Happy President’s Day everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the final day of the holiday weekend. It’s still Monday, so I’m on the hook for another edition of the “Weekend Recap.” I’ll be talking about NBA All Star weekend and the new number one golfer in the world a little later, but lets get right into the story that stole the weekend.

DeMarcus Cousins Traded To New Orleans After the All Star Game

You read that right folks. Mere moments after the Western Conference polished off a 192-182 victory over the Eastern Conference, Adrian Wojnarowski fired off one of the best #WojBombs in recent memory. Sacramento had agreed to send DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans for Buddy Hield (the sixth pick in the 2016 NBA Draft), Tyreek Evans, Langston Galloway, a top-three protected 2017 first round pick, and a 2017 second round pick (via Philadelphia).

This wasn’t the king’s ransom that most thought that Sacramento should have gotten for a player of Cousins’ caliber. Not even close actually. In truth this is a move that only Sacramento could have done. I like to make fun of Brooklyn for the horrible trades they made with Boston, but this was a pretty horrendous deal for a few reasons.

First, clearly the sum doesn’t equal the parts. Cousins is a top-ten talent in the NBA with top-five potential. Hield was a great college player, but he wasn’t thought of as a franchise cornerstone coming into the league last summer. Evans was a former top-five pick in the draft, but his career has been hampered by injuries that have led to three knee surgeries in the last 18 months. Galloway has been a decent bench player in his first two and a half seasons. All told, these three players definitely don’t even come close to recouping the on-court value.

Second, they are screwed in the draft now. Sacramento only got one first round pick in this transaction, and boy are they going to regret that. After breaking the news Wojnarowski tweeted that  a factor that played into this deal for the Kings was the growing risk of losing its first round pick to Chicago (a top-ten protected pick). Kings GM Vlade Divac is going to have to get very creative in the draft and can’t miss in the first round now.

Something that is often forgotten outside of Philadelphia is even if Sacramento keeps its first round pick in 2017, the Sixers have the right to swap picks with the Kings this season. For example, if the Kings somehow get the number one pick in the lottery, Philadelphia jumps right up to the top, no questions asked. That’s if the pick is in the top-ten because otherwise Chicago gets the pick.

So assuming that Sacramento loses its first round pick, they still have the first round pick from New Orleans this year. Although that is likely to be somewhere in the 15-20 range since the Pelicans will almost assuredly make the playoffs with its Cousins-Anthony Davis pairing. It’s a deep draft, but missing out of the cream of the crop always hurts.

Sacramento does have its first round pick in 2018, so they’ll have the opportunity to snag a top talent there. However, they won’t be as fortunate in 2019 because the Kings sent an unprotected first round pick to Philadelphia last year in a salary dump.

The final reason this was a horrendous move for Sacramento was the execution of the move. Sacramento bungled this deal so badly on so many fronts but how they made this move will likely be what haunts this franchise. A couple of weeks ago, Divac announced to the media that he would not trade Cousins. He even went so far as to have a meeting with Cousins and his agents to convey that sentiment to him.

So already the Kings front office isn’t looking to hot since they, you know, traded Cousins. Then they let Cousins head into his postgame media availability without telling him about the trade.

If you are the Kings, how are you going to possibly hope to sign any top-notch free agent with the way you just treated the best player this franchise had seen since Chris Webber? Yes, the Kings got out of paying Cousins a $200 million contract extension, but that cap space is going to go unused for a while.

Obviously the big winner of this deal is New Orleans since they now have one of the preeminent frontcourt pairings in the NBA with Cousins and Davis. The Pelicans are now on the fast track to the top of the league within the next few years, and didn’t have to mortgage the future of the franchise either.

It really does say something when the other winner in the deal, Philadelphia, had nothing to do with said deal. The Sixers now just get to sit back and reap the benefits of the NBA’s latest tanking franchise. Once again the Kings show why this is a franchise that is going nowhere fast, and is now without an All-NBA level player.

Lukewarm All Star Weekend Ends With Highest Scoring ASG Ever

The Boogie Cousins trade overshadowed an otherwise uneventful All Star weekend in New Orleans. Saturday night was a travesty, including another terrible dunk contest. The competitions on Saturday night just lack the flash of previous seasons, and it might be time for the NBA to go back to the drawing board there for a fresh idea.

Don’t even get me started on Friday night. Seriously, there was a mannequin challenge in the third quarter of the celebrity game. Ugh…

As for the actual All Star Game itself, it was a defense-optional game as both sides set a new record for the highest total score ever. Anthony Davis set a new record for the most points scored in an All Star Game (52), while taking home MVP honors. There was even an alley-oop olive branch of sorts between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in their 81 seconds of the court together.

As flashy as some of these spurts of action were, ultimately this game just lacked any sort of excitement. The only thing keeping me in this game was hoping to see one side break 200 points, but alas it wasn’t to be. The Western Conference had a shot, but let up in the final minute of the game, opting to try to throw down a few more ridiculous dunks. Oh well, maybe next year. When you see stuff like this though, you kind of understand what type of game this was.

Dustin Johnson Wins At Riviera, Takes #1 Ranking in the World

So it looks like the experts nailed this one. Dustin Johnson ran away with the Genesis Open this weekend winning the tournament by five strokes. A dominant performance by Johnson not only gave him his first win at Riviera, but also put him at the top of the world golf rankings for the first time in his career.

Rough weather conditions affected the early rounds of this tournament, leading to second round play getting suspended until Saturday. This left more than half the field to face the elements on Thursday and Friday, but that’s golf for you. Sometimes it’s all in the luck of your draw.

That being said, Johnson was clearly the best player in the field this week. His first win of 2017 comes at a great time on the road to Augusta. We’ll see how this momentum for Johnson carries into next week at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardéns, Florida.

That’s it for me today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a new installment of “Heat Check” to look at the latest trade rumors ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.