Zach Lowe on DeMarcus Cousins ​​and the Golden State Warriors

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Then they jumped on Randle. Given the number of positions that remained to be filled, they could not offer Cousins ​​much more than the mid-level exception for non-tax teams – just under $ 9 million. dollars per season.

Yes, both could have worked together on a sign-and-trade that would have yielded something tangible to a player that the Pelicans had sacrificed so much. Such an agreement could have yielded more money to Cousins, over more seasons.

It is possible that such an agreement did not exist in Cousins. As I wrote in May, there was not much market for him – and almost no teams with a ceiling space once Dallas and DeAndre Jordan pulled the NBA version Beguines who finally (and carelessly) make the jump when they fall on "

A number of teams had a No Cousins ​​policy before tearing his Achilles. This number increased as teams feared to engage in what could be a less explosive version of it. Remember: Any contract signed as part of a signing and exchange process must encompbad at least three seasons. It could have been too long for teams that should have sent him a significant badet.

Only the first year of salary in such transactions must be guaranteed, which means that teams could cheat the system by making the last two unsecured. – $ 0 if things go wrong. This, of course, is hostile to Cousins. If there is underperformance, the team moves away. Cousins ​​could have earned a little more money in 2018-2019 under such a contract, but it is unclear whether even that kind of agreement was there – or whether it was there. he would have cooperated with the pelicans to organize it. (Portland and New Orleans have had preliminary discussions on a sign-and-trade, sources say, but Portland's pay goal is cloudy and it could have pushed at least a year off-warranty.) Partly because Cousins ​​and Jusuf Nurkic, the free agent center of Portland, share an agent.)

Play well by leading to those unsecured years and the team has you for both next seasons to a lower level. -state market. Cousins ​​now has the opportunity to prove themselves with Golden State and return to the market as new spaces open up.

By mid-Monday, the people of Cousins ​​were calling teams and launching markets: one year, $ 15 million. place, by sources, other numbers in other places. Clearly, there was not much interest. It may be that the richest and easiest contract available is a mid-level exception contract starting at about $ 8.6 million.

Any team that offers this – and I'm not sure that have felt its leverage and have been trying to get Cousins ​​to make a two-year deal at that price. For many of them, it was the smart game. Cousins ​​would have resisted rightly. Others ambad a ceiling space for the summer of 2019 and would have therefore restricted their offerings to a season. A one year contract does not make much sense for almost any other team beyond Golden State. Because of his injury, you only get a part of this season. You might not have another one; There are strict salary limits for re-signing players who change teams for one-year contracts

(Cousins ​​told Marc Spears of The Undefeated that he had no offers Monday morning and had asked his agent to start calling teams including the Warriors.)

Even though the middle was on the table, Cousins ​​signing with the Warriors he was costed $ 3.3 million this season – and bought free will next summer in a cheaper market. If he wins a ring in the process, well, he should never hear about it again. He was helpless last season by missing his first chance at the playoff action. Winning would relieve some stress.

And here we are: The Warriors go at some point to start five All-Stars. That probably sparked a lot of talk about how they broke the NBA. Let me play bow in the bowl of punch: I do not know how much it really helps the Warriors in the short term, and it will not help them at all beyond next season.

not having a mechanism to sign it again after a one year contract; they could only offer 120 percent of his $ 5.3 million salary, and Cousins ​​does not boogeying that air if he plays well.

And who knows when he will even play, or in what state. All the excitement surrounding the return of Cousins, first to New Orleans and now to Golden State, rushes to the sad reality that he tore an Achilles tendon . The sample size of players who have recovered up to 80 or 90 percent of their production level after this injury is small. The sample size of these major types with some pre-conditioning problems does not exist.

Optimists suggest that he could return as early as December or even late November. (Cousins ​​told Spears that he was waiting to be ready for the training camp.) The Warriors will grant him a longer delay if necessary. It would not be a shock if it did not appear in a real game until Christmas, according to sources.

The adjustment will not be perfect. Cousins ​​was a menacing and threatening presence in the locker room, and the Warriors went through more trouble than ever before. (Obviously, Cousins ​​was better in New Orleans, but apparently not liked enough to draw a real money offer that attracted him.)

Cousins ​​played at a fast pace before, from First under George Karl then Alvin Gentry, but even then he did not exactly take up the defense. He has rarely supported the rhythm of the best formations of Golden State.

At the low points of Sacramento and New Orleans, he sometimes loitered so badly that you saw nine players on the television screen during an alarming number of consecutive seconds. He likes to hold the ball and post for buckets – things the Warriors do not do.

His effort in half-court defense is inconsistent – a trait that warriors have not generally accepted from any major player. It does not have the speed or stamina to change position

. Given his good health, it is difficult to imagine a group of five players with Cousins ​​usurping the list of dead – Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green – as the best performance of Warriors. There is no shame in that. Cousins ​​can not make Warriors much better because it is mathematically impossible for a team as good to go much better.

But at this price? Replacing Flotsam with backup template? Come on. And there are universes in which the fit is cleaner. On the one hand, Cousins ​​has finally come to a team that just does not want to, and should not, take any of its bullshit. Even at its peak, he is their third best player, and if I build a team to win real basketball games, I will probably take Green and Thompson over him, depending on the context of the lineup. Warriors do not need him, and if they do not need him, they do not need to suffer any inconvenience. The proven champions can tell the impolitic newcomers to close it.

He should help out the defensive glbad, once again, last season, when the Warriors placed 25th in the defensive rebound rate. He can push the ball himself or, better yet, pbad the Warriors in quick breaks – all without having to weigh half the field. He can fight his way through 3 points or spot when the Warriors reverse the attack. Curry has never had a great pick-and-roll partner (not to mention Durant) who can punish the switches on the block like that.

Leaving the post and elbows is perhaps the most friendly skill of the Cousins. Golden State publishes many things; he was averaging 16.7 hits per game, third in the league, according to Second Spectrum's tracking data. He just uses the post as a vehicle to unlock pbades instead of back-to-basket shots. Golden State dominated all teams in the percentage of post-ups that resulted in shots for one-pbad players per second of spectrum data. On the individual level, Warriors had six players among the top ten players in the league according to this measure: Green (# 1), Iguodala, David West, Zaza Pachulia, Jordan Bell and Kevon Looney.

Cousins ​​is a good smuggler from everywhere on the ground, and sometimes a brilliant one. He deserves almost automatic double-teams. If he balances the balance of his game towards fast pbades, he can play in Steve Kerr's system.

Sometimes he will play on the outside. This is fine. It's the point to sign DeMarcus Cousins: to let him shake things under his feet. Imagine the luxury of a lull against these Rockets, with Durant moving away for mid-range chess, and turning to Cousins: Trample Eric Gordon and lay the ball, s & # 39; please . The smart defenses of the team make this exercise more difficult than it looks, but Cousins ​​has seen all the anti-bullying schemes in the zone.

Given everything from the injury, the return schedule, the limitations of Cousins ​​- I am very skeptical this signature deserves the hype or anguish. Cousins' reputation and statistics have always inflated his contribution to victory – both on the ground and behind closed doors.

But the guy is damned. And for that price, all the Warriors really pay it, it's to smash the change defenses at some critical moments in the playoffs – so this team actually experiences it.