Getty Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins
As much excitement as there is surrounding a potential return during either the Western Conference Finals or NBA Finals for DeMarcus Cousins, we may want to tap the brakes. Although there’s nothing that points to the Golden State Warriors center not returning from a torn quad if the team advances to the championship, there’s also no guarantee that he does.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr threw a bit of cold water on the situation involving Cousins prior to Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. As Logan Murdock of NBC Sports BayArea (via Yahoo! Sports) revealed, Kerr said everyone needs to “slow down a little bit” on the return timelines of both Kevin Durant and Cousins.
“I think everyone needs to slow down a little bit on the Kevin stuff,” Kerr said Monday afternoon. “He hasn’t even stepped on the floor yet.”
“DeMarcus is probably similar,” Kerr added. “He hasn’t had any live stuff on the court yet. He’s not that close either. Hopefully, another week goes by and he’ll get better and now we have a better prognosis but at this point, we’re getting ready for this series without both of them.”
This is obviously a less-than-ideal comment from Kerr, and it points to the likelihood that the Warriors could play the entire series without Cousins and Durant potentially.
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DeMarcus Cousins Injury Update: On-Court Work
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as though Cousins has ramped up his on-court work all that much to this point either. As Murdock revealed in the same article on Yahoo! Sports, Cousins hasn’t done any contact work and is yet to progress from light jogging and some defensive slides.
However, other than light jogging and defensive slides, Cousins – who injured his quad in Game 2 of the Western Conference first-round series against the Clippers – has yet to do any serious on-court contact work with the team during Golden State’s playoff run.
Following Monday’s practice, Cousins was seen taking 3-pointers and jogging with a team official.
Although the hopes of Cousins returning for the West Finals may be overly-optimistic, there does still appear to be a chance he comes back for the championship, if the Warriors move on. At the very least, we’ve seen the talented center take on a leadership role on the sidelines.
DeMarcus Cousins Earns Praise for Handling of Kevin Durant’s Injury
After Durant suffered a calf strain in Game 5 of the team’s second-round matchup against the Houston Rockets, it appears Cousins was a big reason the team remained focus and won that game. As The Athletic’s Anthony Slater revealed, Andre Iguodala praised Cousins for the message he sent after Durant’s injury.
“DeMarcus did a really good job of just kind of settling everyone back down a little bit. Saying ‘we’re fine, go play the game.’ He sent that message, and it got across to all the guys.” Cousins said, as Iguodala told Slater.
The 28-year-old big man appears locked in on helping the Warriors get to the NBA Finals, even if it means helping out on the bench. Hopefully, he’ll be able to make an impact on the court again in the very near future.
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