George Karl is running the Kings as coach and Bleacher Report reports that his reach may go far beyond the X's and O's.
George Karl's first power move as Sacramento Kings coach was to trade for Andre Miller, a trusted old hand from his Denver days. Expect more of the same this summer. Sources say Karl would love to acquire Ty Lawson—if the rebuilding Nuggets were to make him available—or any other members of his last Nuggets team, which won 57 games in 2012-13. Karl wants players who move the ball and push the tempo, and that could mean wild upheaval on the Kings roster. Even DeMarcus Cousins, their franchise center, is not untouchable, according to a source with insight into Karl's thinking. "At the trade deadline, everyone was available," the person said. Including Cousins? "Every single person on the Kings roster was available." Although Karl does not hold a front office title, "he definitely has control" of future personnel decisions, the source said.
via NBA Insider: Is It Numbers or Talent? Sorting Fact, Fiction in NBA Stats Wave | Bleacher Report.
There's not a lot of fighting to be done here; Sacramento's GM is Pete D'Allessandro who had a huge part in bringing Karl in and wants to work with him. Part of the inherent process of bringing in Karl is that you need personnel to run his system. You can't run an up-and-down, up-tempo system if you don't have the personnel for it...
And that's where Cousins comes in. Cousins has to buy in, or Karl's going to want him gone. But this report may indicate that they'd take offers for Cousins, but those offers were probably something along the line of "if you send us your best player, who happens to be a star, along with two other really good players and a pick, then yeah, we'll talk about it." That's a long way from "George Karl wants DeMarcus Cousins gone."
Then again, with how the Kings handled the firing of Mike Malone, the retention of ty Corbin for weeks, and the ugliness surrounding the hiring of Karl, with leaks coming suggesting Cousins' camp was holding it up, the Kings don't need any more media noise about their star. The guy could get cranky.
And you wouldn't like DeMarcus when he's cranky.
