Passing ability praised:
Cousins’ exteammates with the Pelicans expect him to make quite an impact with the Warriors.
Former Warriors guard Ian Clark spent last season as DeMarcus Cousins’ teammate in New Orleans. After years of watching Cousins from afar, Clark had a first-hand view of one of the NBA’s most skilled, enigmatic centers.
And what did he learn about Cousins’ game?
“Just how smart he is and how good a passer he is,” Clark said. “Everybody knows he’s a scorer, but his way to manipulate the defense is to make them tend to him in the post and find guys with the right pass. That’s not easy to do.”
Clark spoke Wednesday night at Oracle Arena, before his Pelicans tangled with the Warriors. Cousins did not play against his old team, but he plans to make his much-anticipated Golden State debut Friday night, after nearly a year of recovering from his torn Achilles tendon.
Two lockers over from Clark, another onetime teammate, forward E’Twaun Moore, echoed the sentiment about Cousins’ ability — and willingness — to share the basketball.
“He gave me a lot of easy points,” Moore said. “He passed to me all the time. I definitely loved playing with him.”
Cousins played 65 games with the Pelicans, spread over two seasons. Sacramento traded him to New Orleans in February 2017, and he played in 17 games that season and 48 more last season before suffering the Achilles injury on Jan. 26, 2018.
That means his return Friday night in Los Angeles, against the Clippers, will occur 357 days after he last took the court in an NBA game.
Alvin Gentry coached Cousins in New Orleans, and before that he was Steve Kerr’s top assistant with the Warriors. Gentry endorsed Cousins in a conversation with Kerr last summer, before Golden State signed him as a free agent.
Much like his players did, Gentry pointed to Cousins’ passing as one element of his game likely to surprise Warriors fans. He owns a career average of 21.5 points per game, but Cousins also has increased his assists numbers in recent seasons, from 3.3 to 4.6 to 5.4.
“He’s a great passer, especially at his position,” Gentry said. “He and the guy in Denver, (Nikola) Jokic, are probably the two best passers at that position in the league and two of the better passers in the league, period.”
Asked if he’s curious, as a basketball fan, to see how Cousins meshes with his new team, Gentry smiled and emphatically shook his head.
“Nope, not really,” he said. “He’s a great player. I think he’s the best player at his position in the league. Obviously, when you add him to the mix on a team that has four AllStars, it’ll be a special team.”
The process could take time. Achilles injuries make for difficult comebacks, as Cousins soon will discover. It’s common for players to lose the explosion needed to jump quickly, a vital asset in basketball.
Clark, who occasionally trades text messages with Cousins, expects his former teammate will need some time to regain his conditioning. The Warriors like to play fast, and Cousins is not exactly accustomed to racing up and down the court.
Even so, Clark figures the abundance of outside shooters on his former team — namely, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant — will create space for Cousins to operate, and vice versa.
“You can’t go wrong with all those guys standing behind the three-point line and shooting the ball,” Clark said. “Things might be easier for DeMarcus because it will be harder for teams to double him.
“If he gets the ball in the post and goes to work, you can’t double him and leave Steph or Klay open. Pick your poison: Who do you want to leave open? I think it’s going to be an easy transition for him, especially in that locker room.”