As NBA All-Stars were taking to the court in New Orleans on Sunday evening, rumors of the Sacramento Kings trading DeMarcus Cousins started to heat up off the court. Reports suggested that the Kings were in conversations with multiple teams to send Cousins packing. All the while, the enigmatic big man was with his fellow Western Conference All-Stars in New Orleans.
Boogie won't have to fly home now. He was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday evening in exchange for rookie top-10 pick Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, two future first-round picks and a second round pick. Omari Casspi is also heading to New Orleans in the deal.
It's one of the biggest in-season blockbusters in recent NBA history. And here, we focus on the enormous fantasy impact of such a big deal between two likely lottery teams.
The first thing that must be noted here is that Cousins' statistical output will likely decrease on the Pelicans. He now teams up with All-Star Game MVP Anthony Davis to form the best big man tandem in the entire Association. While that's great news for New Orleans, it's not good news for those relying on Cousins to be an elite fantasy performer.
Cousins, 26, headed into the All-Star Break averaging 27.8 points, 10.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. He was shooting at a 45 percent clip from the field and was averaging north of 20 shot attempts per game. Second on the Kings in average shot attempts was the injured Rudy Gay at 14.7. After that, Darren Collison came in at 10.7 shot attempts per outing.
Cousins now heads to a Pelicans team that's been relying a whole heck of a lot on Davis to remain somewhat viable out west. Davis headed into the break averaging 27.7 points on 20.2 shots (the same amount as Cousins). Short of New Orleans simply bullying inside moving forward, look for Cousins' shot attempts to decrease a great deal as he fits into his new team.
When it comes to the fantasy impact from Sacramento's side, this is where it gets more interesting. Look for Hield to take a larger role on a team that might very well find itself in tank mode without its All-Star center. Hield was averaging just north of 20 minutes per game, shooting at a 39 percent from the field while averaging less than nine points per outing. We can fully expect his minutes to hit the 30-plus plateau on a consistent basis in Sacramento.
Not lost in all this, Evans should take over as Sacrmento's starting small forward with Gay out for the season. Finally healthy, the former King is averaging 9.5 points while shooting at just 40 percent from the field. Though, Evans has proven to be a viable scorer in the past, putting up an average of 14-plus points in each of his first seven NBA seasons.
From a DFS aspect, we're definitely going to want to see how the Kings' dynamic works out with Hield and Evans now in the mix. It wouldn't be a surprise to see them playing on a consistent basis out on the wing with Collison starting at the one.
As it relates to New Orleans, we're going to want to see how Alvin Gentry handles this. You don't exhaust multiple key cogs for a player of Cousins' ilk without the expectation fo him playing with Davis. How that dynamic plays out is going to be incredibly interesting over the short term.