Cousins at home in Denver
DENVER — The Nuggets are DeMarcus Cousins’ third team since leaving the Rockets last season, with the 25 games he played with the Rockets still the most he has played with any team in his past four stops. He might have found a home.
Cousins started Friday with Nuggets star Nikola Jokic out with an illness. His production has been inconsistent, but the Denver bench has played well since adding him to play in the middle.
“This might be the fit,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “He’s played very well since he’s been here. They’ve played very well as a team since he’s been here. It could be just the right place at the right time for him. He is so talented, he can play inside, outside, he’s physical, he can rebound. This might be it.”
The Nuggets do not use Cousins as a point-center, as they do with Jokic, but they do run offense through him at times, as teams have over the years.
“He’s a very good passer,” Silas said. “They post him up some. They play them similarly and don’t have to change too much. He’ll receive the ball, and they’ll give it to him in the post or give it to him at the top of the floor. With Jokic, he’s the one bringing it down the floor, sometimes they’ll set a little screen for him and then he’ll go down into the post and he’ll have the ball for 94 feet.”
Nix in the mix of the backcourt
With guard Dennis Schröder out for second consecutive game with a sprained right ankle and the Rockets amid the busiest stretch of games possible in NBA scheduling, rookie guard Daishen Nix could enter the backcourt mix.
The Rockets brought Nix and Trevelin Queen up from the G League Rio Grande Valley Vipers, with Nix in particular an option to fill some of Schröder’s minutes at the point. Though he likely will return to the Vipers when the Rockets are at full strength, perhaps after the back-to-back Sunday and Monday against the Grizzlies and Heat, the Rockets called him up from the G League as much because of Nix’s improvements as their predicament.
“It’s the progress he made, the way he played in the G League and the schedule that we have,” Silas said of the decision to bring Nix in from the Vipers. “With Dennis being out for a few more days — that’s what it’s looking like at least — having another ballhandler.
“He’s played really well down there. We have a stretch of seven of 14, and we have another five in seven toward the end of the month. We need bodies.”
Nix has averaged 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 7.6 assists in 27 games with the Vipers, making 49.2 percent of his shots, 39.7 percent of his 3-pointers. The Rockets on Feb. 14 converted his contract from a two-way contract to a standard four-year, $6 million deal.
The Rockets are in the third game of a stretch of five games in seven nights.
Silas remembers meeting Coach K
With legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski to coach for the final time in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday, Silas recalled his own experience going against the Blue Devils. It was not as a player.
“When I was in college, we played Duke twice when I was at Brown,” Silas said. “Obviously, we got slaughtered. But Grant Hill was on the team. We went through the handshake line at the end, and he actually knew my name, which was pretty cool because I didn’t really even play.”
Duke topped Brown 89-71 in the 1993-94 season and won the season opener the following season 80-38.
Silas also visited with Krzyzewski several times over the years when former Duke player Gerald Henderson played in Charlotte where Silas was on the staff.
“I’ve run across him a few times,” Silas said. “He’s always gracious.
“He’s had a huge impact on so many guys in this league as far as the longevity he’s had. You think about all the players he has coached over the years who had a huge effect on the game, as far as being All-Stars, or rotation players or even fringe guys. The way that he’s carried himself, the way that he handled himself with the USA team, he is one of the all-time greats. I appreciate everything he’s done for this league and college basketball.”