by Jeff Hall

SACRAMENTO–The Sacramento Kings opened up the season against the Golden State Warriors at Sleep Train Arena and also broke ground for construction at the new new arena at the downtown plaza where it will be the future home of the Kings. The new arena is expected to open in the fall of 2016.

On opening night a lot of the Kings success against the Warriors will have to do with their head coach Mike Malone. The grow up part of it has to do with Kings forward DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins is a solid player and we all know he’s an emotional player and its a matter or not if Cousins can’t control that emotion.

So far Cousins has done a great job so far he looks like a leader and it’s something that the Kings haven’t seen and he’s not under the old ownership of the Maloof family. With new owner Vivek Ranadive he won’t toloreate bad behavior and that’s not to say he would get rid of Cousins.

Cousins is solid and Ranadive and the Kings are looking forward to Cousins to produce. He’s defitnitely a superstar and definitely he’s an All-Star player. Were going to see a lot of Cousins this season and the Kings will really embrace him and his role for this year if they haven’t done it already. If Cousins can control his emotions particularly against NBA referees.

It comes down to Cousins and if he’s solid they’ll need him for the players and it’s going to come down to this guy. No matter how solid he is the Kings could make the playoffs this year. It’s important to Ranadive because he knows that Sacramento is not going to put up with a team that loses every year. The city will still support the team but it’s important that the team start winning some games.

It’s important to Ranadive and as long as the players respect this guy and they respect Malone and they do it might be a very good start against the Warriors to open the season. The Kings haven’t had a very good opportunity to to start this season at home. There’s a lot of Warriors fans who are in Sacramento as well and there are a lot of fans who are willing to go to Golden State.

These two teams present the highway 80 competition and it should be a good competition between these two teams and you saw a lot of Warriors fans in Sacramento. Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro and Malone expect the best out of his starting five including Rudy Gay whose at one forward and with Cousins their performing and taking on a lot of the load.

The Kings are also hoping that their second year guard Ben McLemore and Nicky Stauskas can grow and blend in with the veterans Jason Thompson, Reggie Evans, and Ramon Sessions. The Kngs are hoping that happens quickly and D’Alessandro and Malone are looking to see what kind of defense that these kids can play. You got Stauskas whose a former Michigan Wolverine player and he could do a lot on rebounding and helping the Kings capitalize on the turnover.

Jeff Hall covers the Sacramento Kings for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google image