Kings' Malone: Cousins is the league's best big man
Breaking news: an NBA head coach thinks his superstar player is the best.
Sacramento Kings bench boss Mike Malone admitted Thursday that he's a little biased in the matter, but called DeMarcus Cousins the best big man in the game. He's never going to say anything else, but unlike in the past few years - when Cousins was good but mercurial - Malone isn't far off base.
Through 15 games, Cousins is averaging an obscene 23.5 points, 12.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.5 blocks, all while shooting 51.2 percent from the floor. Even more striking than those stats is what happens to the 9-6 Kings when Cousins comes off the floor:
| Kings | O-Rating | D-Rating | Net Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| with Cousins | 112.4 | 100.2 | 12.2 |
| without Cousins | 98.7 | 116.0 | -17.2 |
Basically, Cousins floats the Kings' offense an extra 14 points per-100 possessions and helps their defense hold off 16 points per-100 possessions. Said differently, the Kings have outscored opponents nearly as much as the 13-2 Toronto Raptors with Cousins on the floor and been outscored worse than the 0-15 Philadelphia 76ers without him.
When listing off the league's best all-around bigs, names like Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Chris Bosh and others have to be brought up, and the merits of any of them could be argued. In terms of their impact on a team through one month of the season, though, it's tough to argue that Cousins isn't the most important big man to his team.