On Friday morning, the LA Clippers announced the signing of center DeMarcus Cousins to a second 10-day contract.
Following Wednesday night's game against the Detroit Pistons, Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said he expected Cousins to be re-signed and continue learning the team's playbook.
“We look forward for him to continue on,” Lue said of Cousins. “He was big for us.”
Cousins appeared in 3 games for the Clippers during his first 10-day contract, averaging 6.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists, and 0.7 steals in 9.7 minutes off the bench.
With the injury to Serge Ibaka and starting promotion for Ivica Zubac, the Clippers lacked depth at the big man position. Patrick Patterson was the only other big man, but is clearly undersized for the center position.
Lue says the toughest parts of adding DeMarcus Cousins this late in the season is teaching him the playbook.
“The toughest thing is late in the game, it’s hard for us to run plays because he really hasn’t caught up yet as far as the plays because we haven’t had a lot of practice time,” Ty Lue explained. “So that kind of stumped us a little bit. But his playing, just knowing the game and IQ, to be able to shoot it, to post up, like you said, and bring physicality is great for our team. We just gotta bring him up to speed on the playbook just so we can kind of call more sets when he's in the game.”
On his part, Cousins says he's in the best shape of his career as he joins the Clippers.
“I've put an incredible amount of work to get to this place,” Cousins said after first signing. “I feel great, my body feels great. I'm in probably the best shape I've been in my entire career. At this point, it's about going out there and, you know, just putting everything together and just trying to continue to show that I'm healthy and I'm here to play this game at a high level. I understand the situation that I'm in, whatever opportunity is given to me, I plan on just taking full advantage of it, just controlling what I can control.”
Cousins will now stay with the team for another 10 days before they'll decide whether they want to keep him around for the playoff roster or let him go in favor of another free agent.
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