The Golden State Warriors are in the midst of competing for their third straight NBA championship, but, the loss of DeMarcus Cousins will hurt the Dubs moving forward.
After a dominant victory in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Golden State Warriors have taken a 3-1 lead in the series and are well on their way to the Second Round. Despite this, DeMarcus Cousins will likely miss the remainder of the Playoffs and this will have a long-lasting effect on the team.
This topic has been talked about endlessly, but the Warriors sacrificed their depth in order to make this Monstar’s type of lineup work. Rather than bringing in solid bench players to round out the roster, the Dubs have been steadily adding more superstar players such as Kevin Durant and most recently, DeMarcus Cousins.
This is something that any franchise would do if given the chance. Bringing in a star like Durant is much better than signing a few veteran role players. Obviously, signing Durant was a no-brainer. In contrast, bringing in Cousins was an unnecessary risk.
Heading into the season, everyone already knew that Cousins could potentially re-injury himself and miss a chunk of the season. There was also a risk that Cousins would return to the court and be far from the player he once was.
Sadly, for the Warriors, Cousins fell victim to both of these risks. When he returned in early 2019, Cousins was a shell of his former self. While he still had his talent as a scorer, his speed and agility took a huge hit as his overall production declined.
To make matters worse, Cousins was shooting extremely poor from the 3-point line. With Cousins and Draymond Green both shooting below 30 percent from deep, the Warriors were playing with less spacing than ever before.
Now that Cousins will be sidelined for the remainder of the playoffs, there are a few more problems that will emerge. The Warriors are struggling to keep a reliable rotation out on the court as Andrew Bogut and Kevon Looney attempt to stagger minutes at the center position.
Of course, this means that the Warriors will continue to play without spacing from their big men as Green is shooting even worse in the Playoffs at 21.4 percent from deep. All of this helps prove that the Warriors would have been better off signing a few safe role players last Summer rather than chasing the big name stars.