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DeMarcus Cousins is a member of the Golden State Warriors, all for the cheap price of one year and $ 5.3 million. One hundred ninety-two players made more than $ 5.3 million last season. None of them averaged 25 points and 13 rebounds per game.
Naturally, this rejected all kinds of jealousy from anyone following the league. What is the point of the competition when the Warriors can simply sign All-Stars as Boogie for this little money? Why do the rich need to become richer? Was there no way to prevent the Warriors from continuing to accumulate an embarrbadment of riches?
Apparently no. Cousins' services market did not exist and may not have existed at all. Cousins himself said that there were no bids, which was challenged by the New Orleans Times Picayune . The Celtics were would have been the second for Cousins but they would not have made an offer either. It seems hard to believe on the surface. Nobody wanted DeMarcus Cousins ? Really?
But dig into the unique situation of Cousins, and there is a reason why this market did not exist.
For starters … he broke his Achilles!
It's a big problem! The Achilles injury is the worst you can suffer, and most players are never the same.
Even though Cousins is recovering from this injury, he will have to wait until the next season to do it. Most teams do not have the luxury of investing a lot of money in a player and waiting as long without having the certainty that he will be the same player.
You simply can not minimize the injury. If he had injured another part of the body, he probably has more market.
Even before the injury, what is the value of Cousins?
This is an interesting question to ask. We know that Cousins puts a lot of emphasis on it, but he has never participated in the playoffs of his career and he has an overwhelming number of bad habits on the field that have hurt his teams. He's not always fit, his defensive effort comes and goes, he turns the ball over a ton, and he tends to lose his temper at the worst moment.
Cousins played on a team above -500 in his career: last season. Before the Cousins' injury, the Pelicans were 27-22 and the teams were averaging 1.2 points per 100 possessions. After the Cousins' injury, they went 21-13 while they outscored the teams by 3.1 points for 100 possessions. Then, they swept Portland in the first round of the playoffs, with Anthony Davis dominating.
There are mitigating factors – in particular, the addition of Nikola Mirotic to the trading deadline – but the fact is that New Orleans was better without Cousins than with him at about the same number of games. The reputation of a tough player to coach (to put it with charity), blunted his value around the league, even before he broke his Achilles.
OK, I understand all that. But still, no one has offered more than $ 5.3 million to Boogie Cousins? Certainly, his talent alone is worth more than that
In an ordinary market, perhaps. But this summer is not an ordinary market. Accuse us of the increase of the ceiling of 2016 to have reduced the available money for the teams to spend
Let's skim this stage step by step
Who could have offered to Cousins a maximum contract?
In alphabetical order: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, The Lakers and Philadelphia. Sacramento and Phoenix had a little less than the maximum to offer, while Utah, Indiana, and the Clippers (in a very elaborate scenario only) could have found as much room as they could. gave up keeping key players from last season.
None of these teams had reason to want to spend this place on Cousins
- Atlanta and Chicago are not interested in participating in the competition now.
- The 76ers do not need Cousins with Joel Embiid.
- Phoenix has just written DeAndre Ayton.
- Dallas chose to use this space on DeAndre Jordan instead.
- Indiana and Utah naturally kept the group together.
- The Clippers had to jump too many hoops to get into the mix
- Sacramento … lol ..
- We'll be back to the Lakers
Once Dallas went after Jordan, the L '. Maximum bid never came from anyone else.
And the Pelicans? Can not they go over the ceiling to keep Cousins?
They could have, yes. Before the free agency began, my colleague Kristian Winfield pleaded for them to steal the shots and maximize Cousins despite all these worries.
But consider the enormous risk that they would have taken if they had done it. Such a measure would have put small market pelicans against the luxury tax, making any subsequent move difficult. If the contract was for several years, it would spray any salary cap flexibility to improve the list as they enter a critical period of Davis's career.
Will you take this risk for a fat man who has just suffered the worst sports injury, especially when the team was better last season after his injury? You can understand why they did not do it, especially when the most profitable option to acquire Julius Randle fell on their knees.
