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The reigning Golden State Warriors champion, armed with the only mid-level exception of taxpayers, used his free agent spending allowance on DeMarcus Cousins, a four-star center. It's completely angry given that Cousins would give Warriors of all-NBA caliber players at every field position it's healthy, an embarrassment of even wealth for them.
This is a steep descent for Cousins, who was in the middle of his most productive season with the pelicans of New Orleans when he tore his Achilles last January. Before the injury, he was surely thinking that he would be online for another top salary in free agency this summer. Instead, he signed with the champions for just over $ 5 million.
Earlier in the day, the Pels replaced Boogie with Julius Randle, a versatile and talented young striker whose Los Angeles Lakers gave up restricted free agent rights. The Lakers executed this unexpected move to free up money to sign Rajon Rondo, who put his career back on track with New Orleans playing with Cousins.
Rondo, of course, was also a former teammate of Cousins in Sacramento, where they played on one of the most dysfunctional teams of recent memory. Who would have guessed that one day Cousins would team up with the Star Warriors, while Rondo would play alongside LeBron James in Los Angeles.
All this is rather shocking, and so very NBA. Let's take it slowly. There is a lot to unwrap.
Signing Cousins is the kind of risk that a team like Golden State can take and pretty much nobody else. The Warriors do not need Boogie to win championships. In fact, their best queues do not have centers. But the Warriors like to have 7 feet in hand, and that's how they entered the playoffs with a group of big players in their lineup who rarely played.
In Cousins, they get a real monster from a big man, but the Achilles injury is not insignificant. He has shot a lot of giants over the years, and we do not know how that will affect Boogie, who is not ready to play until December or January.
The Warriors do not really need Boogie and Boogie does not really need to do anything other than rehab and prepare for the playoffs. This was a true luxury signature, considering the actual dollar cost will be more like $ 20 million considering their luxury tax situation.
This bill is a little easier to take, as Kevin Durant left some money on the table specifically for the Warriors to sign a free agent. Take shots at KD everything you like, but his maneuvering contract made it less painful for the warriors to keep Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, while also adding Cousins.
Perhaps even more surprising than the signature, was the revelation by Chris Haynes of ESPN that Boogie's choice went down to Golden State and Boston, from all teams .
The Celtics could have had Boogie at various times over the years, but they have never really strived to acquire the great man because of various concerns about everything.
You may remember that the Pels really took off after Boogie's injury when Anthony Davis moved to center full time . That's what happened with Cousins, who was on average 25 and 12 years old at the time of the injury. All of these numbers, and it's not at all clear that it really has an impact on the win.
But these are the Warriors and surely all of this will work for them.
The Pels are really made here . In a world where Cousins does not hurt himself, they would be forced to massively extend a Twin Towers experience that only worked a little. In this one, they have a 23-year-old forward who averages 16 and 8 for $ 9 million. Randle should form a delightful frontcourt trio with Nikola Mirotic and AD, who remains at the position that maximizes his immense talent.
It would have been thought that the Lakers would have retained Randle given his age and talent. Instead, the Lakers used this space to sign Rondo, which plans to challenge Lonzo Ball for the starting point guardian position. (Please Lord, give us a Lavar against Rajon.) Rondo at least fits the criteria of the player who can think of the game, as LeBron spelled during the Finals.
"Rondo was invoking sets every time you came down," James said at the time. "It was like, OK, it's bigger than basketball."
After several years of basketball after having lunch with Kobe Bryant while he was still a member of the Celtics, Rondo is finally a Laker. We were all so much younger then.
The Lakers went in the summer thinking that they could get up to two free agents . It probably would have cost them Randle, but it would have been worth it to have a player of the caliber of Paul George.
Instead, they used this space to re-sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and add Rondo, JaVale McGee, and Lance Stephenson to one-year chords.
It's going to be a hell of a basketball team. They have LeBron and LeBron tend to improve everything, but that 's not the scenario that many of us envisioned when James made his decision as a free agent.
All in all, the Warriors get a fat cheap All-NBA man, the Pelicans get a versatile young man, and the Lakers get a group of random guys to team up with the greatest player of his generation.
What a strange offseason.
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