Why DeMarcus Cousins to the Warriors isn’t that unprecedented

DeMarcus Cousins joining the Golden State Warriors sent shockwaves through the NBA. Here’s why it isn’t nearly as unique an occurrence as it might seem.

Perhaps it’s appropriate that a player known as much for his temper as he is for his talent elicited possibly the most profanity-laced collective outburst that NBA Twitter has ever seen when he decided to do the unthinkable late Monday night.

Yes, DeMarcus Cousins is a Golden State Warrior. The team that has gone 32-6 over its last two postseason romps added to its core of four All-Stars a player who last season put up the first 40-20-10 stat line since Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. Boogie, whose only question mark has always been about what’s between his ears, joins perhaps the most stable culture in the league and a head coach who specializes in pushing the right buttons at the right times.

It didn’t take long for the chiding to begin, including several barbs by current and former players:

Let’s put aside for a moment that Cousins likely won’t be back until at least midway through the season, and that his integration into a team that famously works hard to stay away from isolation basketball might not be as smooth as anticipated (Cousins had more iso possessions per game than any big man in the league last year).

On its face, this simply doesn’t seem fair. Defending NBA champs shouldn’t be able to get arguably the most talented center in the game, even if he is coming off a devastating injury. That they got him at roughly a seventh of his market value when healthy only adds insult to injury.

Yet, here we are. More than anything, most observers have spent their time looking for someone to blame.

As we saw above, Adam Silver was a popular target, but as the Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor wisely points out, Silver tried his best to make sure this Warriors juggernaut never came to pass. When the NBA knew a cap spike was coming, they tried their best to get the players on board with a gradual increase instead of the one-time increase we saw in 2016.

We know what happened next: 29 teams spent like the money had an expiration date, while the Warriors added the second best player in the league to a 73-win team. The chickens came home to roost this summer, and with few teams having cash, Cousins looked at a nearly guaranteed chip and said “Sure, why not?”

Really though, as much as the cap spike and resulting domino effect was unprecedented, the notion of a great player joining a historically great team isn’t nearly as unusual as the NBA illuminati is making it out to be.

Rewind the clock back 33 years to 1985. The 63-win Boston Celtics were coming off a heartbreaking Finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but had claimed two of the previous four NBA titles and employed the two-time defending league MVP, Larry Bird. In the offseason, another former MVP, Bill Walton — maybe the most talented all-around big man in the history of the game during the brief time he was healthy — decided he wanted to join the party.

Thanks to Walton’s well-documented foot issues, he was available at a fraction of the cost that his talent dictated, and Red Auerback made it happen. He went on to win Sixth Man of the Year for perhaps the greatest Celtics team of all time. Cousins is almost six years younger than Walton was when he got traded and is also still in his prime, but his injury is arguably as bad as anything Big Red ever faced.

Almost exactly a decade later, history repeated itself.

Michael Jordan, humbled by the Orlando Magic after a return from his baseball hiatus, entered the 1995-96 season on a mission to climb the mountaintop once again. When the opportunity arose to acquire a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who had made the All-NBA 3rd Team the previous season, the Chicago Bulls ultimately decided it was too great a chance to pass up.

Dennis Rodman, of course, makes DeMarcus Cousins seem like A.C. Green in comparison. Thanks to Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and Jordan, the Worm was kept in check long enough for the Bulls to complete their second three-peat of the decade. The Warriors are hoping their infrastructure has the same effect on Cousins.

If you combine the Rodman and Walton situations, you get Boogie to the Warriors. Still, unlike the 1985 Celtics and 1995 Bulls, this seems like overkill. Golden State isn’t coming off a heartbreaking defeat, and Cousins feels extraneous, whereas the two historical precedents were necessary additions for their teams’ success.

David Robinson just so happened to miss a season due to injury the year before Tim Duncan entered the draft. The 2007-08 Los Angeles Lakers acquired Pau Gasol for relative pennies on the dollar. Five years earlier, L.A. inked future Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton for a combined $6.5 million. If Twitter had been around for those signings, the internet would have self-combusted.

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So yes, while the outrage felt by fans and players alike is certainly warranted, the simple truth is that we’ve been there, done that and bought the T-shirt. The Warriors were going into this season as massive favorites before acquiring DeMarcus Cousins, and they will remain so after the fact. If the “new” NBA has taught us anything, however, it’s that unlike in years past, these partnerships don’t last very long, let alone forever.

Let’s all settle down, tip our cap, and enjoy what promises to be another 365-day countdown to real best part of the NBA: the offseason, when truly anything is possible.