So with them and all those slot machines, who could pay Cousins? were a few teams that lacked ceiling space that might have been interested in Cousins' signature and exchange scenarios. Two that immediately come to mind: the Portland Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards. Portland would have had exploratory discussions, and the Wizards are a logical destination because of Cousins' relationship with John Wall.
But signing operations have become increasingly difficult since the 2011 lockout was higher. Teams that exceed the luxury tax of over $ 6 million – that's what is known as the "apron" – are not allowed to add players via sign and trade. Indeed, the second one team performs a sign-and-trade, they have a hard cap of $ 129 million and can not do anything to exceed that.
The Wizards and Trail Blazers stand up against the luxury tax as it is, and they run the risk of approaching that limit. For a sign-and-trade to have a chance, pelicans would need to recover equal pay (and possibly even more). This requires a lot, as they too are looking to avoid the luxury tax.
Technically, the wizards had a way of doing business signature work, but they were incredibly complicated even before deciding whether the value was worth it for both sides. Bullets Forever explained this in more detail here
The same logic applies in Portland, with another unique complication.
ESPN Sources: Portland and New Orleans had discussed the possibility of a sign-and-trade for DeMarcus Cousins, but a roadblock existed since it shares the same agent as RFA Jusuf Nurkic.
– Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes July 3, 2018
In conclusion: say "What about the sign and the trade?", It's like saying: "We need a third team to do this trade. "It's technically possible, but it's also so difficult that you're clearly grabbing the flaws.
OK, d & # 39; 39 But my team would surely have offered Cousins the same or more, no?
Not really. Without ceiling space to spend and without a viable scenario of signing and trading, most teams could not really offer more than $ 5.3 million.
Remember: each team has access to an intermediate level exception type:
- Teams that use the captains room get the exception of the average level of the hall, which starts at $ 4.4 million.Teams that exceed the salary cap, may s under the luxury tax, get the tax-free mid-level exemption starting at $ 8.6 million. But as for signing operations, this means that the salary of your team can not exceed 129 million dollars.
Only a handful of teams could have used the non-taxable middle-level Exception without getting close to the luxury tax. This list: Cleveland, The Clippers, Memphis, New York, Orlando, San Antonio and Utah. It's hard to see any of these attractive situations for Cousins, even though it would have been hilarious to see Gregg Popovich coaching him.
This left a handful of teams that had only the exception of 5.3 million middle-level taxpayers to offer. Remaining teams:
- Boston
- Charlotte
- Denver
- Detroit
- Houston
- Miami
- Milwaukee
- Minnesota
- Oklahoma City
- Portland
- Toronto [19659062] Washington
- And, of course, Golden State
None of these teams win a free agent field battle on the Warriors if they have the same money to offer. Considering the circumstances, of course Cousins chose the warriors rather than anyone else
Let's go back to the Lakers
This is the only team that could kick himself. They are the only team that a) could have offered Cousins a richer offer than the Warriors and b) had a reason to do so.
Within 24 hours of the arrival of LeBron James, the Lakers used a hat to catch Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for $ 12 million and Rajon Rondo for $ 9 million. (They used the Intermediate Level Room Exception on Lance Stephenson and a minimum contract on JaVale McGee, which they could have done regardless of the other moves). Even after these two signatures, they could have waived Randle's rights (which they did) and used Stretch's provision on Luol Deng to open about $ 18 to $ 20 million in ceiling for Cousins.
Cousins would have taken a year, An offer of $ 18 million to join the Lakers during an agreement for a third of that amount to join Golden State? Would it have been more logical to give Mr. Cousins the $ 21 million that was spent on Rondo and Caldwell-Pope? These opportunities could have been a reasonable bet while keeping the cover sheet open for next year.
Alas, we will never know if Cousins would have accepted or even if such an offer was envisaged. Maybe the odd locker room of the Lakers could not afford to face Cousins too. Maybe LeBron wanted players who were sure to be ready in the opening night.
But I can at least understand the Lakers fans who are bored by this missed opportunity. Everyone, however, must consider the full context before getting upset that his team let Cousins walk towards the reigning champions twice.
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