J-Speaks: Back-to-Back Champions Warriors Add Another All-Star, Sort Of

So far in 2018 NBA Summer free agency we have not had that sudden shocking move that shook up the landscape. Four-time league MVP LeBron James agreed to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers on a four-year, $153.3 million deal. All-Star Paul George agreed re-signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder on a four-year, $137 million. All-Star Chris Paul agreed to return to the Houston Rockets on a four-year, $160 million deal. In the early stages of this week, we finally got that shocking move that brought that buzz around the league as one of the best big men in the league signed with the defending champions. 

On Monday, All-Star center DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins, who missed the final 34 games and the postseason for the New Orleans Pelicans after tearing his left Achilles on Jan. 26 versus the Rockets agreed to a one-year, $5.3 million deal with the back-to-back NBA champion Golden State Warriors. 

To put how shocking this move was into context, everybody from the players to fans had a reaction, and they expressed their feelings on social media. 

The main positive reactions came from his newest teammates where two-time league MVP Stephen Curry @StephenCurry30 tweeted, “The 3^rd Splash Brother. Let’s go.” 

The Finals MVP from the Warriors first title in 2015 Andre Iguodala “@andre” tweeted, “Big fella!!!!”

Last season’s Defensive Player of the Year and All-Star Draymond Green “@Money23Green” tweeted, “Yeah man…crazy!!! Santorini is a blast!” 

Opponents of the champs in three of the last four seasons where not as gleeful, like Los Angeles Clippers restricted free agent guard Patrick Beverly “@patbev21,” who tweeted, “Man cmon man!!!”

Utah Jazz reserve sharp shooting forward Jae Crowder “@CJC9BOSS” tweeted, “WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE GUYS.!??”

New York Knicks power forward/center Enes Kanter “@enes_kanter” tweeted, with a photo of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in a Warriors uniform “Adam Silver has agreed to a Mid-Level Extension with the Golden State, league sources tell ME.” 

Kanter’s teammate in reserve guard Emmanuel Mudiay “@emmanuelmudiay” tweeted, “WHAT IS GOING ON.”

Even a couple of NFL teams got in on the act with the Arizona Cardinals “@AZCardinals” tweeting, “Sorry, @Warriors. You can’t have @LarryFitzgerald.” 

The Pittsburgh Steelers “@steelers” tweeted in reference to their star receiver Antonio Brown, “No, @Warriors…you cannot have @AB84.” 

Even the seafood chain Jimmy’s Seafood “@jimmysSeafood” tweeted, “Free crab cakes every time the Warriors lose a game this season.”

Jokes aside, the reason Cousins, a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA Second Team selection joined an already stack team in the Warriors with Green, Curry, back-to-back Finals MVP in Kevin Durant and fellow All-Star Klay Thompson is he was a player that suffered the kind of injury that many players with the exception of Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins rarely fully recover from. 

On top of that, the Pelicans agreed to terms with former Los Angeles Lakers forward Julius Randle on a two-year, $18 million deal made the 27-year-old Cousins expendable. 

Before injuring his leg and missing the remainder of the season as mentioned back in late January, Cousins was averaging 25.2 points, 12.0 rebounds, 5.4 assists on 35.4 percent from three-point range. 

The injury not to mention the really bad reputation that stems from his early years with the Sacramento Kings when they have simply been the doormats of “The Association” not making the playoffs for 12 straight seasons soured a lot of people on Cousins and it resulted in his agent not even getting a phone call from the other 28 other teams to simply have a meeting. 

Cousins said to Marc J. Spears of “The Undefeated” he was confused and hurt by the fact he got no offers, especially from the Pelicans who acquired him out of purgatory of the capital of California at the All-Star break the prior season. 

He also said to Spears when he and his agent were going over his options, which included the Warriors, whose center the past two seasons, as both a starter and reserve JaVale McGee agreed to a deal with the Lakers.

Sources said to ESPN’s Chris Haynes that the other team that Cousins had interest in was the Eastern Conference runner-up the Boston Celtics. 

After a conversation with the President of Basketball Operations with the Warriors Bob Myers, which included a discussion of the details of the contract and conversations with Curry, Durant and Green, who were his teammates on Team USA, Cousins called Myers and said he would sign. 

The Warriors used their taxpayer midlevel exception to seal the deal for Cousins, who after suffering that torn Achilles on Jan. 26 as mentioned had it surgically repaired. 

He has been rehabbing the injury since and said to Spears he is aiming to be recovered by training camp, but a realistic timetable for Cousins to even be back on the floor would be in December or January 2019 at the latest. 

The move also gives Cousins time to fully recover from his torn Achilles, show that he is close to the form he had prior and rejoin the free agent market in the summer of 2019 to sign that max-level deal he would had received if he had not gotten injured. 

We have to remember, this was a player that went from being on cloud nine a little over half way through the 2017-18 season and in the closing moments of the game on Jan. 26 he came crashing down to a serious reality that his NBA career was in serious jeopardy. 

With one phone call that was witnessed by the camera of “Showtime” for an NBA special that will be aired later this year, Cousins after speaking on the phone with the defending champions flash the W sign with his right hand and said with a smile on his face, “I’m a Warrior.”

Yes, the Warriors should not have had a chance in the world to sign a talent like DeMarcus Cousins to a contract that is one-seventh of the salary that he would be making per year if he had signed a max contract somewhere else. That is what the new salary cap was supposed to prevent from happening. 

