George Karl wants to trade DeMarcus Cousins for the 2013 Nuggets

If George Karl had his way, the Kings would trade DeMarcus Cousins for several of Karl’s former players in Denver. The Sacramento Kings coach is “enamored” with the idea of trading Cousins to the Nuggets for Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler, according to CBS Sports’ Ken Berger.

All three played key roles on Karl’s 57-win Nuggets team in 2013 and all could be seeking a change of scenery. Denver fell off since Karl was fired following the season, so all three players have seen their value tank. Lawson has been shopped since February, while teams have been sniffing around on Faried and Chandler for multiple years.

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac continue to insist that Cousins won’t be traded, but Sacramento seems ready to make a big move regardless. “They have everyone on the table,” a league executive told Berger. That includes Rudy Gay and the No. 6 overall pick. If Karl has his way, it reportedly includes Cousins, too.

If we operate in a world where Cousins really is on the table and Karl gets his way, the two teams match up well as trade partners.

For Cousins, this means a reunion with former head coach Mike Malone, now the man in charge in Denver. Malone was fired earlier this season by the Kings despite leading the team to a respectable 11-13 record and making a strong connection with Cousins. The Kings’ star might enjoy playing for him again.

The logic for Denver is obvious. The Nuggets are going nowhere and have many mid-sized contracts on the books without a single player to build around. Cousins is that player, so the Nuggets obviously would want to package whatever combination of players they can to acquire him.

Karl, meanwhile, desires the Nuggets’ offer because he has “no interest in a full-on youth movement,” according to Berger. He won 57 games with Lawson, Faried and Chandler playing key roles, so he must believe the Kings will improve with them instead of Cousins. Other teams in the Cousins sweepstakes, such as the Boston Celtics, can offer significantly more future draft picks and young talent. But if that’s not what Karl wants, the Nuggets’ offer is the best out there.

The obvious reason is that ownership needs to sign off on the deal, and they’ve shown no indication of doing so thus far. Even if Divac had a change of heart, he’d be much smarter to accept a deal built around young talent than those three disappointing, high-priced Nuggets veterans. Karl may prefer that deal for his own interests, but it is a poor one for the Kings’ future.

The less obvious reason is that Faried’s contract is subject to a CBA provision that makes trading him tough. Per Berger:

Faried would be difficult to trade before July since his contract includes a poison-pill provision; his incoming salary for the Kings ($10.45 million) would be vastly greater than his outgoing salary for the Nuggets ($2.25 million) if traded during the current league year.

It’s only this high because it’s exactly the deal Karl should want. In reality, no Cousins deal is happening unless Kings ownership changes its stance.

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