Yes, DeMarcus Cousins is going to be playing for the Golden State Warriors next season. No, you’re not living in a dream (or nightmare for some) in which one of the former laughingstocks of the NBA is now the embodiment of a full-powered, six-Infinity-Stone Thanos.
For those who want to launch obscenities at the Warriors or Cousins and say the league is broken, not fun anymore or should be canceled, I say this: this is the new — current — reality in the NBA but it won’t be the new norm.
These Warriors aren’t going to last, and when I say “these Warriors,” I mean these Warriors: the five All-Star starting lineup Warriors. Cousins signed a one-year deal, and unless the Warriors are willing to part ways with Klay Thompson, Draymond Green or Kevin Durant, next season will be his first and only season in Golden State.
Thompson is due for a new deal next summer, Durant will most likely opt out of his player option to again become a free agent and Green can pick where he wants to play after the 2019-20 season. The Warriors will have to choose between Thompson, Durant and Cousins after next season, and I can’t see general manager Bob Myers choosing the latter, even if Cousins returns to his All-Star form.
I understand fans calling Cousins’ move “weak.” The Warriors were the best team in the league before Durant ever entered the picture, and put a significant amount of distance between themselves and every other team in the league by adding the now-two-time NBA Finals MVP. If Cousins returns anywhere close to full health following last season’s Achilles tendon tear, Golden State would be head and shoulders — belly, knees and ankles, too — above the rest of the NBA. But that is a massive if.
Achilles tears in the NBA have been career-altering injuries. Dominique Wilkins in 1992 was one of the few exceptions, but Elton Brand was never the same after his injury in 2007. Brandon Jennings and Wes Matthew also never returned to their previous form after their Achilles injuries in 2015, and Kobe Bryant had the final years of Hall of Fame career stripped away by an Achilles injury.
According to reports, Cousins’ injury created a muted market for the 6-foot-11, 270-pound big man. His shaky past in the league as an agitator and locker room cancer also didn’t help. I don’t believe that Cousins failed to receive “any” offers, as he said after he signed with the Warriors. I do believe that he did not receive the lucrative multi-year deal he wanted. So while this one-year rental with the best team in the league might be looked at as “weak,” I see it as a gigantic bet from Cousins on himself.
He could very well flash the same skill set he had before the injury, improve his league-wide image in what seems like one of the few bulletproof locker rooms in the NBA and convince a team to hand him a four-year deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars next summer. Or he could be a below average player who still loafs on defense, continues to be a chemistry killer and plays for the league minimum for the rest of what would be a short career post Achilles tear. There are no guarantees either way. This is a risk for him and a risk for the Warriors, who were in desperate need of backup wings but chose to take a flier on another question mark as they did with Nick Young and JaVale McGee last summer. Young didn’t pan out how they wanted, and McGee was unplayable at times.
With a healthy Cousins, the Warriors will probably win somewhere close to 70 games and sweep every playoff series en route to their third straight title and fourth over the last five seasons. Of course, I say this with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers still eyeing a trade for San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard, and only a handful of days into the NBA free agency period. But will either move really pose a threat to the Warriors?
James and Leonard are two of the top five players in the NBA today, and the former is arguably the greatest to ever play the game. But the supporting cast is a mishmash of promising yet unproven youngsters and aloof head cases — accomplished head cases, but head cases nonetheless. According to reports, the Lakers would have to trade some combination of Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart in order to get Leonard away from the Spurs, so the L.A. starting five would look something like this post-trade: Lonzo Ball, Lance Stephenson, Leonard, James and McGee, with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo playing crunch-time minutes in the playoffs. In any other recent era of the NBA that would be a real contender that is one bench scorer away from becoming the favorite, but, of course, this isn’t any other era.
Houston is still Golden State’s biggest roadblock to the championship, but it’s tough to say if the Rockets have gotten any better or will get any better this offseason. They had to dish major money to retain the incredible but often-injured Chris Paul, and even though it’s practically a forgone conclusion that they will bring back center Clint Capela, weirder things have happened — see Cousins to the Warriors. Losing Trevor Ariza and possibly Luc Mbah a Moute to free agency would also strip them of their length out on the wing, a comically underrated aspect of what made them such a defensive juggernaut last season.
Everyone else in the Western Conference would probably be out of the title equation. The Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans will continue to improve, but won’t have the firepower to beat the Warriors next season. Oklahoma City and Minnesota are weird basketball teams that should be better, but for one reason or another will struggle to make it out of the first round of the playoffs.
Outside of the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, the Eastern Conference doesn’t seem to have a team that could matchup with these Warriors. The 76ers are too young and not deep enough. But a Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals matchup would be fun. Stephen Curry vs Kyrie Irving. Thompson vs Gordon Hayward. Durant vs Jayson Tatum. Green vs Marcus Morris. Cousins vs Al Horford. Andre Iguodala vs Jaylen Brown. Please and thank you.
The Warriors’ front office has set up the franchise to be — at the very least — a championship contender for the foreseeable future by making several smart moves over the last five seasons. The Warriors deserve to have this moment. Taking only competitive balance into consideration, was Durant’s move from OKC to Golden State questionable? Yes. And would having a healthy Cousins in the lineup make the Warriors a near unbeatable juggernaut? Yes. But I find it tough to hate an organization that has made so many right decisions after decades of mismanagement and bottom dwelling.
They could’ve traded Curry and kept Monte Ellis, but they didn’t. They could’ve kept Mark Jackson as head coach, but they didn’t. They could’ve traded Thompson for Kevin Love, but they didn’t. They could’ve continued to start David Lee over Green, but they didn’t. The list goes on and on.
The Warriors were on the brink of elimination last postseason, and they could very well be in the same position this postseason. They’re going to have a target on their backs throughout the regular season and they’re going to get everyone’s best game Monday through Sunday. I’m sure the league offices don’t like that Cousins is on the Warriors, but I’m almost positive that they don’t mind having the eyes of the entire sports world zeroed in on the league on a night-to-night basis. The NBA isn’t broken. It’s the best sports league in the world, and hooplah around the Warriors offseason is only proving that point.
