{"id":460195,"date":"2017-10-02T11:59:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T15:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=460195"},"modified":"2017-10-02T11:59:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T15:59:49","slug":"demarcus-cousins-top-50-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/news\/nba\/demarcus-cousins-top-50-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"SLAM Top 50: DeMarcus Cousins, No. 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good news: DeMarcus Cousins<\/a> is the best center in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Bad news: So what? He\u2019s never been to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

He’s the most dominant center in the NBA today with the numbers to back it up\u201427 and 11 per game. DeMarcus is a big body they can\u2019t handle in today\u2019s hands-off game of H-O-R-S-E. He\u2019s more athletic than stunned defenders realize, but he has the Z-Bo junk game, too. Sounds good? Well, DeMarcus can stretch the floor, hitting more than two 3-pointers a game last season. Larry Bird never did that (the NBA game is different than it used to be). Dominant bigs are like franchise running backs in the NFL. As both leagues play funny games with the rules to crank up the offense for fantasy and to make real life basketball seem more like a video game, the dominance of the big matters less.<\/p>\n

As the latest disaster of a season was unfolding in Sactown, Anthony Davis<\/a> was going off for 52, breaking Wilt\u2019s record in the All-Star Game. The final score won\u2019t fit on your screen. And then it was forgotten as Cousins was traded to team with the aforementioned Unibrow for the potential for frontcourt domination unheard of. If New Orleans could provide some stability, then you could see a flourishing partnership like great twin towers of the past: Sampson and Olajuwon, Duncan and Robinson. Better than that? Well… it gets complicated.<\/p>\n

Not only that, DeMarcus is both superstar and enforcer. If someone on the other team disrespects the star, he makes them pay with violence. This may not be a good thing, and it\u2019s time to talk about the other side of Cousins. He never reached the playoffs because the Kings were a mess. Or, were the Kings a mess because of DeMarcus? Few can match his talent. The drama he brings hasn\u2019t been helpful yet. Separate the player from the drama if you can, but you can\u2019t. DeMarcus brings the best low post scoring, outside touch from a big, strength, mobility, rebounding. But he also brings enough baggage to stop a plane from taking off.<\/p>\n

When you talk about Russ Westbrook<\/a>, you dismiss the negatives because they are part of the package. A guy who is so dynamic because he\u2019s fearless will also make reckless mistakes. Cousins has a lot to offer, but his negatives don\u2019t help him, they just take him off the court and cost his team. If he could eliminate the drama, the immaturity, the needless technicals, he would be one of the key forces in the League. Can he?<\/p>\n

There is a plethora of excuses for why DeMarcus has never made the playoffs. The West is tough, he\u2019s had bad coaching, Sactown dysfunction. Subpar teammates. George Karl has been butting heads and burning bridges with rebellious superstars for decades: Shawn Kemp, Big Dog Robinson, Carmelo. DeMarcus broke him. NOW, the West is more loaded than ever. DeMarcus should have more stability than ever. This year it\u2019s time to break through, or he could see this ranking drop next year.<\/p>\n

Previous\u00a0<\/strong>Rankings:
\n<\/strong>2016: No. 9
\n<\/strong>2015: No. 9
\n<\/strong>2014: No. 20
\n<\/strong>2013: No. 29<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2017-18\u2014to players\u2019 team, the NBA and the game.<\/em><\/p>\n

No. 50 \u2013 Dion Waiters<\/a>
\n<\/strong>No. 49 \u2013 Ben Simmons<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
\nNo. 48 \u2013 Brook Lopez<\/a>
\nNo. 47 \u2014 Harrison Barnes<\/a>
\nNo. 46 \u2014 Jrue Holiday<\/a>
\n<\/strong>No. 45 \u2014 Lonzo Ball
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 44 \u2014 Myles Turner
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 43 \u2014 Goran Dragic<\/strong><\/a>
\nNo. 42 \u2014 Andre Drummond
\n<\/strong><\/a>No. 41 \u2014 Al Horford<\/a>
\nNo. 40 \u2014 LaMarcus Aldridge<\/a>
\nNo. 39 \u2014 Kevin Love<\/a>
\nNo. 38 \u2014 Paul Millsap<\/a>
\nNo. 37 \u2014 Hassan Whiteside<\/a>
\nNo. 36 \u2014 Andrew Wiggins<\/a>
\nNo. 35 \u2014 Marc Gasol<\/a>
\nNo. 34 \u2013 DeAndre Jordan<\/a>
\nNo. 33 \u2014 Bradley Beal<\/a>
\nNo. 32 \u2014 Kemba Walker<\/a>
\nNo. 31 \u2014 CJ McCollum<\/a>
\nNo. 30 \u2014 Devin Booker<\/a>
\nNo. 29 \u2014 Nikola Jokic<\/a>
\nNo. 28 \u2014 Joel Embiid<\/a>
\nNo. 27 \u2014 Mike Conley\u00a0<\/a>
\nNo. 26 \u2014 Kyle Lowry<\/a>
\nNo. 25 \u2014 Rudy Gobert<\/a><\/strong>
\nNo. 24 \u2014 Gordon Hayward<\/strong><\/a>
\nNo. 23 \u2014 Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>
\nNo. 22 \u2014 Carmelo Anthony<\/a>
\nNo. 21 \u2014 DeMar DeRozan<\/a>
\nNo. 20 \u2014 Blake Griffin<\/a>
\nNo. 19 \u2014 Draymond Green<\/a>
\nNo. 18 \u2014 Chris Paul<\/a>
\nNo. 17 \u2014 Klay Thompson<\/a>
\nNo. 16 \u2014 Jimmy Butler<\/a>
\nNo. 15 \u2014 Isaiah Thomas<\/a>
\nNo. 14 \u2014 Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>
\nNo. 13 \u2014 Damian Lillard<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can Cousins finally get to the playoffs?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36],"tags":[32614,607,2625],"yst_prominent_words":[14362,14367,14707,33642,34311,14867,14866,20657,17331,34313,15500,21818,15484,34312,14437,34314],"class_list":["post-460195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-slam-top-50","tag-2017-slam-top-50","tag-demarcus-cousins","tag-slam-top-50"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460195"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460267,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460195\/revisions\/460267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460195"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=460195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}