Why DeMarcus Cousins to the Wizards can’t happen

On Basketball

DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins lumbered into the Washington Wizards’ locker room at 10:40 p.m. Monday wearing a caution-yellow jacket and black knit cap. He had just scored 36 points and pulled in 20 rebounds. Cousins made it through the game without a technical foul or other misguided incident, which, added to the stat line, made this a personal win and a night of rare peace in the Sacramento Kings center’s often tumultuous world.

Cousins made his way into the trainer’s room where John Wall was receiving treatment for the ache that followed from banging knees with an opponent early in the game. Cousins’ teammates waited on the bus. Before heading out, he wanted to chat with Wall, his college teammate at Kentucky. So, he did. When he was ready, everybody would leave.

Cousins is a fascinating NBA figure. Wizards forward Markieff Morris called him the best offensive big man in the league. Washington guard Bradley Beal put out the same thought. Cousins is dynamic, petulant, 26 years old and long-rumored to want out of Sacramento. Wall, it has been lustily suggested, is one of the few people who could tame Cousins. Connect the dots between Washington’s woes, the Wall-Cousins relationship and Boogie supposedly wanting to dance out of California, and an easy trade projection comes together. Trouble is, reality has always been a pesky tormentor of dreams.

There is no forward-moving way for the Wizards to acquire Cousins or any other substantial relief. Washington is hemmed into a troubling corner where it can’t match salary math in a trade without jettisoning a star and have no disposable assets to offer.

Look back at the trade for Morris. He desperately wanted to leave Phoenix, something that was publicly known, not just hinted at. That undercut any leverage the Suns had in trading him. Still, the Wizards sent two players — DeJuan Blair, who is out of the league, and Kris Humphries, who is playing well as part of the Atlanta Hawks’ bench — plus a first-round pick to Phoenix for Morris.

Where would the asking price for Cousins begin? Likely with Beal. Which leads to this scenario: The Wizards use Beal to anchor a trade for Cousins, throwing out four years of development without achieved potential in the season Beal appears to be taking the next step. Not to mention the key coming back is a wild, massively talented, 6-11 center, which would make him the fourth player at that position on the roster, forcing Washington to also move Marcin Gortat. Plus, the Wizards would have to replace Beal in the trade, internally or otherwise. There is no net gain.

The relationship between Wall and Cousins is cute fodder, but a non-starter unless both are free agents. Wall becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2019. Cousins can enter free agency in 2018. They have talked in the past about playing together in the NBA, dreaming the same daydreams former college teammates who had success on both levels, and get along, wonder about. Such conversations are not how “super teams” get started. When Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce united in Boston, it was a perfect confluence of cap space and trade assets. Not relationships. When Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade combined in Miami, there was no lineage back to college days. That Wall and Cousins — both marooned All-Stars with wobbling franchises — have considered playing together is of zero surprise.

Washington is also in dire shape when considering any trade scenario. It is more than $9 million over the salary cap after spending lavishly on its detrimental bench in the offseason. Only one player regularly in the bench rotation, Marcus Thornton, is playing under a one-year deal. The allure of Blair and Humphries last season for the Suns was not their skill. It was their expiring contracts. The Wizards don’t have the same scenario this season after lavishing a four-year deal on Andrew Nicholson and a three-year deal on Jason Smith, two players who were out of the rotation for a non-playoff team last season.

Consider the Smith signing. Last season, he was on a one-year deal in Orlando, where his offensive rating showed him as league average and his defensive rating labeled him below average. Yet, Washington chose to give him a three-year contract.

The extended contracts and poor play of Nicholson and Smith make them all but untradeable. They are the opposite of Humphries and Blair, who were of no service to the team in its pace-and-space offensive scheme a season ago, yet were able to be moved because they gave teams options.

Which leaves Washington with one reasonable trade asset: next season’s first-round pick. At the moment, that’s a lottery pick. But, to move it for a capable player, one that could help the Wizards sneak into the playoffs in the final season that team president Ernie Grunfeld is under contract, the Wizards would have to convince another team to take Smith or Nicholson’s salary to even enter a space where the numbers could work. Otherwise, the team is trading from its pool of starters, the only high-functioning players on the team at the moment.

When he left, Cousins was pointed toward the garage where Sacramento’s bus idled. He walked down the hall, joked with ushers, and took his time. His visit to Washington had gone well for him. He saw an old friend and scored a bunch of points. But, it was time to get on the bus and shove off for Philadelphia. He won’t be back any time soon.