Star Center Passes on Lakers, Signs on for Comeback With Rockets

For the past nine months or so, it sounded as though the NBA return of DeMarcus Cousins to the Lakers was a matter of when, not if. But that changed this week when Cousins chose to go about his comeback season—his second in the last three years—with the Rockets, signing a one-year deal with the team.

Cousins was with the Lakers last season, signing in July after playing 30 games, plus eight playoff games, with Golden State. He had missed most of the year recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in January 2018, when he was with the Pelicans.

Cousins’ Lakers career never got off the ground. In August, Cousins tore his ACL while working out in Las Vegas and though he remained on the Lakers’ roster while he rehabbed, the team waived him in February to make room for the signing of big guy Markieff Morris.

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But the Lakers liked having Cousins around last season, and there was interest in bringing him back on a minimum deal this year. He did not play a minute for the team, but still he will be given a championship ring.

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Can Cousins Please James Harden, Russell Westbrook?

Cousins’ return with the Rockets could have implications for the wider NBA in general.

Houston has been backed into a corner in recent weeks, having lost coach Mike D’Antoni and general manager Daryl Morey. The team traded away forward Robert Covington to Portland and made a subsequent deal with the Pistons to gain some salary-cap flexibility. The Rockets had been faced with a hard-cap situation, which would have kept them from using their full mid-level exception.

Amid their front-office woes, the Rockets had been getting pressure from both of the team’s star guards—Russell Westbrook and James Harden—to trade them away. But Houston has resisted those requests and the signing of Cousins appears to be an attempt to appease the duo.

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DeMarcus Cousins Passed on Chance to Re-Sign for Orlando Restart

Cousins has been rehabbing and though he had the chance to sign on with another team during the NBA restart in Orlando following the four-month hiatus because of the spread of COVID-19, he instead focused on getting fully healthy.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cousins explained why he declined to come back with the Lakers, or anybody, for the season restart:

I miss basketball in general. I’ve been playing this game since I was a kid, and I’ve never been away from it for this long, so I’m missing it more than ever. But due to the circumstances, it’s a different game right now. Nothing but respect to the guys who went out there to the bubble and are doing what they’re doing. For me, it just wasn’t the right situation or the right time to be trying to force myself. It’s already me battling to get healthy and the obstacles in front of me. On top of that to add the different elements that are amongst us, it wasn’t the right time for me. I look forward to next season.

Last week, Cousins released a workout video this week that showed him looking spry and in shape, with the Twitter tagline, “Stay on your path the obstacles are part of the journey.” (He was also, for some reason, wearing a winter hat indoors.)

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