow superstar who has more of a deferential personality in Davis. They mirror Stephen Curry and Draymond Green in that way and perhaps they will bring out the best in each other as those two have with Curry keeping Green level and Green giving Curry more passion.

Finally, Cousins quite clearly wanted to stay and he gets to avoid the reputation damaging spectacle of forcing his way out. 

Grade For DeMarcus Cousins: B