NBA Free Agency 2018: 5 potential destinations for DeMarcus Cousins

2. New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans don’t have many great choices heading into their negotiations with DeMarcus Cousins. The team is capped out with some ugly contracts on its books, although shedding the Asik contract before the deadline rid the cap sheet of some dead salary. Solomon Hill and Alexis Ajinca are still eating up valuable space though and with the max deals of Davis and Holiday, the Pelicans will be butting up against the tax if they bring back Cousins. They could cut costs on the margins to avoid the taxing by stretching Ajinca for example. But New Orleans is in a tough bind regardless. Losing Cousins wouldn’t open up any tangible cap space for them.

The course of these negotiations will likely depend on how robust Cousins’ market is in general. If any team offers Boogie a legit max, New Orleans might simply let him walk. But if his market is fairly cold, they could retain him at a reduced rate with some protections against future injury. The best possible outcome for New Orleans might be bringing him back on this kind of team friendly deal. The team could ease Cousins back into action and carefully evaluate how he looks returning from injury. If they get him back at a reasonable price, they will always have the option of trading him as well. With all the uncertainty surrounding DeMarcus’ status at this point, a return to New Olreans might be the most likely outcome of his free agency.