“The rich just keep getting richer,” was what former NBA head coach and three-time NBA champion with the Lakers Byron Scott said on the Tuesday edition “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN. “This is one of the best teams in the league and they get a player of that caliber for one year at the minimum. So, I was really shocked by it and kind of thrown back a little bit.”

Cousins would have been in line for a major pay day had he not injured his Achilles shelving him for the remainder of this past season, but he did and that injury where takes eight months to a year of rehabilitation to recover from scared a lot of teams off. 

On top of that as Rachel Nichols pointed out on her show “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN on Tuesday, 67 percent, which is two-thirds of the NBA’s squads did not even enter this crazy tight summer of free agency with zero salary cap space and the fact as mentioned earlier front offices continued to have questions about the attitude of Cousins. 

This is how we got to Cousins telling Spears that zero teams made what he called, “serious offers.”

That led to his agent reaching out to the Warriors, which really seems to be a perfect fit for Cousins on a number of levels aside from the money. 

He will be a part of a team that will give him the necessary time for him to rehab and get as close to 100 percent as possible. 

The Warriors have a solid locker room where they believe in the moto that has been their playoff rallying cry the past four seasons, which has seen them go to The Finals, “Strength in Numbers.” 

As good as the main headliners of Curry, Thompson, and Durant with the ultimate swiss army knife in Green have been individually, it has been the collectiveness to play, work and be united as a team that has gotten them over the top. 

It also helps that Curry and Thompson have had experience with Cousins with team USA and all indications that they have been nothing but solid during that period together. 

A clip from a 2014 during a Team USA practice has someone asking Cousins who is practicing shooting three-pointers, “Who are you DeMarcus?” 

His answer was, “The third ‘Splash Brother,” in reference to the nickname of the starting backcourt of the Warriors in Curry and Thompson. 

Cousins missed two straight triples during that clip and Curry responded by saying, “We’re still taking applications, don’t worry.” 

Say what you will about the kind of person DeMarcus Cousins is. He has had his moments where he was unhinged in how he dealt with the referees when he was called for fouls he felt were unwarranted. How he dealt with some of his coaches when he was with the Sacramento Kings like one of the greats to ever be on an NBA sideline in George Karl. 

The bottom line is that DeMarcus Cousins is a supremely gifted basketball player who chance at a super-max contract was lost when he was traded to the Pelicans against his wishes, and he found out about the trade during postgame interviews with the media. He lost his chance at a regular max deal when he got hurt.  

Now Cousins is fighting through a grueling painful rehab with no real guarantees of returning to the dominant scoring and rebounding, passing front court player who could perform on the hardwood with ease. 

The Warriors gave him at least a shot of getting back on the hardwood see if he can become that player again and help the Warriors win a third straight Larry O’Brien trophy and fourth in five seasons in the process.

Prior to the signing of Cousins, the Warriors were a -110 favorite to win the 2019 NBA title according to the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook. By him signing, those chances increased to a -175.

“People want to go and play for teams that win and teams that have great culture,” Scott said of wanting to be part of a championship like the Warriors. 

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst added to that by saying that the Warriors are so good and that they have the kind of roster where that they can afford to take a flyer on a great talent that may not play for the first six to seven months of this upcoming season. 

“If ‘Boogie’ at $5 million a year helps them win three playoff games Rachel, it would have been a wonderful investment, and if he has nice last two months of the season and rebuilds his value it will be perfect for him.”

What should also be pointed out is that fans as well as the players need to just in the words of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said once during a rough stretch of their season a couple of years back, “R-E-L-A-X.”

Cousins will not be on the hardwood when this upcoming season starts. It will take time for him and the Warriors to be a cohesive unit on both ends of the floor when he does come back.

As Windhorst pointed out, the Warriors would have loved to have used that $5.3 million on signing an unrestricted free agent like Trevor Ariza or someone like Avery Bradley. Players who can shoot the ball consistently from three-point range and who can defend some of the top wing players in “The Association.” 

Ariza agreed to a one-year deal for $15 million dollars to join the Phoenix Suns and Bradley agreed to a two-year, $25 million deal to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. 

So, the Warriors with those options off the table decided to take a flyer on Cousins and see if it will work. 

The one good thing that the Warriors have on their side is time because of their recent history of being able to play into June and if the rest of the league is sick and tired of seeing that happen, they should step up their play and competitiveness, and accept the challenge of taking down the back-to-back champions. 

Otherwise do as Windhorst said, “Let’s just give him time. Let’s just give him space and not freak the freak out.”  

“I want ‘Boogie’ to be good. I want him to enjoy this season. I want everything to work out, but I really just want to temper the concept that the NBA was ruined by the fact that ‘Boogie’ became a Warrior.”

This is way life works sometimes. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. When no one wants to give you an opportunity to show what you can do; to redeem yourself from past transgressions or to show your naysayers that you still have what it takes to be great that is the opportunity DeMarcus Cousins’ agent got him with the Warriors. This can go really smoothly or it can backfire. Either way it will be a topic that will be discussed analyzed and dissected with a fine-tooth comb for the rest of this off-season into the 208-19 NBA campaign. 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 7/3/18 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump,” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Byron Scott and Brian Windhorst; 7/3/18 www.espn.com story, “DeMarcus Cousins Says Conversations with Warriors Sealed Decision to Join,” by Adrian Wojnarowski; www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23921959/nba-free-agency-every-new-deal-contract-and-extension; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demarcus_Cousins.