'There's some dumbass GMs out there. Shoutout to Dell Demps' - DeMarcus Cousins claims 2018 Pelicans could have been a championship contender if the team stayed together

DeMarcus Cousins had yet to taste playoff basketball in his first eight years in the league. He was bound to play in the postseason with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2018, but a torn Achilles tendon made sure the streak continued. Nevertheless, "Boogie" was so confident of the team that he thought they'd be legitimate contenders in no time. Unfortunately, then-general manager Dell Demps had other ideas.

"If they would have kept that squad together, we definitely would have made a run, at least by Year 2, I believe," DMC said on Fanduel TV's Run it Back. "There's some dumbass GMs out there. Shout out to Dell Demps."

Cousins played the first 48 games in 2017-18 but had to sit out with the Achilles issues for the last 34. However, the Pels made the playoffs as the sixth seed and eventually pulled off a minor upset by sweeping Portland in the first round. From there, New Orleans faced the defending (and eventual) champs, the Golden State Warriors, and got gentleman-swept, 4-1.

Nevertheless, the Pels had to feel good about themselves. The squad overachieved without their second-best scorer and leading rebounder, thanks primarily to a deep roster that included Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Rajon Rondo, and Nikola Mirotic. For Cousins, it's not rocket science; keep this team together, and they would have made some noise.

Was Demps a bad GM?

The Pelicans hired Demps in 2010 and built the roster from the ground up. He drafted Davis under his watch and orchestrated deals that brought Holiday and Cousins into the fold without giving much back. Rondo, an NBA champion with the 2008 Boston Celtics, signed as a free agent in 2017.

Nonetheless, Demps also fumbled the ball on numerous occasions, and a couple of these miscues caused the Pelican's swift slide. The New York Times' Marc Stein reported that the former Mount Eden high school standout offered Cousins a two-year, $40 million extension, something that DMC denied.

"Boogie" claimed he had never received an offer from the Pelicans, so he decided to move on and join the Warriors in a one-year, $5.3 million deal. It went all downhill from there for the Pelicans, losing Rondo (2018 offseason) and AD (summer of 2019) to the Lakers.

Years before that, Demps was in the middle of a tricky multi-team negotiation that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers. According to reports, the former undrafted point guard was adamant to get the deal done, leading to the infamous trade veto orchestrated by David Stern.

"There was a trade that Dell Demps wanted us to approve and I said heck no, but he had told Daryl Morey and Mitch Kupchak he had authority to do it and he didn't. I said no. We just settled a lockout and you want me to approve a basketball trade?" the late former commissioner said.

"And the next trade was [to the Clippers for] Eric Gordon and Al-Farouq Aminu and what we thought was a really great draft pick, the 10th pick, which turned out to be Austin Rivers. At least those three and someone else [center Chris Kaman]. But Dell Demps is a lousy general manager, and none of those players are currently with the team anymore, and he may lose Anthony Davis," Stern stated, looking back at the deal many years later.

The final straw

Contrary to what Cousins and Stern said, Demps was a competent GM who made mistakes like the best of them. His track record says a lot. That said, like the players, front-office execs were only as good as their last deals. Demps made a blunder by never giving "Boogie" a chance, especially if AD wanted him there. Kudos to him when he stood his ground by refusing to trade Davis, but it appeared that was his only course of action amidst the chaos.

"As the trade deadline approached, Demps resisted overtures from the Los Angeles Lakers and decided not to trade the 25-year-old all-NBA big man. That decision was defensible given that Davis will still command significant trade offers this summer, but it was not coupled with a clear plan for how to move forward in the meantime. Demps was also noticeably absent from the public messaging before, during and after the decision, leaving Coach Alvin Gentry to handle most of the media deluge," wrote Ben Golliver of the Washington Post.

Demps' role in breaking up the 2018 Pelicans is undeniable. He probably made that decision because it doesn't make sense to pin New Orleans' hopes on Cousins' jiffy heel tendons. Nonetheless, bold decisions in the NBA can either elevate a franchise or unravel it, as Demps' gamble ultimately did. That doesn't mean he's a "dumbass" GM, though.