Cousins needs a crash course in defense - fast

Look, we all know that DeMarcus fella has offensive skills.  He can post, dish, even hit the three.

But the Kings better hope he learns to play position defense very quickly or he is going to be a very annoyed young man come the middle of November.

Cousins has looked hopelessly lost on defense in his short NBA career, picking up foul after foul after foul.   The referees don't figure to get much kinder once the regular season comes around.

Now this wouldn't be too big a deal except for one very important fact:

On Tuesday night, the Kings announced that they had lost their biggest offseason acquisition -- center Samuel Dalembert -- for 4-6 weeks with a left abductor strain.  I'd tell you what a left abductor strain is, but I'm too lazy to Google it.

So where does this leave the Kings and their high hopes for rejuvenation?

In a bit of a pickle.  A sour pickle.

Cousins is not ready to play 35 minutes a night in the NBA, no matter how good he has looked in spurts.   And even if he was ready, he can't possibly stay of the floor for that long.  Not with the refs blowing their whistles in his ear every two minutes.

Frustration may set in a little too soon.  And that's not good for a player who needs to get his emotions under control.

The Kings are going to have to tap-dance, ad-lib, and pray if they hope to get through the first couple of months of the season and make that big leap back to respectability.

For now, it's time for DeMarcus to work on three things.

Defense.  Defense.  Defense.

Excuse me, it's time for me to go Google.