Sunday afternoon, it was announced by the Sacramento Kings that starting forward DeMarcus Cousins demanded to be traded and was subsequently suspended by the team for the January 1 game against the New Orleans Hornets.

Head coach Paul Westphal issued the following statement.

"Whenever a new season begins, in any sport, there is great hope that everything will progress in only a steady, upward direction. As we all know, it seldom happens like that in this life! As coaches, we can only ask that our players do everything they can to improve themselves as individuals and teammates.

If they do this with all their hearts, we live with the results. Everything that happens on a team does not become known to the public. This is how it should be. However, when a player continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely. DeMarcus Cousins has demanded to be traded.

In the best interest of our team as we go forward, he has been directed by me, with the support of management, to stay home from the New Orleans game tonight.”

It is unlikely that the team will rush out and trade the second-year big man, but i am sure Geoff Petrie's phone is ringing off the hook with this latest round of events. Cousins still has a ton of value in this league and the Kings could get some quality pieces in return if they decided to go in that direction.