Like most of you, I was in shock when I heard DeMarcus Cousins had signed for the Golden State Warriors. ‘Boogie’ signed with the current NBA champions on a taxpayer mid-level exception contract worth $5.3 million for one-year.
The former All-NBA centre arrives in Oakland from New Orleans after a season and a half where he averaged 25 points per gane and 12.7 rebounds per game. He is the fifth All-Star in this side joining Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green and not to mention the 2015 Finals MVP and former All-Star Andre Iguodala.
An Achilles injury kept Boogie out of the second half of this NBA season with the Pelicans and he won’t be expected to return until December at the earliest and therefore will have no impact on the Warriors first half of the season.
However, there is a bit of uncertainty about the role he’ll play given that he’s essentially been the main man at both Sacramento and New Orleans bar Anthony Davis. Therefore, Cousins has typically played as a point-centre which is a role that he will unlikely be playing for Golden State.
Firstly, backing up on the point about Boogie being the main man is shown through his career usage percentage of 31.98 per cent which is an estimate of the percentage of plays used by a player while he was on the floor.
Only Michael Jordan (33.26 per cent) and Russell Westbrook (32.73 per cent) have higher career usage percentage. New teammates Kevin Durant (30.25 per cent) and Stephen Curry (27.61 per cent) both feature in the top 25 for the same stat.
Secondly, centre is a position in which the Warriors have generally rotated smaller named players through and in the 2017-18 season rotated between, Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee, David West and partially Jordan Bell and Kevon Looney.
As a result, during this Golden State dynasty they haven’t played big man offence which Cousins has played mainly throughout his career. This could require the Warriors to change their style of play while Cousins is on the floor.
However, as much as this could be a potential weakness of the acquisition of Boogie it also gives them the option to play big man offence now.
This will be extremely useful when opposition teams try to slow the game down and bully the Warriors with big men in the frontcourt.
Boogie as the third edition of the ‘Splash bros’ will be able to show off his range and three-point ability with this flashy offence and will thrive in the pick and roll situation, peeling off the screen to the three-point line and it gives the defending champions another perimeter weapon with a three-point percentage of 34 per cent throughout his career.
These increased offensive options for a side that is already being labelled as one of the best of all time allows them to push away from new contenders the Houston Rockets who showed that they can match it with the Warriors throughout the 2017-18 season, but this acquisition will make it harder for the Rockets to match it with the Splash Bros.
Now that the Warriors have Boogie on their side it obviously means that he can’t pose as a threat on an opposition team which could potentially be the biggest positive for the Warriors in this signing because when Cousins is firing he is arguably the best big man in the game.
All this being said though still depends on how well the centre recovers from this current Achilles injury which is definitely the biggest red flag about this signing.
How well do you think Cousins will fit into the Warriors scheme, or will he be a burden on and off the court for the defending champions.
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