Your Morning Dump... Where Zach Lowe has thoughts on Cousins

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“I don’t think Brad Stevens wants to touch DeMarcus Cousins with a 10-foot pole. And that carries a lot of weight there. Not only that, they just signed a center. And they think Al Horford is a center, and will play more center as pieces come and go in Boston. And so I don’t know what that does to Boston’s hunger to acquire a superstar big man who is going to be a locker room question mark.”

MassLive

Yeah, I know Zach Lowe is ‘plugged in’, and I’ve read various comments about how great his writing is (it’s too long, and, frankly, lacking insight in areas that aren’t on-court mechanics, but that’s just my opinion).

But this paragraph is just silly.

Granted, people sometimes just talk to fill air on podcasts (looking at you John…. ), but I have to question the thinking behind this statement.

First of all, let’s start with the obvious hole: ‘they just signed a center.’

The center they just signed is Tyler Zeller. To a one year deal. Does anyone, anywhere, believe that Tyler Zeller–a great guy buy all accounts and a good teammate–is the linchpin of a championship team? The Celtics aren’t going to look at a potential deal for Cousins and say, ‘yeah, but we got all this money tied up this year on Tyler Zeller.’

Then we’ll take, ‘they think Al Horford is a center.’

Yes. Boston has played Horford as a center on occasion. But what has been their preferred starting lineup? Did it have Horford at center? Or did it have Amir Johnson at center? Exactly. There’s a difference between being able to play a guy at center from time to time and running him in the five spot (offense and defense) 36 minutes a game.

Next up, ‘as pieces come and go in Boston.’

Here’s another problem with Zach’s logic: He’s confused the process with the aim. Yes, Boston made a lot of trades two years ago. They have made very few since then. The idea that Ainge would rather just swap guys on and off the team instead of obtaining Cousins–if he’s available–that doesn’t scan. And Lowe’s logic here is clearly that Boston plans on having ‘pieces come and go’ instead of obtaining Cousins.

And then there’s the piece de resistance:

“I don’t think Brad Stevens wants to touch DeMarcus Cousins withgre a 10-foot pole”

First of all, I think you can bet your bottom dollar that Lowe has zero inside info to back that up. Stevens doesn’t talk. Stevens’ assistants don’t talk. And the whole Celtics front office doesn’t talk. Nobody in that organization talks.

Sure, some might mention Cousins’ penchant for picking up technical fouls as evidence of an unmanageable personality. Know who else manages to rack up the T’s? Isaiah Thomas. The little guy picked ’em up at a .19 per game rate last season, not terribly far removed from Cousins’ .26 rate.

But he fouls so much! On a per game rate? Yes. That’s partially because Sacramento is terrible and Cousins plays a lot. On a per minute rate, he fouled about as often as Marcus Smart last season. Not the best possible comp., I know, but it puts Cousins’ foul problems in perspective.

In a more structured environment, with better coaching, does anyone believe that his foul trouble will get worse?

And then there’s various remarks about him acting out–but with the passage of time, the craziness that saturates Sacramento from top to bottom makes his outbursts–most notably from two or three years ago or so–look more and more understandable.

So that’s basically my Zach Lowe style take on Zach Lowe’s comments. Everything’s broken down into more detail than necessary and more than a few points are belabored as well, but hey, space is (almost) free on the internet, so I am at liberty to demand as much of your free time as possible–because you’ve got so much of that to spare.

Page 2: Where Bradley is giving the game what it needs

“In the past, the coaches were always telling me to rebound more,” he said. “It’s just something I know our team needs. I’m here to do whatever I can do to help our team and right now it’s rebounding. That’s what I’m going to try to do every single night.”

No bravado there. No swagger. Bradley expects a lot of himself, and though he did not come to Boston with a complete skill set, he has always impressed the organization with his work ethic.

And he has improved steadily over the past six years, and now he is an established scorer, one of the league’s best defenders, and a volume rebounder? So far, that’s the case.

Boston Globe

Here’s the thing: Everybody in the league, almost without exception, will tell you they work on their game in the offseason. And it’s a fair bet that almost everybody does–I mean, this is a very competitive league–and in some positions, especially the backcourt, there is far more talent than there are available roster spots. So when you’ve got a guy like Bradley whose improvement stands out, that means he’s putting in some serious work. He’s not just keeping up with his peers, he’s putting distance between himself and them.