Warriors’ addition spurs more envy, resentment
The Warriors’ recent acquisition of free-agent center DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins has taken many fans by surprise.
It takes a man with vision, a man like Mark Cuban, to see beyond the seemingly obvious to a place where nothing is certain and danger lurks.
At the NBA Summer League, the annual back-slapathon of the NBA’s coaches and execs, I’m working the sidelines, trying to get a feel for how the league is reacting to the Warriors’ recent shocking acquisition of free-agent center DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins.
The knee-jerk public reaction from Warriors’ lovers and haters is clear: The team just became unbeatable, with a starting lineup featuring five All-Stars in their primes (Stephen Curry, 30, is the old man).
Critics say the Warriors
have destroyed any semblance of NBA competitive balance, like a bear entering the Nathan’s hot-dog-eating contest.
Once the Warriors’ new guy has recovered from Achilles repair, probably a four months into the season, the starting lineup will be Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Cousins. Center has been the weak spot in the Warriors’ fourseason, three-NBA-title run of excellence. Cousins is the missing link.
But maybe it’s not so slam-dunk simple.
“You know what?” says Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. “I never get excited about teams winning the summer. There’s always a logic behind everything, and it’s never as straightforward as some fans think. We’ll see what happens.
“We’ll see. They’ve still got to play the games, and a lot of things can happen. Guys get hurt, things change, locker-rooms.”
That last term is a subtle reference to Cousins’ reputation for disrupting teams with negativity and volatility. Many observers assume the superstable Warriors will curb Cousins’ worst instincts, but maybe ...
“What do they call it on the (TV) show ‘Billions’?” Cuban asks. “They call it the ‘kill zone’ — when you’re up at the top and everyone’s trying to get you. The Warriors are right in the middle of the ‘kill zone,’ so we’ll see what happens.”
I looked it up. On “Billions” it’s actually called the “death zone.” Coincidentally, the Warriors’ small, warp- speed lineup is known as the Death Lineup.
Is the Death Lineup Plus Cousins heading for the death zone? Or are they already there and now climbing to a higher and more dangerous level of the death zone? The Warriors had already achieved near-ultimate respect and/or resentment for their achievements and collective talent, and adding Cousins is the nuclear cherry on the sundae.
Cuban is not alone in espousing the death zone theory. The assumption that Cousins will be on his best behavior with the Warriors is not universal. One NBA general manager, requesting anonymity, tells me if he had been running the Warriors, he would have turned down Cousins when the super-talented 6-foot-11 center offered to play for the Warriors for the bargain-basement salary of $5.3 million.
P.J. Carlesimo says much the same, but Carlesimo, now a TV commentator, has a low tolerance for knuckleheads. He was the Warriors’ coach infamously choked by team star Latrell Sprewell in 1997.
“I’m surprised” the Warriors signed Cousins, Carlesimo says. “I think he’s a great talent, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for him. but I’m surprised. I’ve just been disappointed in him, his (lack of ) professionalism in other places.
“He’s such a great, great talent. For him, this is a home run, new lease on life. He can go in there and be professional and do some of the things he hasn’t done other places, and it’ll be great. I just hope, I know what a good situation he’s coming into, I know how strong Steve (Kerr, coach) is, and Bob (Myers, general manager) and those guys, and hopefully it works out, but I was surprised . ... There’s too much water under the bridge for me. But that’s probably why I’m doing (TV commentary) and those guys are coaching and making decisions.”
Beyond the question of Cousins’ quirky temperament is the question of what his joining the Warriors for just one season will do to the league. The Warriors were already a huge favorite to win their third straight NBA championship, and now a major talent has leaped into their lap.
I don’t encounter any outright re-
sentment or hostility toward the Warriors for adding a fifth All-Star, but it’s unlikely that any exec or coach would go public with that that kind of sentiment.
“My reaction was that I’m very impressed” by the acquisition of Cousins, says Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough. “No surprise. Bob Myers and his group in the front office there have done as good as any team in the league, probably a better job than any team in the league, over the last four or five years, and this is another example of that.
“The rich get richer, I guess, and kudos to them . ... They’ve done great, and no hard feelings on our part. We look forward to lacing it up against them this year.”
This much is clear, assuming numbers don’t lie: No matter how much whining and crying you hear from pundits and social media trolls over the Warriors’ glut of talent, this team is not likely to kill the NBA’s popularity. On the contrary.
The 2014 NBA Finals got the lowest TV ratings in five years. But the following year, the Warriors, under rookie coach Steve Kerr, took over and started their run of four straight trips to the Finals against LeBron James and the Cavaliers. The ratings went up and up.
The NBA’s TV ratings for the recent regular season were up 8 percent over the previous season. Meanwhile, NFL regular-season ratings fell 9.7 percent.
Explaining the high ratings for the last four NBA Finals featuring the Warriors and James, the Washington Post’s Steven Zeitchik wrote, “We love to watch LeBron, but we love to watch the Warriors more. Even if it’s hatewatching.”
Fans love brilliance. The Warriors are the circus come to town. Now they’ve added another trapeze artist.
Maybe some team owners and execs quietly resent the Warriors’ super team, but they would love to have one.
“It’s funny,” says the Suns’ McDonough, “people ask me about superteams, and Golden State kind of defines the super-team, and what I say is, when I worked for the Celtics prior to coming to Phoenix, we had Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen. I was in favor of superteams when we kind of had one.”
So it’s unanimous: Kudos to the Warriors as they enter the death zone.