The Golden State Warriors must find a way to hide Cousins on defense

In order to keep DeMarcus Cousins on the court, the Golden State Warriors must find a way to successful hide him on the defensive end.

The Golden State Warriors have thrived over the last few years by being versatile on defense and having the ultimate trump card in either Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry on offense.

Keeping steady their offensive firepower, the Dubs have added DeMarcus Cousins, potentially hurting them defensively, or at least it appeared that way in Game 1.

The inability of Golden State to successfully defend with Cousins on the court may have been noticed by Kerr, potentially one reason why Cousins didn’t quite see as much as time as the other four starters. Cousins posted a 104.3 defensive rating, the team’s second worst.

One game is far too small of a sample size, but just for the record, Cousins posted the team’s second-worst net rating at -37.6. His backup, Kevon Looney, had the team’s best net rating at 67.9. The runs were without Cousins, and it started on the defensive end.

What’s wrong with Cousins’ defense? Against those that are 6-foot-10-plus and match Cousins weight, nothing is wrong. However, when switched on Lou Williams, Cousins can’t even slow the likely Sixth Man of the Year down at all.

Here are two perfect examples of how the Clippers and Williams exploit Cousins in the pick-and-roll.

Moving forward, the Warriors must find a way to hide Cousins defensively. There are a few ways that Kerr could opt to do this. The easiest might be just to play Looney instead, allowing Cousins to be dominant on the second unit.

However, the most likely response to Cousins’ defensive woes is to trap Williams. Montrezl Harrell is the player that is running to the rim. While he did put up a team-high 26 points in Game 1, he’s the type of player that Golden State can allow an open mid-range shot and live with the results.

Kevin Durant and Draymond Green are elite defensive forwards. They can make up the ground that’s lost when Cousins goes to double. This type of strategy would also allow Golden State to force someone other than Lou Williams to score.

Whatever happens in Game 2, one thing can be for sure, that is, if the Dubs don’t change their defensive mindset when it comes to hiding DeMarcus Cousins, they’ll again find themselves struggling to succeed defensively.

Cousins recorded a team-worst +/- at -17. Something must change, and hopefully, Kerr sees it as well.