Cousins is finding fewer and fewer friends right now. (Getty Images)

DeMarcus Cousins didn't really have any attitude issues after Paul Westphal was fired from the Sacramento Kings last season. Cousins and Westphal butted heads a lot in their brief time together. But once Westphal was gone and Keith Smart took over the team as head coach, Cousins seemed to really pull his act together.

I guess he's trying to make up for lost time now. During Friday night's game, the Kings' big man got into an altercation at the end of the first quarter with his head coach. Then after halftime, Cousins didn't see a second of action on the court. James Ham from Cowbell Kingdom has the story:

Following a verbal altercation with his head coach at the end of the first quarter, Cousins was benched in the second half for what Smart deemed “conduct detrimental to the team”.

“We’re trying to set a standard for all of our players,” Smart told a group of hungry reporters following the loss to the Clippers.  ”And all of our guys that are here (know that). And when guys don’t fall in line to that, we’ve got to move on, we’ve got to move forward.”

I looked back at the end of the first quarter to see if I could find anything showing the verbal altercation. And while there isn't any video from the Kings' broadcast during that time, there was this play at the end of the first period. 

As you can see and hear from Bill Walton on the telecast, the Kings had a foul to give with 4.2 seconds left. Isaiah Thomas picks up Chris Paul fullcourt, but Lamar Odom's (inbounding the ball) defender doesn't come into the picture until you see Paul enter the 3-point line area. That player is DeMarcus Cousins, watching the play develop before Paul drops a 3-pointer at the end of the quarter.

If you're a coach and you watch Cousins not care at all in that situation, you're probably going to have words for him. 

As Ham mentions in that article, Cousins is quickly burning bridges with the organization and Smart was one of his last defenders. If Smart is beginning to turn on Cousins, you have to wonder what his future with this franchise is. It wouldn't shock me if Cousins didn't care and just wanted out.

The problem is he's killing his trade value and the Kings are going to be less likely to deal away a rookie-contract guy, even if it's just to get rid of his attitude. The entire organization looks dysfunctional right now, from the top to the bottom. Cousins embodies this perfectly at the moment, after spending most of last season looking like he had figured out how he's supposed to act.

It's just another frustrating showing from the Kings' organization.