DeMarcus Cousins’ ACL injury reveals how quickly fortunes change in the NBA, and that the Golden State Warriors were right to pass on him.
Remember last summer? The Golden State Warriors‘ shock signing of DeMarcus Cousins sent much of NBA fandom into a state of turmoil.
A fifth all-star. A fifth! The knee-jerk reaction from twitter, always a reliable source of information, implied that the NBA season was over before it had begun.
The Warriors appeared invincible before Cousins. Adding perhaps the league’s most gifted offensive center to an already loaded roster seemed almost unfair.
Hindsight, though, is a wonderful thing, and as the 2018-19 season unfolded, it became clear that Boogie was not going to help Golden State on their quest for a three-peat.
What everyone seemed to forget when Cousins signed was that he was in the middle of rehabbing a torn Achilles, the worst injury a basketball player can sustain.
This explained how the Warriors could afford him with their $5.3 million mid-level exception, since no team was prepared to give a player with such a damaging injury his big payday.
The tear kept him out of action until January of last season, where he belatedly made his Warriors debut after close to a year on the side-lines.
And despite showing flashes of his former self, the injury bug bit Cousins again at the worst possible time, as he tore a left quadriceps muscle (his Achilles tear was also on his left leg) in game two of Golden State’s first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The then-28-year-old defied the odds to return for the Warriors in the Finals against the Toronto Raptors, but simply could not make a positive contribution for his depleted side. A strong game five performance in Canada, where his 14 points in 19 minutes were crucial in a one-point victory, proved to be the exemption rather than the rule.
After his injuries, Cousins simply did not have the athleticism or lateral quickness to stay on the floor in the playoffs, and the Warriors offense was at its worst when he was on the floor. The rest of his stats in the Finals do not make for pretty reading either.
One of the lasting memories of Boogie’s time with Golden State will be the dying moments of game five of the Finals, where he was called for two goaltends before setting a moving screen on the crucial play.
Now, with Cousins on the Los Angeles Lakers, he has been dealt another setback.
Los Angeles Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins has suffered a torn ACL in his knee, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 15, 2019
This is devastating news. ACL problems generally take the best part of a year to recover from, ergo Boogie will miss most, if not all, of next season.
Equally, it is not particularly surprising. Cousins has had terrible luck over the past 18 months, but there is little doubt that all these injuries are not at least partially connected.
However, for the Warriors brass, the news will reassure them that they dodged a bullet by not re-signing the big man this offseason.
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Of course, they will feel terribly sorry for Cousins and want nothing more than for him to return to full fitness but, to quote one of the most over-used catchphrases in the league, ‘it’s a business’.
Boogie was always meant to be a one-year rental. It was anticipated that Golden State would not have the financial means to keep him in The Bay once he reminded us all what he was capable of.
Yet all of a sudden, courtesy of injuries and poor performances, Cousins became affordable. At the start of free agency, there was a realistic chance that he would stay put.
That proved to be a false dawn, as Cousins chose to move south to the Lakers. Sure enough, he signed a contract for $3.5 million, less money than the Warriors paid him.
It is unclear whether he was officially offered a contract by the Warriors, but the dearth of interest in his services across the league during free agent implies that they decided to move on from him.
Regardless, whether the Golden State front office rejected Cousins or vice-versa, his latest injury provides them with vindication.
He may one day reach an all-star level again but, considering that he has picked up two of the most destructive injuries possible in less than two years, this seems unlikely.
To reiterate: the Warriors will be bitterly disappointed to hear today’s news, but it is far easier to take when you are not paying the player in question seven figures.
The moral of the story is two-fold. First, DeMarcus Cousins signing with the Lakers was a good thing for Golden State, regardless of which party walked away from the other.
Secondly, it is a reminder of how quickly things can change in basketball. When the Warriors signed Cousins, it was meant to be a beneficial agreement for all; Boogie would rediscover his pre-injury abilities surrounded by the best team in the league and, in return, he would guarantee his new team another title.
As we all know, this did not exactly go to plan, once again demonstrating the NBA’s unpredictability.
Even so, the chances of Cousins getting back to his best appear to be slim.