Divac adamant Kings won't deal Cousins, says max extension planned

Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac doubled down Monday on previous statements that he has no plans to deal franchise center DeMarcus Cousins ahead of the Feb. 23 trade deadline.

"We're not trading DeMarcus," Divac told ESPN's Marc Stein. "We hope he's here for a long time."

Divac offered similar remarks last May, and reports have surfaced since that the team plans to give Cousins a so-called "supermax" extension this summer. Divac essentially confirmed as much to ESPN.

"We are going in that direction," he said.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, a "designated player" like Cousins - who would have played seven years with one team and accrued accolades such as two All-NBA Second Team nods - could be eligible for an extension in the neighborhood of $207 million over five years.

For all the dysfunction that has surrounded the Kings since the organization drafted Cousins with the fifth pick in the 2010 draft, the three-time All-Star has never publicly demonstrated any desire to leave the small-market California capital. Last month, he even suggested he would retire in Sacramento and have his jersey raised to the rafters there.

The reality of Cousins being off the market for the foreseeable future would be a cold shower for several NBA executives and even more fans, many of whom have salivated at the idea of landing the league's best traditional center while he's still in his mid-to-late 20s. Over the past two seasons, Cousins has been linked, realistically or not, to the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Toronto Raptors.