Each week this preseason and also during the season we are going to be doing a fantasy basketball roundtable. There will be one question asked and each of the RotoProfessor writers will offer an answer. Our goal is to give you the readers as many opinions and viewpoints as possible as you prepare for your drafts.

Periodically throughout the year we will also be bringing in guest bloggers. While we pride ourselves in bringing quality fantasy basketball analysis there are lots of other good fantasy blogs out there that are very much worth your time and we want to spotlight some of those blogs and writers who work hard. For our first week we are welcoming in Scott Malewig from fakebasketball.com.

For our first roundtable I decided to pose a question about one of the most polarizing players in the NBA, DeMarcus Cousins. I asked each writer at what point they would select Cousins in a fantasy draft. Here are the answers:

Will Overton
I am divided on DeMarcus Cousins. Part of me looks at his numbers from last year and find myself wiping some drool off of my computer. Another part of me remembers the antics he has been a part of in the past and absolute basket case that he can be. Cousins could be this year’s Andrew Bynum, or he could completely implode.

I want to believe that Cousins’ antics are behind him at this point, but it’s hard to believe he has really grown up that much in the last nine months. If he’s there in the second round it would take a whole lot of willpower to not to take him, but I just don’t know if I can trust him enough to risk that high of a pick, on him, making Cousins a cornerstone of my fantasy team.

The fact that he could be a 20/10 guy with 1.5 blocks and steals makes it impossible for me to pass on him in round three. But the risk in my mind if too great inside the top 20. I won’t be shocked if he ends up there, or even in the top ten, but if I pass on him and he ends up there, I’ll have to live with it. That’ll be easier for me to do than taking him in the top 15 and regretting it all season.

Dave Freeman
DeMarcus Cousins is the kind of player I tend to avoid the like plague for Fantasy purposes. Here’s why:

I think basketball is the major sport in which attitude, personality and relationships have the biggest impact on statistics. There’s something about basketball that makes personality, attitude and relationships between players matter so much more than other sports. Maybe it’s the intimacy of the small court in a giant arena, the comparatively small number of simultaneous players and the continuous, bruising physicality of a game that offers little reprieve. When you’re consistently being beaten up, it exacerbates any existing grumpiness or self-entitlement that you feel. It pisses you off. And when you’re angry, beaten up and feeling marginalized, you don’t really care about the other guys so long as “I get mine.” This leads to you doing more stupid things and perpetuates the problem.

For fantasy purposes, you don’t want a guy on your team who has high-diva potential (unless he’s a once-in-a-generation athletic freak like Dwight Howard), because the chances that his stats will suffer are far greater. And DeMarcus Cousins certainly has some diva in him. Fantasy basketball has enough variables without having to consider whether your guys’ teammates are happy with him on a given night.

And yet, here’s the kicker: despite my staunch belief in the above philosophy, I’m buying DeMarcus this year. I had him as a complete stay-away last year, but he really showed me something in the second half. I think he’s a little older, a little farther removed from his juvenile college and NBA beginnings. His stats were really even by the end of last year and I think he’ll continue to offer solid big-man stats and a little of everything. Most importantly, I think Keith Smart gets him. He recognizes what he’s got with DMC and will use the Kings’ smorgasbord of guards to maximize Cousins’ opportunity.

To my mind, one of the league’s biggest Divas is making the leap into a front-court lynchpin, at least for fantasy purposes. I wouldn’t take him in the first-half of Round 2 (10-15), but if he’s still sitting there at 16-20, I’d have no issues with drafting him.

Ray Kuhn
There are a few questions that run thru my mind when considering where to draft DeMarcus Cousins, but questioning his talent is not one of them.  Last season Cousins averaged a double double (18.1 ppg and 11 rpg).  That production cannot be argued with but there are questions about Cousins’ mental state, his physical condition, and his coexisting with head coach Keith Smart.  But this is fantasy basketball and all that matters is his statistics, so all things considered, who cares about the drama, he had a good year last season (in those 2 categories because you would expect more than a 44.8% FG%) finishing 5^th among centers in ppg and 4^th in rpg.

All things considered I can get past the FG% because I think that will improve as he matures.  The word is that Cousins has dedicated a lot of time hard work to improving his physical condition this offseason and that will pay off.  That is hard to argue with as you can visibly see his transformation and coupled with his physical gifts and performance last season, the potential is off the charts.  Based on his time with the Olympic team it also seems like his mental state has improved and his committing to transforming himself mentally.

You would like your first few picks to be a sure thing, and even with his performance last year, talent level, and mental and physical transformations, there are still some questions about Cousins that will likely be unanswered by draft day.  But the position scarcity, his potential and talent still make Cousins a mid to low 2^nd round pick in my book.

Spencer Carrucciu
DeMarcus Cousins is an immensely talented player. Throughout his first two years DeMarcus has had trouble staying on the court, either because of fouls or disagreements with his head coach, but in spurts has shown signs of the player he can become.  The table below lists two players from last season.

Taking a look at these two players I would say they are pretty close in value. Player 1 has an advantage in steals, while player two has an advantage in FG% and blocks, but overall they seem pretty similar. The first player is Cousins, who has shown an ability to contribute across the stat line, with his only negatives being his FG and FT %’s. The second player is Andrew Bynum.

This will be Cousins third year in the league, and I expect his numbers to improve across the board, especially his FG %.  Cousins possesses the two things I look for in the players I want to draft, upside and talent. For me I would be willing to draft cousins in the second round of upcoming fantasy drafts.

Scott Malewig (FakeBasketball.com)
To start out, I am usually the guy that takes risk/reward guys, no matter the league, because I feel that you can always do enough on the waiver wire if one of your risks busts. I will be the guy who takes Steph Curry in most leagues and I’m loving some other guys of similar nature like Ricky Rubio, Michael Beasley and Andrew Bogut.

Now, for Cousins. DeMarcus Cousins is a guy that has one of the most unique skill sets in the league. He is a big man who last year offered excellent points and rebounds numbers, as well as a surprisingly high steals average. The problem is, for a big man, Cousins’ FG% and TO number were absolutely atrocious. He also struggled mightily with foul trouble and attitude problems at different points during the year. So, well, there’s the bad news…

On to the good news! Cousins has the potential to develop into a consistent 20/20 threat in this league and there is exactly one of those currently (Kevin Love). As for his FG%, I would expect that to take a big leap forward this season due to improved shot selection and a slightly improved jumper. His turnovers will likely always be a little high for a big man, but that is my personal favorite category to punt or ignore based on format. His attitude and foul trouble problems are the easiest to correct and he improved on them greatly already late last season after the Kings switched coaches. Basically you are getting a discount due to past problems and I would take Cousins as high as the end of the First Round, but wold prefer to wait for the value in the middle of the Second Round.

We’ve weighed in with our opinions; now where do you come down on this debate? Would you take Cousins in the first or second round? Or is he too big of a risk?