Cousins being pushed out of Sacramento?

On Monday night, Yahoo! Sports officially reported that head coach George Karl is pushing for the Kings to trade DeMarcus Cousins. But would they?

As of now we know two things. First, we know George Karl has a history of having turbulent relationships with his stars. Second? We know that DeMarcus cousins is a star. A superstar.

Simply put, Cousins is big time. Only 15 players in NBA history have averaged 24 points and 12 rebounds before the age of 25. He's one of them. 12 of the next 14 are Hall of Famers, while the other two are Shaq and Kevin Love. That's some pretty talented company.

The question is, if they were to trade Cousins what could they get in return? A three team deal has been explored with the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings. The Lakers would more than likely package Jordan Clarkson or Julius Randle, with the No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft. The Magic would potentially give up Nikola Vucevic, while the Kings would obviously give up Cousins. Karl has otherwise expressed interest in Ty Lawson (who he coached back in Denver) and Kenneth Faried.

It's no secret that the firing of coach Mike Malone in December of the 2014-2015 season bothered Cousins. He claims that he found out about the coaching change "on Twitter." But as the season progressed Cousins was visibly annoyed, calling the season a "complete circus." More shocking than the center's strong words about the current direction of the team, was his choice to say nothing negative about coach Mike Malone, before and after the firing. In fact, he was publicly happy about his recent hiring in Denver. "I was extremely happy" Cousins stated. "I think he's one of the better coaches in the league ... Like I said, you can't keep a good man down."

On that note, replacing one of Cousins' favored coaches without asking his opinion was bound to leave a bitter feeling in the air. One would assume that a new coach would tread lightly. Karl had other ideas. The new coach seemed to frequently ostracize Cousins. He stated towards the end of the season that all Kings players were moveable. Then he proceeded to shut Cousins down for the season. Perhaps he was trying to preserve their draft pick. Perhaps he was genuinely concerned about Cousins' injuries. Perhaps not.

Karl has a long history of butting heads with his stars. But is it jumping the gun to assume that Cousins will get traded? I wouldn't say so. George Karl has butt heads with a handful of the better players that he's coached. During his tenure coaching them, Karl has openly been at odds with players like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Ray Allen, Andre Iguodala, and Carmelo Anthony. What's more shocking is Karl's willingness to trade players. Ray Allen was sent from Milwaukee to Seattle in a deadline deal in 2003. Allen, arguably entering his prime at the time, was a player that not many would dare trade, but Karl made the move. Eight years latear, Karl was happy to see a 3-team blockbuster deal, sending Carmelo to New York for spare parts.

History shows that Karl isn't afraid to deal a superstar he's at odds with. Is the DeMarcus Cousins story likely to travel the same route? My opinion is that if the Kings are ever going to trade Cousins, there won't be too many better deals available in the future. So if they're going to do it, do it now. Do I think they should? Yes and no. No because Cousins is the type of talent that only comes around once in a blue, but if they're set on doing it anyway, then yes. Do it now.

I think he's outta Sacramento soon, maybe even before the NBA Draft. What do you think?