John Wall: DeMarcus Cousins ‘said he would come to D.C.’
By Mike Dyce
Center DeMarcus Cousins reportedly told Washington Wizards point guard John Wall that he would come join him in the nation’s capital.
One of the more compelling storylines of the 2016-17 NBA season’s trade deadline surrounded Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins. It became an annual tradition to speculate on Cousins’ future and placing him in the center of rumors after stories of his enigmatic personality and relationship with the team leaked.
Finally the shoe dropped this season and Cousins was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans to play alongside burgeoning superstar Anthony Davis, creating a formidable front court duo. The move was refreshing for Cousins, but disappointing to Washington Wizards point guard John Wall who was hoping for a Cousins move to the nation’s capital.
“[Cousins] said he would come to D.C., but he didn’t know what was going to happen,” Wall told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “I didn’t know he was going to be traded like that. We thought it was going to be later on or he was just going to stay [in Sacramento]. It shocked me just like it shocked him.”
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Cousins still has one more season on his contract before becoming a free agent during the summer of 2018. Any hopes for a Wall and Cousins tandem with the Wizards will have to hold out hope until then.
The good news for hopeful Wizards fans, Cousins will head into the summer of 2018 at just 27 years of age.
Meanwhile it looks like Cousins is still trying to find his footing with the Pelicans, who sit six games back from the eighth seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. Albeit a small sample size of just 10 games, Cousins numbers have dipped from his production in Sacramento. Cousins is averaging 20.7 points with the Pelicans, compared to the 27.8 points per game he averaged with the Kings over 55 games this season.