The Whiteboard: DeMarcus Cousins, the last domino in NBA Free Agency

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The NBA offseason, at least the player movement phase, has gone by in the blink of an eye. We’re not even a week out from the NBA Draft and free agency has already wound down, with essentially every major question having been resolved. (Anthony Davis hasn’t announced his new deal but there’s a less than zero chance that he’s leaving the Lakers).

The biggest mystery still hanging out there is DeMarcus Cousins. As of this writing, he remains unsigned, but rumors have linked the big man with the Lakers, Warriors, Rockets, Hornets and a half-dozen other teams this week.

Cousins last played an NBA game in the 2019 Finals, Game 6 as the Warriors were finished off by the Raptors. He began last season with the Lakers but missed the entire year rehabbing from a preseason ACL tear. His lone season with the Warriors started late, as he recovered from a ruptured Achilles’ suffered the year before with the Pelicans, and was disrupted at the end by a torn quadriceps muscle. Between playoffs and the regular season, he’s played just 38 games since that Achilles’ injury in January of 2018.

Cousins, pre-injury, was an immensely talented player but not without flaws. But essentially three years of only sporadically interrupted rehab make it hard to imagine that player is coming back in any coherent form, even at a reduced level of effectiveness. But you can think about Cousins in terms of his isolated skills, what’s likely to have survived injury and athletic decline and could still be useful.

DeMarcus Cousins should still be a useful finisher

Cousins’ reputation as a post-scorer may have been a bit overblown. From 2015-2018, he never ranked higher than the 35th percentile in scoring efficiency on post-ups. But at least some of that is likely because of overuse. If used more selectively, targeting specific mismatches and defenders, it’s probably a more efficient tool. That same tendency to force shots depresses his field goal percentage in the restricted area for the same time period but he always hovered close to 60 percent and if he catches the ball around the basket, he’s going to be a very high-efficiency finisher. The key will be limiting the number of catches outside the paint where he’s given the freedom to try and bulldoze his way to the rim. Cousins has strong scoring instincts, he likes the ball and knows how to make himself available. If a team can get him to accept a role as a complementary finisher he can still boost an offense gravity and efficiency.

DeMarcus Cousins can be a useful floor-spacer

Again, his reputation as a stretch big might be a bit overblown, with numbers that are dragged down by questionable decision-making and the freedom to force tough shots. But, from 2015-2018, Cousins made 35.8 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and 40.8 percent of his catch-and-shoot long 2-pointers. Even if he’s lost a step with injury, that jumper should still be there and he has value as a pick-and-pop threat or a static floor-spacer.

DeMarcus Cousins can be a useful passer

Cousins had a reputation as a bit of a black hole on offense and he definitely liked to get shots up. But he was a skilled and creative passer, even if that was a somewhat underused tool in his toolbox. From 2015-18, he averaged 8.4 potential assists per 36 minutes (about the same as CJ McCollum or Domantas Sabonis last season) and way more than half of his turnovers always came from travels, charges and losing his dribble, as opposed to a bad pass. He’s not a great or enthusiastic screener but he can make the right read on the short roll and has utility as an elbow fulcrum from dribble hand-offs and cutters.

DeMarcus Cousins is still a big body with six fouls

Cousins probably shouldn’t be starting for a good team anymore and even in his athletic prime he was never an effective or engaged defender. But he still has size and strength and six fouls to use trying to deal with the Joel Embiids and Nikola Jokics of the NBA. His value as a rebounder may be diminished with any changes to his athletic profile but he should still be above average.

The ideal scenario for Cousins now is almost certainly as a role player, coming off the bench, propping up second-units with his scoring and passing and targeting specific mismatches in certain games. Think Enes Kanter, but he could conceivably be even more valuable than that, trading some of Kanter’s post efficiency for floor-spacing and passing. The trick is getting him to buy into that role, accept fewer opportunities and be willing to embrace the ones he does get in slightly different ways.

Of the teams he’s been linked with, the Lakers and Warriors make the most sense. Minutes will be tight in the Lakers’ frontcourt with the Montrezl Harrell and Marc Gasol signings but Cousins was around the team last year and has a relationship with both LeBron and Davis. Ditto for the Warriors who have a relationship with Cousins and an established offensive hierarchy already in place. The Rockets are fun to think about but if they end up trading Harden and/or Westbrook, Cousins could find himself being asked to do too much. This may be a stretch, but I like the idea of him on the Heat. There is a culture in place and expectations will be clear, and his interior offense could be a nice change of pace to Bam Adebayo.

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