So recently a couple of my friends brought up the idea that PEAK DeMarcus Cousins was better than PEAK Dwight Howard. I pretty much watched all of DeMarcus Cousins prime in Sacramento and he was my favourite player in the NBA for a couple years, but I still cannot fathom how he compares to a player as dominant defensively and offensively like Howard.
As well, Howard led the Magic to a finals appearance in his prime. I do acknowledge that Cousins is the better passer, shooter, and post player, and that if he didn’t have to carry the offensive load as much as he did in Sacramento he could’ve been way more efficient (we got to see a preview of that in NOLA), but are these abilities enough to take him over Howard?
I was a huge Dwight fan in Houston, but unfortunately I never got to see prime Orlando D12. So could you guys please fill in some context?
NOT CAREER-WISE, STRICTLY PEAK
Can someone explain to me how Demarcus Cousins has become an almost mythic figure in NBA history?
I watched his entire career, and he was always a turnover machine with mediocre efficiency.
Because so many of these conversations are driven by two things:
How does a player look in highlights.
What does it feel like the player should be able to do.
Those two things are very different from who actually helps you win. DeMarcus looked like who the gods would build if they decided to make the perfect center. You could see highlights where you said, "Wow ..." On paper he had every skill you would want a center to have.
And yet he never put it together. And people seem to forget that part.
I 100% agree with you, but tbf, he was never in a proper system where he could thrive and cover some of his deficiencies. Look at his NOLA tenure when he actually was on a decent team. Were they gonna beat the warriors? No. But they were pretty dominant, and fans still talk about that team as a what-if.