NBA Free Agency 2018: 5 potential destinations for DeMarcus Cousins

NEW ORLEANS, LA - APRIL 19: Anthony Davis #23 of the New Orleans Pelicans speaks to DeMarcus Cousins #0 of the New Orleans Pelicans after the game against the Portland Trail Blazers in Game Three of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 19, 2018 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images) /

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MIAMI, FL – MARCH 15: DeMarcus Cousins #0 of the New Orleans Pelicans in action against Luke Babbitt #5 of the Miami Heat during the first half of the game at American Airlines Arena on March 15, 2017 in Miami, Florida. /

5. Miami Heat

The Miami Heat have been a gritty, disciplined team full of misfits and wily veterans over the past few years. They have specialized in rehabbing the careers of fringe rotation players and finding useful talent from the G-League. But we saw this Miami team lose convincingly to the Philadelphia 76ers in round one of the Playoffs. With this roster the Heat can bank on making the postseason as a low to mid tier team in Eastern Conference hierarchy, but they have limited upside. Unless one of the youngsters like Justise Winslow or Bam Adebayo turns into a star, this team probably won’t be able to make a deep Playoff run anytime soon in the improving East.

After re-signing a number of guys in 2017, the Heat are locked into this roster for the next few seasons. Almost every major roster piece will have two or three years left on their deals once the league calendar turns over to the 2018-19 season in July. A sign and trade for DeMarcus Cousins would be a massive risk, but it could help the Heat unload some of their bad long-term salary while also theoretically upping the ceiling of this team.

A trade between Miami and New Orleans is probably unlikely because numerous transactions would have to occur for the teams to hammer out a deal. Though rumors of a Whiteside-Cousins swap surfaced in the aftermath of Boogie’s Achilles injury, that specific trade seems almost impossible at this point. Whiteside just doesn’t fit the New Orleans’ preferred style of play. If the Cousins trade didn’t involve Whiteside, the Heat would obviously have to trade their incumbent center in a separate deal or they would be spending an absurd amount of money on two centers that can’t share the floor.

A potential Cousins trade would likely have to feature players like Winslow, James Johnson or Tyler Johnson, who has two years and about $40 million left on his current deal. Throwing Winslow into a deal would be tough for Miami to swallow, despite the fact that his development has been relatively slow. But Winslow will be extension eligible soon and with so many sizable salaries on the books, Miami will need to make some moves.

Trading one of the Johnsons and Winslow could work depending on the salary that Cousins agrees to. This is the kind of deal that might just be too risky for the Heat though. But if they want to land a big name and are confident that they can get Cousins back to full strength, perhaps they would pull the trigger. Again this scenario is improbable, but with so few teams looking to dole out money to a big man there aren’t many more feasible situations.

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