Miami Heat Free Agency: DeMarcus Cousins to South Beach Has Legs

DeMarcus Cousins heading to Miami Heat makes a ton of sense!

A four-time NBA All Star, Cousins signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal to play for the Golden State Warriors.

He’s not had suitors this offseason.

Last season as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans, Cousins suffered a serious Achilles’ injury.

For those keeping score at home: Boogie posted 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists for New Orleans before tearing his Achilles last January.

It was widely believed that Cousins would return.

This season, Cousins returned to the Warriors’ lineup and Boogie posted an impressive 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals in 30 regular-season games for the Warriors.

“Cousins is a big x-factor on that team,” NBA Insider, Chris Sheridan told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast this fall.

“I’m really looking forward to see how Boogie is going to play, because with the Warriors he’s not going to get as many possessions as he did in Sacramento.”

“It’s a team full of high IQs,” Cousins told me in September.

“I believe everyone on our team has a very high IQ when it comes to the game of basketball. All of us know how to play the game of basketball.”

“We got guys with the same characteristics that– it’s like play-doh,” he told me.

“You can mold them into whatever you want them to be.”

The feelings were great and then…it happened: Cousins suffered a partially torn quadriceps in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Cousins had never appeared in the NBA Playoffs until this season. He missed 14 NBA Playoff games, but did return to the Warriors’ lineup in time for the NBA Finals.

“I don’t know. I’m open-minded. We will see what happens,” he told ESPN’s The Undefeated.

“He’s loyal,” Cousins’ high school coach, Otis Hughley told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast last summer.

“I think everybody is trying to play leverage.

“And hoping that everybody would fall out so they could get him for 10 cents on the dollar. DeMarcus is way too smart for that.”

It was believed at the start of NBA free agency, that Boogie had interest from the New York Knicks.

SNY’s Ian Begley reported that the Knicks don’t want to commit long-term money to someone not at the top of their free agents list, and Cousins would be one of those players. DeAndre Jordan is also on the list of big man the Knicks may want to bring back, and he would be a much smaller price tag than Cousins.

With the Knicks signing Julius Randle, Begley’s reporting is sturdy.

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