Blockbuster — free agent center DeMarcus Cousins agrees to one-year deal to join NBA champion Warriors.
Warriors stun NBA by signing mercurial star to 1-year deal
SACRAMENTO >> A day after the Los Angeles Lakers acquired the NBA’s best player, the Warriors acquired a starter that will give them a starting lineup that resembles a Team USA roster.
So, the Lakers brought back playoff aspirations after agreeing to a four-year, $154 million deal with LeBron James. The Warriors
countered with bolstering their championship fortunes by convincing AllStar center DeMarcus Cousins to accept a one-year deal on their taxpayer mid-level exception worth $5.3 million on Monday. The Warriors’ starting lineup now has a combined 25 NBA AllStar appearances.
With Cousins joining Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the starting lineup, the Elias Sports Bureau noted the Warriors became the first team since the 1975-76 Boston Celtics to boast a starting lineup that featured entirely AllStars from the previous season.
“The 3rd Splash Brother,” Curry tweeted before posting smiling and crying emojis. “Let’s go@boogiecousins.”
Curry was not exaggerating.
Cousins averaged 25.2 points and 12.9 rebounds last season with the New Orleans Pelicans while shooting 47 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from 3-point range. All of a sudden, it might no longer become safe just to allow the Warriors’ starting center an open look to account for their Al-Star players. That often became the strategy when the Warriors leaned on either a plodding center (Zaza Pachulia) or an energetic big (JaVale McGee). Cousins can score in the post, along the elbows and from the perimeter. In addition, Cousins offers a defensive presence that complements the team’s intensity that Green, Durant and Thompson normally fuel.
And the Warriors landed Cousins only a day after losing McGee, who had accepted a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal with the Lakers.
With Durant agreeing to a “one-plus-one” deal that will net him a max $30 million next season, the Warriors saved $5 million in salary as opposed to what Durant could have made in 2018-19 ($35 million) had he agreed to a two-year deal with a player option on a third season. It might be a stretch to say the Warriors spent money on Cousins because of Durant’s paycut. Warriors general manager Bob Myers maintained the team would use the taxpayer mid-level exception so long as that players’ talent justified the subsequent $20 million in luxury taxes.
The Warriors considered Cousins worth that price after averaging 21.5 points on 46 percent shooting and 11.0 rebounds through eight NBA seasons, making four All-Star appearances and winning an Olympic gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Cousins has struck friendships with all of the Warriors’ four All-Stars on the U.S. Olympic team. All of them sans Curry played for Team USA in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Cousins teamed up with Curry and Thompson on Team USA in the 2014 FIBA World Championships in Spain. Therefore, it is not surprising the Warriors’ stars actively vouched for Cousins to the front office, league
sources told Bay Area News Group. Durant and Green also jokingly teased Cousins by posting photos on their Instagram account that showed Cousins trying to charge into the Warriors’ locker room following an in-game scuffle with Durant last season.
“I think DeMarcus is the best big man in the game,” Green said during the 2016-17 campaign. “A lot of times, people don’t give him that credit. A part of it is they try to downplay his status because of his reputation of getting technical fouls and things like that. But he is the best big man in the game, hands down. It’s always interesting to watch and interesting to play against and play with. He’s so incredibly talented.”
Therefore, the Warriors feel they have an answer for two potential question marks about Cousins’ arrival.
What about Cousins’ health?
Cousins missed the final 34 regular-season games and the entire postseason after tearing his left Achilles tendon on Jan. 26 against Houston. Though NBA players have historically struggled returning from those injuries, it typically takes six to eight months to return. So, Cousins could return as early as the beginning with training camp. With the Warriors prioritizing health with all their star players, they have the luxury and foresight to push back his return with a conservative timetable and workload.
What about Cousins’ behavior?
Cousins has received 115 technical fouls and 14 ejections through his eightyear NBA career. Despite playing in only 48 games last season, Cousins still ranked 14th in the NBA in technicals (nine) along
with two ejections. Still, the Warriors have experience handling Green (15 technicals) and Durant (14) when they had issues with the officiating. The Warriors have mostly argued their intensity provides more long-lasting benefits than short-term consequences. The Warriors also believe their talent and organizational stability will help Cousins show the best version of himself.
To think, the Warriors previously spent the first day of free agency losing out on potential targets.
The Warriors had limited purchasing power to acquire free agents, which may explain why they missed on Trevor Ariza (one-year, $15 million with Phoenix) and Tyreke Evans (one-year, $12 million with Indiana). But the Warriors plucked Cousins despite interest from both the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans because of their championship equity.
The Warriors made a steeper investment on that down payment, throwing opposing teams scrambling on how to bolster their roster. Those teams will likely feel just as helpless next season when they try to either score or defend against the Warriors’ new starting lineup.
• Warriors rookie guard/ forward Jacob Evans missed the team’s summerleague opening 79-68 win over Miami on Monday after suffering a minor injury in his right big toe during Friday’s practice.
Evans, who sat out of Monday’s morning shootaround, told Bay Area News Group that he expects to play on Tuesday against Sacramento after feeling improvement in recent days. Evans suffered the injury after accidentally stepping on a teammates’ shoe.