Good find by SPORTSbyBROOKS, who quoted Aran Smith’s scouting report of Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins. In the report, Smith relays a text he received from a scout about Cousins’ NBA prospects.
“No way…mental issues…he is on bigtime meds i hear…not athletic enough for me talent wise also…but he has been great last month…”
That same scout has since stated that he thinks Cousins will probably go “very high” in the draft, but says he wouldn’t touch him in the top five for fear of off court issues.
Cousins has a well-earned reputation for being immature, and while talent-wise he’s the best big man in this draft, whether or not he’s able to channel his emotion will have a huge impact on what kind of professional career he will eventually have.
I won’t speculate as to what the scout meant by “big-time meds,” but it’s clear that given his attitude and immaturity, Cousins is one of the biggest upside/downside guys in the draft. He literally could be a franchise-changer, both in a good way and in a bad way.
In just 22 minutes of playing time, Cousins is averaging 16-10, 1.7 blocks and is shooting 55% from the field. He’s not great from the free throw line (64%), but he’s not Shaq-bad. He’s a dominant rebounder (think Paul Millsap) even though he’s not an elite athlete. If he can focus his energy on basketball and not get distracted by all the other garbage, then he has a chance to be a very good NBA player one day.
It’s going to be interesting to see where he goes in the draft.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
