Why don't people want this guy?

Cousins at his final Kentucky Press Conference
ESPN's Andy Katz wrote an excellent piece on DeMarcus Cousins. For those that don't follow college hoops, Cousins is an uber-talented freshman from Kentucky. He was named SEC Freshman of the Year, and averaged 15 pts and almost 10 boards per game.

I watched this kid play in the tourney, and he was an absolute beast. He did not take over any game like Carmelo Anthony at Syracuse, but I fear those days are mostly in the past. The top pro prospects are 18, 19 year olds. They're so raw and undeveloped that they need three years of pro seasoning before they flourish. Even the great Kevin Durant needed one year to acclimate to the pro game before he became "Kevin Durant - Superstar." The more common path is Tracy McGrady, who spent three unproductive seasons in Toronto before unleashing his true talent in year 4.

The majority of this year's draft class will likely follow the McGrady path. The one exception being Evan Turner. His three years of college ball prepared him well for the pros, and he has the requisite speed, smooth shot, and high basketball IQ that should translate well to the NBA. The others, including John Wall, are projects. Which brings me back to Cousins.

If the entire draft class, save Turner, are projects, why not take the project with the biggest upside? Teams are scared of Cousins for two reasons - 1) he's emotional and 2) he's chubby. I'll address concern #2 first. Cousins showed up at the Chicago combine at 292 lbs, 20 higher than his weight during the season at Kentucky. That translated to 16% body fat. Only one NBA player in recent memory succeeded with that level of chunk - Shaquille O'Neal. Most follow the path of Oliver Miller. Now, I take this whole thing with a grain of salt (err... fat). To me, it's reminiscent of NFL pundits obsessing over a dude's shuttle-run time. Who really cares? Can the dude play the game? That should be the only question on their mind. Cousins can play the game. If he can't keep his weight under control... with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake... well, he's got bigger issues.

As for this emotional state, the Andy Katz article referenced an incident during high school when Cousins got into a fight with a coach. Since then, Cousins' bore the "troublemaker" label. Has he matured? Is he still a powder keg? Probably a little of both. How much maturity can you really expect from a 19 year old? Take a look at this recent incident that happened a few months ago. Mississippi State fans somehow got ahold of Cousins cell number. They called him incessantly, and most messages were less than urbane. He was called every name in the book. Cousins reaction? He opted not to change his number and in fact encouraged more folks to call. Oh, and he proceeded to put up 19 points and 14 boards against Mississippi State. Boom.

The icing on the Cousins cake is that he actually wants to come to the D. He spurned workouts with Minnesota and Golden State and apparently had two secret workouts with the Pistons. The Pistons organization is fraught with drama, but they still have a rock in Joe Dumars. They'll also likely have Big Ben as the locker-room leader. Under Big Ben's wing, my guess is Cousins will do most of his talking on the court. And he's got the potential to become the next Round Mound of Rebound. What's not to like?