Cousins exits Kings

Cousins’ exit signifies a reboot for the Kings, who are willing to latch on to something — make that anything — in order to ensure a brighter future. And while only time will tell if Divac’s move is one in the right direction, this much is clear: They wer

Believe it or not, the Kings actually thought they got the better end of the deal sending erstwhile top dog DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans in exchange for guards Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, and Langston Galloway, as well as two draft picks. For all their assurances that their All- Star center was offlimits heading into the trade deadline, they used the extended weekend to actively shop him around. Evidently, his involvement in yet another controversy off the court, not to mention continued predisposition for collecting technical fouls on the floor, got majority owner Vivek Ranadive to do an aboutface in an effort to, as General Manager Vlade Divac explained, establish the ideal “culture and character.”

In terms of numbers alone, the Kings definitely got pennies to the dollar. Cousins is one of only two players in the National Basketball Association to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in each of the last four seasons, and, with due respect to Hield, Evans, and Galloway, his departure figures to ensure the ringing of cowbells in the lottery. As Divac indicated, however, the view from the front office was one of addition by subtraction. Had the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft stayed on, he would have been eligible for the Designated Player Extension by the end of the season, with the development costing them a whopping $209 million over five years. And when juxtaposed with the fact that they won just a little over a third of their games with him as their cornerstone, his price tag looked even more prohibitive.

Not that the Kings don’t want to miss out on the playoffs once more. On the contrary, they’ll be expecting the losses to mount often enough after the All- Star break to count them a favorite to land a high pick in the 2017 draft, slated to be one of the deepest in recent memory. At the very least, they’re angling to keep the pick they previously traded to the Bulls on condition that it not be any higher than 11th. Meanwhile, they’re high on Hield, already one of the league’s oldest rookies but nonetheless possessing the potential (at least in Ranadive’s eyes) to carve a path to stardom similar to reigning two- time Most Valuable Player awardee Stephen Curry.

A stretch? Perhaps. But, hey, desperate times call for desperate measures. In any case, Cousins’ exit signifies a reboot for the Kings, who are willing to latch on to something — make that anything — in order to ensure a brighter future. And while only time will tell if Divac’s move is one in the right direction, this much is clear: They were bad, but they’re now primed to suffer

through worse before getting better.