Repost bc the last one was low effort. I’m gonna start this off by saying KAT every day of the week and twice on Sundays. I’ll explain my reasoning, but let’s clear some things up first.
This concerns who you feel is the most IMPACTFUL player, not necessarily the most skilled. While team success is a way to measure impact, I wouldn’t use that as my main argument, because everyone knows the Kings were horrible. At the same time, please don’t let that cloud your judgment on DMC’s actual impact on winning. Now let’s get to some juicy stats!
Using the 2015-2016 season* as DMC’s “peak”, the averages are as follows:
DMC-
65 games, 26.9 PPG/11.5 RPG/3.3 APG on 45/33/72 splits, NBA All-Star and Second Team All-NBA
KAT-
62 games, 21.8 PPG/8.3 RPG/3.0 APG on 50/41/87 splits, NBA All-Star
*IMO his best statistical season, but feel free to argue another season if you’d like.
Now for my opinion. Hate to be the one to break it to some of y’all, but DMC was wildly overrated. KAT could easily put up the same stats on a bad team, and he nearly did in the 2018-2019 season (24/12/3 on 51/40/85 splits) while also being an All-Star.
DMC was one of the best centers in a weak era for centers. He played no defense, was very inefficient, turnover-prone, foul-heavy, and legitimately lost games for the Kings with his attitude.
Was he still a very skilled scorer stuck on a horrible team? Yes. Did he influence the game for stretch bigs? Yes. Did he have some ridiculous scoring performances? Yes. But he would not be a top 5 center in today’s league, and we have to stop letting nostalgia trick us into thinking he would be.
KAT>DMC, but I would love to hear some arguments for the other way around.
DeMarcus Cousins never got a fair shake in the league. He was marooned in Sacramento for years, having a different coach every fucking season, and when he finally got coach Mike Malone - a coach he actually really liked - they fired him. When DeMarcus played for the Sacramento Kings, he really didn’t have much going for him as far as teammates go.
Fast forward to him getting traded to New Orleans, him and Anthony Davis put together an incredibly intriguing first half of a season that made them look like serious contenders to have a deep playoff run. Demarcus gets injured on an effort play and is out for the rest of the season. Next thing you know Anthony is headed to LA, and the last best vestige of a twin towers offense is dead.
Next, Cousins is signed by the Warriors, and 3/4 of the league scream and shout how unfair it is that the Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green warriors get to sign to Marcus cousins for something like - I forget the exact number but it was around $4 million - when anybody could have had him at that number, they just didn’t sign him. Cousins doesn’t play for over half the season coming back from injury, and then starts working his way into the rotation and has another catastrophic injury on an effort play. After that, there’s just not much happening for him career wise.
Demarcus Cousins is one of the most intriguing players outside of Brandon Roy, where, if better, coaching, better health luck, and better teammates all came together- we could be arguing about whether or not he’s top 25-15 all time. I know he got a reputation as being a toxic element in the locker room, but what his time in Golden State and New Orleans showed me is that he just needed people who gave as much of a fuck as he did around him, and he would fall into place and be a consummate All-Star.
Also: this photo sums up my opinion of this debate:
https://images.app.goo.gl/rNezCgMuQTDcfus87