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How shock trade costs Cousins $97 million

While the Sacramento Kings have been widely lambasted for their 'horrible' decision to trade away DeMarcus Cousins, they may not be the biggest loser from the trade.

Cousins, the fiery three-time All-Star, was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans during Sunday’s All-Star Game for a package that included struggling rookie shooting guard Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans and one first-round and one second-round pick in the 2017 NBA draft.

While on paper many are saying the Kings have just made the worst trade in NBA history, the real loser may be the man they're shipping away.

The 26-year-old superstar centre could potentially lose AU$97 million because of the trade, considering he was expected to sign a 'designated player' extension during the upcoming off-season.

Cousins won't be happy about this. Pic: Getty
Cousins won't be happy about this. Pic: Getty

The 'designated player' rule will be in place from this year to allow smaller teams to hold on to star players they drafted or acquired as rookies.

It allows teams to re-sign their stars to a five-year extension, paying them up to 35 per cent of the salary cap - whereas other top NBA players are only allowed to earn up to 25-30% of the cap.

With the NBA's salary cap increasing next season, that would have meant a huge payday for Cousins, more than $200m over five years.

The new superstar combo. Pic: Bleacher Report
The new superstar combo. Pic: Bleacher Report

However, he is no longer eligible to sign such an extension.

The chart below shows Cousins' contract scenario if he was still a King, and what he'll likely earn elsewhere.

As a King, he would earn an extra AU$97m, with an extra year of earnings guaranteed.

The difference in earnings in US dollars. Pic: SB Nation
The difference in earnings in US dollars. Pic: SB Nation

No matter where Cousins plays in the future, he will demand a maximum contract, but that will never be as much as he could have earned at the Kings.

That explains why the hot-headed star was trying everything to not get traded, including his agent publicly stating that he wouldn't re-sign with any team that traded with him.

Meanwhile, in his first press conference since dealing Cousins away, Kings general manager Vlade Divac hardly managed to calm the waters in response to the trade that took an entire league by surprise.

The Kings, and Divac, were almost universally pounded for their approach to the deal, the team’s seeming duplicitous nature when it came to promising permanence to Cousins and his representatives, and their eventual and rather embarrassing take for a player currently putting up monstrous numbers on a team that offered him little help.

Cousins, infamously, did not help his own cause in Sacramento, and that appeared to be the tipping point for Divac, who has been on the job since an unexpected power grab landed him the title of personnel chief two years ago. Using the word “culture” three times in the first few minutes of his discussion with local media, Divac went on: ”You can’t win if you don’t have a culture. Winning begins with culture, and character matters."

Cousins, who has clashed with all manner of Kings personnel both past and present since being drafted by the club in 2010, apparently set fire to the last straw earlier this winter in daring to offend the sensibilities of Kings owner Vivek Ranadive’s other favorite club, the Golden State Warriors, with a post-win outburst in the team owner’s presence.

Ranadive “has full faith in me to make basketball decisions”, according to Vlade, but the owner could walk back some of those feelings upon hearing that the package landed for Cousins – “the best offer we had,” according to Divac just a minute into the meeting with the press – paled in comparison to the “better deal”, in Vlade’s words, that the Kings had in place “two days ago”.

A better deal? Better than the promise of a 23-year old shooting guard in Hield, making just 39 percent of his looks from the floor, and a top-three protected first round draft pick coming from yet another middling Western Conference club? Vlade?

“Yep. Talk to those agents. I don’t want to go into details. I don’t want to discuss the process. It was a big process for us.”

Indeed, it must have been. So why the change now?

“I have to do my job, and I felt like this was the best time to move forward. We got the best offer at the best time of the year.”

With Yahoo Sports - Ball Don't Lie