Sacramento Kings Players Aren’t In Lockstep With The Coaches

You thought the Washington Wizards were a mess. The Sacramento Kings talk like they’re trying to get head coach Paul Westphal a bus ticket out of town.

It doesn’t look good when two of your supposed future cornerstones are questioning what the coach is drawing up on the sidelines. I know Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins aren’t the model citizens of the NBA, but if they have doubt in the coach and respected veteran Chuck Hayes feeling like he made a bad move by signing with the Kings, it may be time to cut bait with Westphal.

“Teams go on 10-0 runs, and we cave in,” forward Chuck Hayes said.

“It’s like we shoot because we haven’t put up a shot after three times up and down the court,” Hayes said.

Hayes is probably wondering what he signed up for.

“What offense?” Cousins replied when asked about the Kings’ most obvious weakness. “I really don’t want to say anything.”

“It seems like everybody is out there for themselves. He (Westphal) says to push the ball, but it’s like when the first pass gets through, we’re done,” Evans said.

From what I saw is that there is too much dribbling and not enough cohesion on a team that some thought would show some improvement this season.

“Everybody keeps blaming the coach, about the plays, the plays not (being) good, but, hey, it be like that sometime,”  Evans said. “You’ve just got to play.”

“We just look lost, “Evans said. “We’re just playing off our natural talent to get our points. It’s terrible right now. We’ve just got to figure something out.”

“I don’t know what that was,” center DeMarcus Cousins said. “Running the offense coach tells us to run. Just doing what coach say. Got to do what your coach say.”

Let me translate those thoughts. We’re only doing what coach tells us but the plan he has isn’t working and we need to try something different.

I know players play and coaches coach, but for Westphal’s sake the Kings better get it together before he finds himself out of a job.    

Sacramento Has To Remember Cousins Is Still A Kid

Whether the brass in the Sacramento Kings’ organization like it or not, rookie center DeMarcus Cousins is still a kid. Now don’t get my words twisted. He’s still a kid in a sense that he still has to grow up mentally. He’s going to give you headaches now and it’s going to take a year or five for him to get his head straight. Maybe he’s a lot like Zach Randolph, who now looks like a model citizen. Yes, insert joke there.

Last night Cousins’ immaturity was on display when he made a choking motion to Golden State’s Reggie Williams after he missed a late game free throw. Coach Paul Westphal wasn’t too happy with Cousins and fined him and removed him from the starting lineup. Of course Cousins says the only reason why he’s being punished is because they lost. No DeMarcus. It’s because your a jackass.

Unlike Tyreke Evans, whose problems have come off the court, all Cousins’ problems will come on the court. He’ll be more of a headache to coaches and teammates during a game than being a royal pain off of it. I only say that because I personally haven’t heard of any off court problems when he was in high school or at Kentucky. I’m not saying you treat him with kid gloves or coddle him. He has to become a man, since he’s now in a grown man’s world. Give him a few years to grow up and if he doesn’t then trade him. If you don’t want to wait that long trade him now and cut your losses. I do think he has the potential to be a coach killer if he can’t demonstrate the ability to mature.