You the saying “The rich get richer”? Well, that seems fitting for the situation Golden State Warriors are in, after adding fifth All-Star to their roster. In a surprising turn of events, DeMarcus Cousins decided to sign with the Warriors on a one-year, $5.3 million deal.
The deal was first reported by ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Cousins will sign a one-year, $5.3M deal with Warriors, league source tells ESPN. https://t.co/LaTLH3oOTB
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2018
The reason why the Warriors managed to get an All-Star caliber player at this price is DeMarcus Cousins’ torn Achilles. Cousins suffered the injury in late January and will be recovering at least until early 2019, which made teams reluctant about offering him a big deal. Before the injury, the 27-year-old averaged 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists and was even in MVP talks, heading to a max-deal in the summer. Now, he decided to sign with the best team in the league, hoping to get healthy (winning an NBA championship in the process) and then explore the free agency in 2019. He was earning close to $17 million last year.
According to sources close to the situation, Cousins didn’t have many long-term offers to start with and then started exploring other options including the Warriors. He was also talking with the Boston Celtics. His New Orleans Pelicans decided to go with Julius Randle and didn’t even consider bringing Cousins back.
DeMarcus Cousins was taken fifth overall in the 2010 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings. Although he established himself as Kings’ franchise player, the organization decided to move on from him due to Cousins’ bad temper and frequent conflicts with the coaching staff. He was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans alongside Omar Casspi in the February 2017 for Tyreke Evans, Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway, and 2017 first-round and second-round draft picks.
