DeMarcus Cousins ​​will make the Warriors the super super team of all time



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Just when you thought the Golden State Warriors could not get better, the team came out and signed DeMarcus Cousins ​​for a $ 5.3 million contract over a year. A torn Achilles would keep him at least until December or January, possibly in February, but when Cousins ​​will be healthy, he'll give the Warriors a plethora of All-Star talents and All-NBA who lamented the players of the NBA. But more talent will not necessarily make the Warriors more efficient next season.

On the surface, the Warriors' alignment with Cousins ​​on the ground would be overwhelming. Stephen Curry is a five-time Star Team Champion and three-time, earning consecutive MVP awards in 2015 and 2016. Kevin Durant, the 2014 MVP, is a four-time Scoring Champion and eight-time Scoring Member. NBA team Draymond Green has been the defensive player of the year 2017 and has been appointed to four All-Defense teams. Klay Thompson, the least decorated of the group, is a member of the All-Star team four times and the All-NBA team twice. When Cousins ​​will join them on the field in 2018-19, Golden State will have five players who were All-Stars last season on the field together, which has not been done since the Boston Celtics 1975- 76 have done with a range of Jo Jo White, Charlie Scott, Dave Cowens, Paul Silas and John Havlicek

Cousins ​​is an obvious improvement over center Jordan Bell, who as a rookie shared time with Zaza Pachulia last season, in almost all significant categories. Cousins ​​averaged 25 points, 13 rebounds and more than five assists per game at the time of injury, while shooting 35% over the three-point line. It was also worth more wins over the replacement (8.9) than Bell (3.2) and Pachulia (1.9) combined. A healthy Cousins ​​in the lineup would almost certainly mean that the Warriors are improving last year's performance, which included 58 regular-season wins and their second consecutive title that was crowned with a sweep of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. paper, it will be difficult to find a better range at any time in the history of the NBA. The 1975-76 Celtics touted players who combined for 33 wins over what we could expect from substitute players. The super Miami Heat teams that had a big three of James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade were between 16 and 19 wins over the 2010-11 to 2013-14 replacement. The 2016-17 Warriors, the first with Durant in the fold, were credited with nearly 24 wins over the replacement, but then denied 17 wins over the replacement last season. This slide should end with Durant, Curry, Green, Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Cousins ​​who are potentially worth a lot more wins (17) than last year's performance – and Curry missed 31 games in a row. Reason for an Injury and Cousins ​​Missing 34.

But how much Cousins ​​help depends on how he fits his game to fit the Warriors' attack.

For example, Cousins ​​was responsible for 32 percent of field attempts, free throws, and turnovers when He was on the field when he played with the New Orleans Pelicans last season, just behind Joel Embiid (33%) among the centers that played at least 1.5000 minutes in 2017-18. Cousins ​​has also not seen its use drop below 30% since 2012-13, its third year in the NBA. Pachulia and Bell, however, used 17 and 14 percent holdings for Golden State, respectively, last season. With Curry, Durant and Thompson working more effectively with the ball in their hands, it makes sense that Cousins ​​is relying on them more often than other teammates in the past.

Not only will Cousins ​​probably have less ball, it must probably get used to cutting at the rim, which is the way Golden State usually uses its centers. For example, Bell and Pachulia were asked to cut into the basket more than a quarter of the time, while Cousins ​​cut to the rim on just 53 of his 1,277 (4 percent). Cousins ​​also was not as competent, scoring 1.2 points per possession against 1.4 points per possession for the Golden State centers. He can not keep the ball as long as he has done with other teams, that is: his average possession time is 2.6 seconds, which is almost twice the Bell time. (1,7) and Pachulia (1,5) in 2017-18. However, with such strong support around him, he will not have to do it. He will not face as many double (or triple) teams creating with or without the ball. For example, in 2017-18, Cousins ​​was forced to take 55 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts with a defender nearby. Bell and Pachulia had unprotected catch-and-shoot opportunities in 96% of cases, although on a much smaller sample size: 33 attempts versus 243 for Cousins. Still, there are just too many weapons on the ground for Golden State for Cousins ​​not to see a higher shooting quality. Even Durant has seen his share of unprotected catch-and-shoot attempts jump from 33% in his final year with Oklahoma City Thunder to 37% since joining the Warriors in 2016.

of concern is Cousins ​​high turnover rate. He had the 13th highest turnover rate among the big last season (19%) and the Golden State turnovers have been a thorn in Steve Kerr's team all year, Kerr having stated that He should have "broken a clipboard". the first quarter of game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2018 NBA playoffs. Maybe these business problems disappear if Cousins ​​does not handle the balloon as much and does not. There is no need to force situations to make a game.

The Warriors were already the favorites of the title before the shot – the Westgate Superbook had Golden State is the favorite side (odds of 10 to 11, implied odds of about 53 percent) when LeBron James announced that he had signed with the Los Angeles Lakers – and only made his position as the best team in the league (4 7 vs. 7 Tuesday morning, 64 %). The next best team by the Vegas tipsters, the Boston Celtics, receive only 18 percent of chances. In other words, the Warriors left a very likely championship team before adding Cousins ​​to almost a slash dunk afterwards.

Warriors fans can obviously rejoice, but the rest of the league and its fans are probably wondering why

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