On the second day of free agency, there was a collective uproar on social media and in general from NBA fans around the globe when it was reported that DeMarcus Cousins was signing a one year deal with the reigning back to back champions, the Golden State Warriors.
Everyone wondered how do the rich keep getting richer when there were countless other teams who could’ve used Cousins and even paid him more. It didn’t take long after for Cousins to make it clear that he didn’t get any offers from any other team. Even with him coming off a serious Achilles injury, it was still hard to imagine why no teams would give an all-star center a nice contract since he was averaging 25 points and almost 13 rebounds last season before his injury. Some even started to wonder if Cousins was lying about not getting any offers and just trying to deflect from being looked at as taking the easy way to a championship but then multiple reporters seemed to confirm the same thing and then we also found out the Lakers could’ve signed him but chose not to.
It was widely expected that Cousins would possibly wind up with the Lakers as an all-star teammate to LeBron James once it started to look as though landing Kawhi Leonard through a trade wasn’t going to happen. The team started to renounce rights to players like Julius Randle and Isaiah Thomas in what was thought to be preemptive moves to clear the way for Cousins. When it was announced he instead signed with the Warriors, it was assumed he decided to just shun the Lakers but turns out that wasn’t the case.
Marc Stein reported that after the Lakers signed Rondo away from the Pelicans, they had the chance to also sign Cousins to a deal that wound up being relatively the same one he signed with the Warriors. The team passed, even though they had called Cousins shortly after free agency began and made it seem as if they intended to meet with him. It wasn’t long after before Cousins was saying “I’m a Warrior.”
In the end it seems that just most teams were either scared of his injury or maybe didn’t want him in their locker room. Either way, it supports the notion that no teams offered him a contract and further illustrates why no one should be mad at him or the Warriors for getting together.
Written by @IamJoeSports
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