Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl is making a push to management to trade all-star centre DeMarcus Cousins, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting.
According to the report, Karl has been actively trying to bring together Kings vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divacs and several players to join him in his cause against Cousins and appeal to Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive – who has supposedly remained a steadfast supporter of the 24-year-old.
The report also states that Cousins has been aware of Karl’s desire to be rid of him for a while now and within minutes of Wojnarowski’s story being published, the outspoken star let his feelings on Karl be known publicly on Twitter.
Karl, 64, took over as the Kings head coach in mid-February, replacing Michael Malone, who was fired after just 24 games into last season.
This firing reportedly never sat well with Cousins, and there is word that he still remains loyal to his former coach.
Malone, 44, was recently been hired as the Denver Nuggets’ new head coach.
Cousins is coming off the best season of his career, posting career highs in points (24.1), rebounds (12.7), assists (3.6), blocks (1.8) and steals (1.5) on his way to being named to the All-NBA Second Team.
If the Kings do decide to trade him there will be many suitors because of his supreme skills, however finding a way to match salaries will prove difficult as he is entering the second year of a four-year maximum contract that he signed in 2013 and is owed at least $47.1 million over the next three seasons with potential for a lot more should the salary cap increase like many pundits expect it to.
