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If you have disconnected from the NBA circuit this summer – this is understandable given the madness of last month and the madness of the coming season – you may have missed the fact that the DeMarcus Cousins of the Lakers of Los Angeles suffered another serious injury, ripping off his ACL in a low season training last week.
After 20 months of hindsight, it would have seemed unfathomable for a candidate to lose a person of the caliber of Cousins without the injury sending shockwaves throughout the championship. But now – with three major leg injuries inflicted on the Cousins - teams will probably be even more reluctant to trust Boogie's body for it to last a season. All this raises the question: what about the highly qualified center, which just turned 29 last week?
The age and position of Cousins alone would seem to make it an attractive option for any number of clubs, once he gets better and regains his form. But what does a "game form" look like for Cousins is a difficult question to answer. Smaller guards face all sorts of concerns when they recover from an Achilles rupture, and these challenges become even greater in a 6-foot-11, 270-pound center. The league has seen few players like it over time, and it is almost certain that none of them has suffered as many serious injuries to the leg in such a short time.
Jeff Stotts, who runs In Street Clothes, a site that closely analyzes the NBA's injury data, said he could not find a single case of a player tearing at once an Achilles and an ACL, like Cousins. "There have been a few players who have torn their ACL several times," he said, citing Jabari Parker and former players Josh Howard and Michael Redd. "But nothing [Cousins’s magnitude]. "
Stotts said he could not even find the example of a player who had torn an ACL and an Achilles tendon in another sport. There is a clear distinction between cousins and players struggling with recurring problems such as Brook Lopez's foot problems, Gilbert Arenas' knee problems or Steph Curry's ankle problems, Stotts said. The closest comparison to the Cousins that Stotts could offer: Joel Embiid, who missed the 2014 and 2015 seasons due to a fracture of the right foot before tearing the left meniscus in 2017. (L & # 39; Former MVP Derrick Rose tore his meniscus for five years) both his right and left knees after tearing the ACL in his left knee – also comes to mind here.)
In terms of numbers, the FiveThirtyEight projection model views the Cousins' injury as a real blow to the Lakers, who saw their chances of reaching the NBA finals last week and winning a slip of the title respectively of 27% and 18% to 20% only. 14% currently.
This may seem like a steep drop, but Cousins was still very productive in the minutes that he spent last season when he was healthy for Golden State. His percentage of goals on the field, both overall and close to the ledge, was among the best he has ever seen, and he recorded a percentage of the best block in the defense career. It is unclear how far the Lakers are likely to lose their jobs because, according to the organization, Anthony Davis (who previously said he did not like playing at the center), Los Angeles There's only one experienced player at the center without Cousins, and that's JaVale McGee.
There is a little hope for the Cousins, that is, unlike other great players who have been brutally injured in the knee, he has never been really relied on his athleticism to become a star. A few years ago, while questioning him why he was so often blocked, Cousins said it was not necessary to launch a case similar to that of Sherlock Holmes. "It's because I can not jump," he said.
The cousins is a fantastic smuggler, and has now registered an aid rate of more than 20% in his last five seasons, making him a nice elite company for a man as high as he is.
In the past, he was a joke to post-defensemen, either by shooting at him (he was one of the NBA's top 25 scorers in Spectrum's three consecutive years per second) or by forcing double teams and finding teammates open in the corner.
However, the fact that Cousins has prospered for a long time because of its strength is worrying for the latter injury. If and when he can not be so powerful in the job, will there be so much need for double teams? And if these duplicates do not come – and if he's not surrounded by the same spacing he had at Golden State last season – it reduces all he'll be able to do as a smuggler ? And none of this even addresses the obvious question of the impact of these injuries on his defensive mobility. The league – which in recent years has become shorter and faster at the center – has already become more difficult for players like Cousins in recent seasons, and any rust that would develop during its re-education could amplify these challenges.
And think: at that time last year, Cousins' choice to sign with the Warriors was perceived as laughable by many, because of the talent that would give Golden State. It is bewildering to compare this scenario to the potential interest of the free agent in him next summer, while teams inevitably ask questions about his health despite his undeniable talent. Another sign of how quickly things can change in an NBA upside down.
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