Don't blame it on the Boogie: DeMarcus Cousins makes the Kings worth rooting for

Welcome to theScore's preview of the 2015-16 NBA season. Visit our season preview hub for comprehensive coverage of all 30 teams.

After wandering the basketball wilderness for the better part of a decade, Sacramento hoops fans deserve something - outside of a sparkling new arena - to get excited about.

Unfortunately, for all of the headlines they've already made, the 2015-16 Kings won't be it.

Related: 2015-16 Sacramento Kings preview

Sure, with whatever's left of Rajon Rondo, plus the additions of Marco Belinelli, Kosta Koufos, and Willie Cauley-Stein, among others, the Kings will certainly be a more talented team than the version that failed to win 30 games for the seventh consecutive season last year.

But an infusion of talent can be meaningless if the pieces don't fit, and the last thing DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay needed was a historically poor shooter on the floor with them to further cramp the team's spacing.

And therein lies the dilemma for Kings fans. Even a marginal improvement and the tease of a playoff race would be parade-worthy at this point, but they're smart enough to know this isn't a postseason team - certainly not in the West - and they'll send their first-rounder to Chicago if they're good enough to avoid a top-10 pick.

So where, oh where, can these tortured souls turn for a beacon of light and some semblance of hope?

Enter Cousins.

His raw numbers alone are mesmerizing, as he's averaged over 23 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steal per game over his last two seasons, but his on-court temperament and the Kings' allergy to success often cast doubt on those impressive tallies.

That doubt should have been erased last year, when an underwhelming Kings team burst out of the gates thanks to Cousins' MVP-caliber play on both sides of the ball - his improved effort and focus on the defensive end rightfully drawing praise from prior skeptics.

His performance - and that aforementioned two-way effort - seemed to slip after a bout with meningitis saw the team fall apart and the organization inexplicably fire Mike Malone, but the overall results were undeniable.

Cousins posted just the 14th 23-12-3-1-1 season in NBA history, becoming the eighth different big man to achieve the feat and the first in 11 years, while somehow managing to help the 29-53 Kings outscore opponents when he was on the floor.

Think about that. A team that was outscored by 8.3 points per 100 possessions in the 1,958 total minutes Cousins spent on the bench - a net rating that would have ranked 27th overall - outscored opponents in the 2,013 minutes he logged on the court.

For his efforts, Cousins was rewarded with an All-NBA second team selection and was invited to his first career All-Star game, though the fact that he was merely an injury replacement for that game speaks volumes about how his reputation still sometimes overshadows his breathtaking talent.

In that regard, it's worth mentioning that Cousins' league-leading 30 technical fouls over the last two seasons are only two more than Blake Griffin accumulated during the same period, and only two more than Kevin Durant accrued between the 2012-13 season and his 2013-14 MVP campaign.

No one seems to talk about that much, of course, because Durant and Griffin have the benefit of far superior supporting casts and are therefore labeled natural born winners in comparison to Cousins.

Related: Cousins sees MVP award as 'mine to grab'

If you're hoping to see a toned down DMC this season, one who scowls less, takes fewer techs, and can suddenly go without sometimes letting his emotions get the better of him, prepare to be disappointed.

That raw emotion and the Hall of Fame scowl that comes with it fuel one of the modern game's most dominant and tremendous talents, as well as one of its most fascinating characters.

Boogie being Boogie is often harmless fun for those lucky enough to watch Cousins ball, and for all that's been taken from them over the last 10 years, Kings fans deserve the distraction.

Boogie on, then.