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In a positively absurd bomb of an announcement, news came down on Monday that DeMarcus Cousins agreed to sign with the Golden State Warriors on a one-year contract, $ 5.3 million. Yes, that DeMarcus Cousins. Yes, these warriors. Yes, for this change of chump. It's just an absurd development for a team that already has people wondering if it has ruined the NBA to add, potentially, another All-NBA player.
Honestly, even writing it sounds like a joke.
If Cousins is even 70 percent of his old self while he just ripped his Achilles last season, this team of Warriors will be dominating laughably. Like, there are not even words for that. When he is in good health, Cousins is perhaps the best center in the world, and that includes Joel Embiid. It's absolutely unstoppable to what he's doing, one of eight NBA history players to score an average of at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a single season – which He accomplished last season in 48 games before falling.
He also shot 47 percent of the field, and better than 35 percent of the 3-point range, as a seven-footer. Seriously, I think people have a little forgotten how incredibly dominant this guy is, or they are leaning a little too much on the idea that his injury will prevent him from becoming that player again. No doubt, a tear from Achilles is a big time injury. Probably the worst that a basketball player can suffer. And it's worse than a fat man carrying about 270 pounds of weight.
But it is there that smart teams weigh the risk compared to the reward, and at present, the Warriors seem much smarter than, well, just about every other. Again, the guy took a one year contract on the mid-level exception for $ 5.3 million. Kevin Durant saved the Warriors roughly that exact amount when he signed for $ 5.6 million less than he was eligible to make in the first year of his new two-year contract. In essence, warriors have Cousins for free.
Surely you wonder what teams like the Lakers and the Rockets do. Yes, the Lakers had LeBron James, but pretty much at the second ad, they lurched one after the other – Lance Stephenson for $ 4.5 million, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for $ 12 million and Rajon Rondo for $ 9 million. while allowing Julius Randle, easily the best player of these three, to travel to the Pelicans for a very reasonable $ 18 million over two years. (Let Randle walk is at least understandable, they want one year contracts so that their books are as neat as possible in case they could not trade for Kawhi Leonard and that they need to be on their own. space to sign him as a free agent next summer.)
Cousins, who reportedly said that he had not even received a single offer from another team. This may or may not be true. Perhaps he has not received an offer to his liking. It is understandable that he wants a maximum of money, or something close, and it is also understandable that no one dreams of giving him this with the uncertainty surrounding his injury. But it is clear that the guy was ready to talk, and finally take a small business as an opportunity to prove himself, especially with a team that could offer him the chance to play alongside superstar (s).
I am not saying that the Lakers should have signed Cousins, or even that they did not, or that they were not going to try, or even that they were not. he would have been ready to go there for the same price. The warriors gave it. I'm just saying that the Lakers virtually closed that door before they even had the opportunity to open it when they gave Caldwell-Pope and Stephenson $ 16.5 million in the wake of LeBron's commitment, which placed them before they waive Randle, which they clearly intended to do anyway.
Just to argue, they could just have left this space open, talk with Cousins, see what there was, and if KCP and Stephenson were off market by the time they would come back to them, there would be always had a lot of guys available – the guys best suited to play alongside LeBron, if we're honest – to sign. Even though they had to take the last players as a last resort to give chance to better options (like Cousins) to develop, it's not like KCP and Stephenson were making the Lakers something close of a competitor this year.
Seth Curry was there. Jamal Crawford was, and still is, out (at this rate, he will probably find his way to the Warriors, too). Carmelo Anthony could be bought by OKC and then would be an option to fill a place on a minimum deal for the Lakers. The point is: there were options. Good. Hell, J.J. Redick agreed to join the Sixers for the same amount the Lakers had given to Caldwell-Pope.
And do not get me started on Rondo, which the Lakers plan to take as a starting point on Lonzo Ball. Creepy. You write a # 2 guy overall, and then the next year you kick him down behind a guy who can not shoot a lick, you can then play that guy alongside LeBron James, who prosperous when he is surrounded by shooters, whose Lakers have none. I can not even make that sense when I write it.
Meanwhile, the Warriors get DeMarcus out of Cousins for less than $ 1 million more than the Lakers paid the dashing Stephenson Spear for 29 three-point shots. Hilarious. Elsewhere, Chris Paul asks for the maximum money in Houston – which, at least in part, prevents the Rockets from being able to sign Trevor Ariza again – while Durant takes a few million dollars less from Golden State … and what you know … here is another superstar talent to join the Bay Area with the money from the reserve. If the Warriors are ruining the NBA, their main competitors do not make it hard for them.
In the end, the real winner is Cousins, who can take his time to regain his strength in a team that does not need him. Seriously, they do not need him. Potentially one of the best players in the league is a luxury. And a very good market. If it comes down to something close, the Warriors will be the largest basketball team ever assembled. Discussion finished.
Imagine trying to keep an eye on the two biggest shooters in NBA history, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, probably the top scorer in Durant's story, and even if you manage to stop these three t), you must now face a seven feet that averaged 25 points and 13 boards last year. Then even if you close these four guys, you have a Hall of Fame limit to Andre Iguodala. Then, with less than a 1% chance that all these guys will have a crazy night away, the Warriors, behind one of Draymond Green's top 10 defensemen, also have the best defense in the league. It's a joke.
All this will let Cousins only shine if his Achilles is up to it. The guy is used to the defenses that try it. He will not believe the head-to-head clashes that he will have with terrified defenses to leave these shooters open. He will learn to play a more modern style with all the movement of the ball and the Warrior player, and he will remind people that he is a good smuggler when given the opportunity. He will probably win a championship for his troubles. And then he arrives on the open market in 2019 as an unrestricted free agent having proven to the league, in the environment most favorable to the players imaginable, that he is still a force. Then he is paid. It's brilliant.
"It's my ace of spades," Cousins told ESPN Monday. "It's my failure."
Apparently, the rest of the NBA would do better not to play the ladies anymore.
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