National Basketball Association

Will things be any different for DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings?

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:51 p.m. ET

Brett Pollakoff

PHOENIX -- DeMarcus Cousins begins his seventh NBA season playing for his sixth head coach, and the Sacramento Kings have missed the playoffs each of the past 10 years.

Will things be any different this season?

Time will tell, but at least through training camp and one regular-season game -- a comfortable 113-94 road win over the Suns -- Cousins is pleased with the positives he's seeing in his relationship with Dave Joerger, his new head coach.

"I like him and he likes me,” Cousins said, which was met with chuckles given the context. He openly feuded with his previous head coach, George Karl, who went behind ownership's back calling around the league trying to trade away Sacramento's franchise star.

“Joerger’s been great,” Cousins said. “What he brought to the team, it’s what this team needed. I think he fits our identity a lot better than, you know, how we were playing in the past."

“Hopefully our identity will be that we’re going to come out and compete hard," Joerger said. "There’s been some rocky times in Sacramento the last couple of years, so you don’t want to have a point in games or during the season where it’s ‘here we go again,’ (and we) let go of the rope or slide a little bit. You want to just believe in the future and believe that it’s going to keep getting better, and if we’re putting in our work that we’ll continue to have success."

Joerger knew exactly what he was stepping into when taking the Kings job. He needed to succeed where almost all of Cousins' previous head coaches failed, which was getting him to buy in from the very start. But despite this critical aspect of coaching in Sacramento, Joerger didn't do anything specific to try to win his superstar's support.

“I didn’t really do anything special, other than just try to be yourself,” he said. “I think if you’re trying to be somebody else, that’s always a problem. Players can always see right through that. So you just be yourself, explain what we’re trying to do, how we’re trying to build it and how we’re trying to play for the future of our team (not just) this season, but going out for future years."

It'll be a while before we know if the latest partnership is a successful one, of course, and thanks to the schedule making things a little more difficult for the Kings with 11 games in the season's first 17 days, Cousins and Joerger may have to quickly navigate some unusually rough waters.

But at least for now, Cousins is on board with the captain of the ship.

“Not to knock any of the previous situations," Cousins said, "but I think the situation we’re in now fits this team the best.”