Defense, Basketball IQ, and Chemistry

You guys know that 2005 Finals? The one everyone hated? The one with probably the lowest tv ratings ever? 

I loved that series.

It was the first Finals series that kept me (and my entire family) really waiting for every game. It was 7 closely contested games, no blowouts, no huge leads. It was two defensive juggernauts, grinding it out to the end. It was two brilliant coaches in Pop and Larry Brown coming up with some new counter after every game. It was two teams that played team basketball, had guys who had such high basketball IQs and had amazing chemistry. That's what a championship team is supposed to be. 

And that series, as well as the Spurs in general (I follow them too) that makes me put such a premium on defense, and after that, basketball IQ and chemistry. A group of less talented guys who are smart, play defense and have great chemistry will be able to go much much farther than a group of talented guys who hate each other. 

This is the reason I value Favors over Cousins at this point in time. He's got a defensive mentality, he doesn't have a big ego, he's got great work ethic, he doesn't get into trouble. 

Make no mistake about it, Cousins is tremendously talented. He's big, he's got great footwork. I've seen him make an and-1 while being double teamed and he had the footwork to not travel while spinning his way to the rim. That's incredibly hard to not travel when you're being harassed like that. He's got great post moves; fakes, up and unders, etc. He's got a mid range game. He's got ball handling ability. He's a great rebounder. He's got soft hands. 

But there are other things to him.

Somewhat of a black hole once he receives the ball inside the paint, Cousins is not what you would call a willing passer, even if he is capable of finding the open man.

Defensively, Cousins is mostly a mixed bag at this point. On one hand he provides an incredible presence in the post with his terrific size, length and bulk, often not needing to do much more than just stand in the paint with his arms outstretched in order to help his team come up with a stop. He’s pretty physical on top of that and appears to be putting in a solid effort in for the most part, making it extremely difficult for opposing big men to get shots off over the top of him, and coming up with a solid 3.4 blocks per-40 minutes pace adjusted in turn. 

On the other hand, Cousins is not the most fundamentally sound player you’ll find, which combined with his below average lateral quickness causes him to get exposed from time to time when being attacked off the dribble by quicker players he’s forced to switch onto. He looks a bit lazy and/or not focused getting back on defense sometimes

While Cousins is without a doubt a precocious talent with the type of physical tools and scoring instincts that you rarely see at the college level, there are many question marks revolving around whether he has the intangibles needed to reach his extremely high potential. His body language and overall temperament on the floor is often very poor, looking somewhat lazy and disinterested and at times downright selfish. He’s clearly not the smartest guy you’ll find on or off the court, and he already tends to react very poorly to different situations on the floor and lose his temper in concerning fashion. 

A few articles have already been written about his extremely unpredictable nature and whether that might come back to haunt Kentucky at some point in a big game, and these same concerns may give NBA executives room for pause when thinking about drafting him extremely high in the lottery and making him the face of their franchise.

Clearly Cousins is well honed on the offensive end, but his decision making and general basketball IQ leave some wanting. His drive to play hard and be an unselfish teammate are not stellar as well. And we all know he can easily lose his temper. 

It's those other things that hold Cousins back. If he can show that he can play smart, collected, and unselfish on the court and bring it consistently on defense, this wouldn't even be a debate. 

That's really the only thing for me. I like defense, basketball IQ, and chemistry. And those just happen to be the areas in which Cousins is deficient. If he can prove everyone wrong on those things, then get him by all means. But until then, I'm with Favors.