I'd take Cousins over Blake any day of the week. Blake is the better offensive player, I'll give you that, but it's not by much. Cousins is the more complete player. He's a better defender, better rebounder, and has a more efficient total game. From a numbers standpoint, he's only slightly behind Blake as a passer, but his supporting cast is far far worse. To be fair, Cousins had more triple doubles and only trailed Blake by six percent in AST% despite the team difference, so his passing ability shouldn't be understated. While Cousins scored more than Blake, he used more shots to get his points. However, going back to the team standpoint, Blake has legitimate offensive options around him, where Boogie has Rudy Gay, Darren Collison (a backup PG at best) and a bunch off fringe rotation players. Blake has a top-5 spot up shooter, the best pure PG, a top finishing center and a veteran former sixth man of the year. Cousins' defense and rebounding makes up the small difference in offense in my opinion. He's also a bit younger. I guess there's a case to be made for Blake over Cousins, but I just don't see it. I think there's a better case for moving him over Gasol due to age and offensive prowess, but I still wouldn't just because the difference offensively isn't as much as you would think from surface level stats and Gasol is far more impactful defensively and on the boards.
