Blame It On The Boogie
- Jul 27, 2018
- 4 min read
Imagine your favourite TV show releasing a timeline of everything that will happen for the upcoming season and then continuing to show it, despite the whole fan base knowing what is going to happen. . .
Welcome to the 2018-2019 NBA season.
It took me a while to sit down and write this little piece, mainly because I had to wrap my head around what had actually happened, and what it would mean for the league.
DeMarcus Cousins signed with the Warriors for just over $5 million.
I was a big fan of DeMarcus Cousins, I’ve always rated him as one of the best big men in the league, sometimes even above ex-teammate Anthony Davis (controversially). I loved the way he played and the way he carried himself off-court despite it being questionable a lot of the time. To me, he seemed like a competitor, which was what I enjoyed about his off-court antics and his passionate, technical foul inducing behaviour on the court.
As it turns out, I was wrong, and he took the easy way out. Despite him laughing and cussing Golden State earlier in his career, he joined them and destroyed, what could have shaped up to be a relatively interesting season.
Now, before I go down the rabbit-hole of hating DeMarcus, some blame has to be placed on the Lakers and on the NBA in general.
The Lakers apparently had a chance to sign DeMarcus Cousins for more than what the Warriors offered him but did not reach out to him with an opportunity to sign. Had the Lakers done this, they would have become serious contenders for the title. DeMarcus Cousins instantly made the Lakers line-up competitive with the best, including against the Warriors, but instead they let him slip away and in doing so, heavily reduced their chances of winning a title, despite the signing of LeBron James. Even though DeMarcus didn’t sign with the Lakers, signing with the Warriors was the worst possible outcome, instead of making a team like Portland competitive, he further stacked the league’s best team. Although there have been reports of the Lakers meeting with Clint Capela, they still missed out on signing an all-star big man.
Cousins isn’t set to return to the court until January after an injury last season. This means that until January, the Warriors will not have a centre outside of Jordan Bell who is entering his second season, and spent majority of last season at the power forward position. JaVale McGee has signed with the Lakers and Zaza Pachulia is reportedly headed to the Detroit Pistons. It also means that the Warriors will have to adjust mid-season to include DeMarcus in the playbook. This might be a problem, if any of the other four all-stars on the team were selfish players, however they are not, and the Warriors have shown time and time again that they are a unit and not individual players. It’s been suggested that Cousins’ attitude might impact and destroy the Warriors chemistry, but the chemistry the Warriors play with is infectious and will spread to almost any player that joins that team. I don’t see DeMarcus becoming so self-interested that he ruins the chemistry of an already formed dynasty.
The blame falling on the NBA is difficult to justify given the decision was ultimately up to Cousins. Of course, the league vetoed a trade that would have let Chris Paul play with Kobe Bryant years ago, but that was a trade and trades must be approved by the league.
This was a signing and the Warriors had the cap space to sign DeMarcus for as much as they did. But it does raise the question of whether there needs to be some kind of rule in place to prevent something like this happening.
An idea suggested by a mate of mine, was that the league should enforce a cap of three all-stars from the previous season. While teams are able to only sign three all-stars, if a player they already have under contract becomes an all-star, that would be allowed. Personally, I like the idea and would be strongly considering it if I was part of the NBA management team. At this point it is too late for this off-season, but with Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and DeMarcus Cousins hitting the end of their contract at the end of next season, it would be a perfect time to implement this type of rule.
This opens up the league to become more even, will place an increased importance and interest in scouting young talent and improving players.
For the upcoming season, fans will have to suffer, and unless some sort of miracle takes place, we will be waiting until next June for the Warriors to win another championship before we hopefully see some changes made.
Thankfully, the NFL has seen some major moves and should be a very tight, interesting season, that will at least keep me occupied until February.
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