Getty DeMarcus Cousins #0 of the Golden State Warriors falls to the crowd after injuring himself against the LA Clippers during Game Two of the first round of the 2019 NBA Western Conference Playoffs at ORACLE Arena on April 15, 2019 in Oakland, California.
DeMarcus Cousins tore his ACL last week and that might have given the Los Angeles Clippers a slight advantage.
“Yeah, I think so,” Payton said over the weekend at The BIG 3’s series of games in Dallas.
@Seatownrealist @GaryPayton_ @patbev21 Thanks Landon ✊🏼
Here’s my chopped up #Lakers version.
GP: Clippers > Lakers (on paper) 👀😑
“I think they have a good team.”
This offseason, the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded to get Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“But you don’t know what happens,” said Gary Payton.
“That’s paper. You don’t know what’s gonna happen, who’s going to get hurt. It’s like with the Lakers what happen with Cousins. Things happen. Lot of teams that’s over there that are going to be good like Houston, Utah, Denver, Golden State when they get all of their little pieces a little bit back.”
This offseason, the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded to get Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Leonard was heavily linked to the Los Angeles Clippers all along.
“I mean if he leaves, my expectation is simply that’s where he’d go,” Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“He’s looking at these bombers and he’s looking at a team that from the get go will be built around him and he’s going to be where he wants to be and he’s going to be the centerpiece as much as Toronto has catered to him, it’s a little bit, again, it’s like the uniqueness of LeBron going to Dwyane Wade and joining Dwyane Wade in Miami.”
DeMarcus Cousins’ injury is quite unfortunate.
Boogie posted 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists for New Orleans before tearing his Achilles last January.
The four-time NBA All Star, who signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal to play for the Golden State Warriors last season, returned to the Warriors’ lineup in January and posted an impressive 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals in 30 regular-season games.
Cousins had never appeared in the NBA Playoffs until this season. Despite injuring his quad and missing 14 playoff games, Boogie did return to the Warriors’ lineup in time for the NBA Finals.
It was believed at the start of NBA free agency, that Boogie had interest from the New York Knicks. The Warriors entered NBA free agency able to sign DeMarcus Cousins on a one-year tender of $6.4 million.
That changed when the Warriors re-signed Kevon Looney and the Warriors completed a sign and trade deal with the Brooklyn Nets which brought D’Angelo Russell to town in exchange for Kevin Durant.
The Heat also had a high interest in signings Cousins.
“An in shape DeMarcus is a healthy DeMarcus,” a source shared with me in June. “I hope he goes there.”
Boogie ultimately went to LA and joined the Lakers.
Boogie tearing his ACL is not news he nor the Lakers faithful wanted to hear.
“It’s a setback,” former Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat big man Greg Oden told NBA scribe, Landon Buford.
“I think DeMarcus was looking forward to coming out and proving to everyone that he is still one of the best players in the league at the center position. For something like that to happen to him, I know he is feeling down because he wants to play.”
As a member of the New Orleans Pelicans, two seasons ago, Cousins suffered a serious Achilles’ injury.
With DeMarcus down due to injury, don’t expect Anthony Davis to pick up the slack if Cousins misses game action.
According to NBATV’s Jared Greenberg, a high ranking Lakers official shared with him that Anthony Davis will NOT play big minutes at the center position.
In the wake of the DeMarcus Cousins news a high ranking member of the Lakers tells me that they do not expect nor do they want Anthony Davis to play “big minutes” at center this season @NBATV
Makes sense.
At his introductory press conference, Davis let that be known. “I like playing the four,” Davis said last month.
“I’m not even going to sugar coat it. If it comes down to it, coach, and you need me to play the five, I’ll play the five.”
With Cousins down, Dwight Howard is rumored to potentially be on the verge of joining the Lakers. That’s the latest from the free agency rumor mill. According to Sports Illustrated’s Rohan Nadkarni, the Lakers are interested in Howard after DeMarcus Cousins’ injury earlier last week.