Special All-Star Edition of OKC Thunder Swag and Shade

Welcome to a special edition of  TI’s weekly OKC Thunder column Swag and Shade, edition 6 features the best in social media for the week of February 13th through 19th.

First of all, each week the best social media for the OKC Thunder and NBA appears in our Swag and Shade article.  However, with the All-Star break in full effect, a special edition merited a different approach.  To wit, edition 6 reflects the action from February 13th through the wee hours of  February 19th.

Although OKC Thunder guard Russell Westbrook brought his uniquely fashioned drama to New Orleans the event which made the most noise occurred at the end of the weekend.

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King Size Shade:

It’s been a common theme (at least in this corner of Canada) for copious shade tossing at Vlade Divac. Never mind his penchant for only drafting or trading for big men throughout the better portion of his tenure. And, the amplitude of the shade skyrocketed during the 2016 draft when Divac chose to gift the Suns Marquese Chriss in exchange for Georgios Papagiannis.

Seems like Divac saved his best performance of pretending to be a General Manager for All-Star weekend. Consequently, the fall out from these events leading to the trade of DeMarcus Cousins is likely to extend well beyond this season.  Let’s walk through the series of events:

Divac served up additional fodder for his critics:

At this point, Adrian Wojnarowski reported the only two teams being entertained in the discussion process were the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans.  As David Aldridge succinctly put it, you don’t finalize a trade of this nature the Sunday before the trade deadline. Why? Because teams’ offers only improve the closer you get to reaching the deadline.

Ultimately,  Divac says he made the best deal possible, but the fact agents and General Managers were iced out of the process speak to a different conclusion being drawn.

From an outside perspective, it’s hard to know who is the bigger buffoon Divac or the Kings’ owner. To wit, Vivek Ranadive earmarked Brandon Ingram and Buddy Hield as the targets, thereby limiting Divac’s potential bargaining power. Still, as a GM part of the job should be explaining why closing doors on trade options is a no-win situation. But, for a GM who had to call the League office for clarification on how to do his job, it’s not a stretch to assume he simply obliged with Ranadive’s request.

The shady response to the trade offered gems, and may very well end up as the best of the season. Here’s how the Twitterverse responded to the lop-sided deal:

Cousins trade to Kings also provided a few hilarious ‘Shade’ tweets tied to the OKC Thunder:

Moving forward there will be long term overriding effects from this exchange.

For Sacramento:

Certainly, Kings fans can expect a shellacking whenever they play the Pelicans. Not simply because Cousins will want to remind the franchise of what they gave up.  Rather, this move by the Kings cost Cousins over $30 million dollars! That’s because the new Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams to grandfather two players.

Therefore, had he remained a King, DeMarcus was in line to receive up to $210 million. As a result of the trade, Cousins doesn’t qualify for the special circumstances which include remaining with the same team. Consequently, the most the Pelicans can offer is $180 million. That’s an extremely large pill to swallow and one that’s laced with ample motivation to make a statement each time the Pelicans play the Kings.

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For New Orleans:

Despite the trade, the Pelicans have no guarantee Cousins will stay when it comes time to renew his contract in the summer of 2018. That in itself puts pressure on the Pelicans to appease Cousins until that moment or risk alienating the big man who could walk as an unrestricted free agent.

For this season the Pelicans will also have to hope the chemistry works immediately, and I’m not referring to Boogie gelling with Anthony Davis. Rather, coach Alvin Gentry will need to ensure Cousins resists the urge to pick up technical fouls having already committed his 17th of the season.

Cousins had to sit out a recent game due to that infraction. Moving forward, each subsequent technical will result in another game suspension. Consequently, with the Pelicans chasing a playoff berth this factor could be crucial in determining their outcome.

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For Cousins: 

If you ask the generally mild-mannered Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson about the Pelicans franchise they’ll give you plenty of great sound bites (and not positive ones).

So, for Boogie If he isn’t charmed with the rest of 2017 and next season he can walk. But, it’s not that simple. Cousins will need to demonstrate the pandemonium witnessed during his tenure with Sacramento occurred because of the Kings and wasn’t instigated solely by him.

Suffice to say, the DeMarcus Cousins’ fodder isn’t about to dry up anytime soon.