BIG CHALLENGE
Cousins’ latest injury could be his last with the Warriors
OAKLAND >> There’s a good chance we saw DeMarcus Cousins’ final game in a Warriors uniform on Monday night.
The Golden State big man tore his left quadriceps muscle in the first quarter of Game 2 of the Western Conference first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers. Cousins probably will miss the rest of the playoffs.
He’s not expected to need surgery — so the injury itself isn’t catastrophic.
But its effects are. Cousins’ first-ever postseason likely is over after 25 minutes. His hopes of a nine-figure, long-term contract in free agency this summer also probably were sabotaged by the first-quarter tumble.
At 28, Cousins should be in the middle of his prime — combining the savvy that comes from NBA experience with the powers of peak physical fitness.
But it’s difficult to imagine that we’ll never see what one of the most talented big men in NBA history could have been.
Yes, Cousins will play next year, but his journey probably has been irrevocably knocked off course — again.
This year with the Warriors, Cousins wasn’t close to regaining the prowess he had before tearing the left Achilles tendon last year with the New Orleans Pelicans. He needed a big postseason to prove that he still was one of the NBA’s premier big men.
Now, the 6-foot-11 Cousins adds another big injury to the same leg, which feeds the notion that he’s damaged goods.
Leg injuries are death sentences for big men. And Cousins is no wiry center who is listed at weighing 270 pounds and often played while heavier than that.
Fair or not, it’s difficult to imagine many teams eager to sign him after the season.
The injury Monday night does increase the once next-to-nil chance that he re-signs with the Warriors. Golden State can offer only a 20 percent raise on the mid-level exception contract he signed in the summer for a reported $5.3 million.
At one point, that would not have been nearly enough — Cousins came to Golden State to take a steady, measured, unrushed approach to his Achilles injury rehabilitation in an effort to land a nine-figure contract he deserved before that injury.
But now? Well, much like last year, Golden State might be in a position to extend the best offer.
There’s so much in flux for the Warriors this summer with Kevin Durant’s free agency. No roster decisions
will be made until Golden State knows, officially, what Durant wants to do.
But, while it’s easy to think that keeping Cousins might mitigate the sting of Durant’s increasingly likely exit, I’m not expecting to see another season of the Boogie in the Bay Experiment.
Cousins wasn’t really worth the trouble for the Warriors this season.
In many ways, his biggest contribution came before he hit the court. Cousins’ return allowed the Warriors to procrastinate engaging with the regular season, and the anticipation around his first game was a steady and welcome distraction to a team that had increased expectations by four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and also faced constant questions about Durant’s looming decision.
But, much like a top-of-the-list Christmas toy, the excitement over Cousins quickly dissipated once he actually played.
Warriors players and coaches took the time and energy to help Cousins to fit into the championship-winning system — and there were stretches where it looked seamless. But the projection of his frustration with his not-as-powerful skillset was yet another bit of drama in a locker room at full capacity. By the time the postseason rolled around, there were legitimate questions if Cousins was a defensive liability in the defense-defined postseason.
Before the injury this week, Cousins was one-and-done on his terms. That still might be the case even though the Warriors have the negotiating
advantage.
Golden State doesn’t need Cousins. It never did. The Warriors remain the title favorites without their mercurial big man sidelined for the remainder of the season.
But Golden State’s margin for error has, no doubt, tightened yet again without a fifth All-Star — and a third-level of scoring, in the post.
Still, the lack of Cousins might not be felt for the Warriors until the NBA Finals, should they advance.
The Warriors don’t need Cousins to eliminate the Los Angeles Clippers or their likely second-round opponents, the Houston Rockets — who could have turned Cousins into a liability with James Harden, Chris Paul and Clint Capela pick-and-rolls.
The bottom half of the Western Conference bracket shouldn’t scare the Warriors, either.
In short: The Warriors will not be able to blame Cousins’ injury if they do not advance to a modern record fifth-consecutive championships.
Nevertheless, moving forward, there’s more pressure on Kevon Looney to keep up his recent outstanding play. Also, Draymond Green probably will see more action at center, which means more wear-andtear for the battle-worn Warrior. Jordan Bell will no doubt be called upon to contribute — something the Warriors staff no doubt wanted to avoid.
And Andrew Bogut — re-signed out of Australia, in part as a distraction after the disillusionment with the Cousins experiment — is going to see a lot more playing time than either he or the Warriors expected a few weeks ago.