Full throttle?
Warriors readying to lift limits on Cousins playing time; Irving sheds light on phone call to James
The Golden State Warriors do not plan to limit DeMarcus Cousins’ playing time for the duration of the regular season.
The team had been careful with Cousins’ workload since the big man returned to the court in mid-January after recovering from a torn left Achilles tendon.
Cousins had been limited to 25 minutes per game, but coach Steve Kerr said he and his staff would be more lenient as the team returns from the All-Star break.
“It was just sort of understood that we looked at the calendar, we had about a month, maybe a little more, between the time he came back and the All-Star break coming,” Kerr said in comments published by ESPN.
“So that was the plan. Weexecuted our plan. He did a great job, DeMarcus did. So now we’re entering a different phase of the season. We’ll see how it goes, but nothing’s set in stone.”
Cousins is averaging 13.9
points and 6.8 rebounds in 11 starts with Golden State. He has played an average of 23.4 minutes per contest.
"We’ll see how the games go,” Kerr said. “I don’t think
we’ll change the plan too much in terms of how we’re going to play him in the rotations and all that, but I think once we get back into the rhythm, we can absolutely play him for longer
stretches, play him down the stretch [if] we like.”
Meanwhile, Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving expanded on Wednesday on the telephone call he made to LeBron James earlier this season, recounting that he told his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, “I didn’t have to deal with that the same way I dealt with that.”
Irving broke down the phone call with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, saying his contact, James, now with the Los Angeles Lakers, was needed to move forward.
Irving and James led the Cavaliers to a NBA championship in 2016, but the duo could not repeat the feat in 2017 and Irving eventually requested a trade.
“Now, mind you, I have no regrets in terms of any decision I made, going about my individual journey and what I want and foresee for my career,” Irving said. “But for me, it’s just … apologizing, yeah, that was a step for me, just to move forward in my life.”