Features: DeMarcus Cousins ​​joins the Golden State Warriors

Cousins ​​is recovering from one of the most catastrophic injuries in sports, an Achilles tendon rupture that ended his second season with the pelicans at 48 games. He had averaged 25.1 points, 12.8 rebounds and 5.3 badists alongside his All-Star teammate Anthony Davis, which had put him online for a mbadive contract extension that would 39, is quickly evaporated.

The Warriors, as expected, were thrilled by a move that gave them a player who averaged 25.2 points last season before getting injured and got an average of 21.5 points and 11 rebounds for his career [19659018]. Curry tweeted .

The 3rd splash Brother ???????. Let's go @boogiecousins ​​

– Stephen Curry (@ StephenCurry30) July 3, 2018

The rest of the league, they did not seem so excited.

Richaun Holmes of Philadelphia Meditates on Twitter If the NBA could veto the signing, Commissioner David Stern blocked a Chris Paul trade against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011. And Enes Kanter of New York n & # 39; could not resist the fun of the current commissioner of the league

. "Adam Silver has accepted an intermediate level extension with the Golden State, league sources tell me," Kanter writes.

Fears about the recovery of Cousins ​​obviously did not scare the Warriors, who were too happy to add another talent for a pittance to an already heavily favored team to win a third consecutive championship this season.

The initial reports had Cousins ​​sitting at least until December, but he told Spears that he was shooting on return by training camp in late September.

Whenever he steps back on the court, the Warriors will have an almost unprecedented collection of talents with two MVPs (Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry), three career 20 point markers (Durant, Curry, Cousins) , another career scorer (Klay Thompson) and a defensive player of the year (Draymond Green) with 27 all-Star between them, all under the age of 30.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Warriors would be the first team since Boston in 1975-76 to play five All-Stars from the previous season at the same time. This group was Jo Jo White, Charlie Scott, Dave Cowens, Paul Silas and John Havlicek.

Durant would have still agreed to a two – year contract with a gambler option to sign a more lucrative contract next summer, which also provides for the financial flexibility of the Warriors as general manager Bob Myers built the. alignment to go after another title. Golden State will play its final season at Oracle Arena in Oakland before moving to the new Chase Center in San Francisco's Mission Bay district.

The Warriors lost center JaVale McGee on Sunday to the Lakers, who landed LeBron James on a contract of $ 153.3 million, four years as a free agency of the NBA

Green, for his part, is a big fan of cousins.

"He's amazing, he can score the ball," Green said in January 2017 in Sacramento while Cousins ​​was still with the Kings. "I think DeMarcus is the best center of the game." Many times, people do not give him this credit. Part of that is that they try to downplay his status because of his reputation or by getting technical faults or things like that He's the best big player in the game. It's always interesting to watch, interesting to play against, interesting to play, because he's incredibly talented. "

The decision was Cousins ​​improbable?

According to Charania, the Warriors did not really believe that he was really interested in joining them as contact began. But talks quickly developed on Monday, with Charania crediting Green's phone calls (on vacation in Greece), coach Steve Kerr and chief executive Bob Meyers for sealing an unlikely deal that no one has. seen coming.

Warriors themselves.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

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