During the 2017 All-Star break, the New Orleans Pelicans struck a deal for Sacramento Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins, resulting in an incredibly awkward All-Star Game in which Cousins didn't know who he was playing for.
At the time, the Anthony Davis-led Pelicans were floundering with a record of 23-34 and did not even remotely resemble a playoff team.
However, the addition of Cousins gave New Orleans some hope of a second-half surge.
I mean, Cousins and Davis? How are you going to stop that frontline?
Well, the Pelicans went just 11-14 after the trade, finishing the season with a record of 34-48. But, there was hope for the future. Perhaps all Davis and Cousins needed was a full season playing with one another to succeed?
New Orleans entered the following season as a trendy pick to make the playoffs in the stacked Western Conference, and in January, things were looking alright.
Going into Jan. 26, 2018, the Pelicans owned a record of 26-21 and were in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.
But then, that night during New Orleans' game against the Houston Rockets, Cousins tore his Achilles, ending his season and effectively ending his very brief tenure in The Big Easy.
Of course, that did not deter the Pelicans from qualifying for the postseason anyway, as New Orleans went on to win 48 games and earn the sixth seed in the West. The Pels would then proceed to sweep the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round before falling to the Golden State Warriors in five games.
Many wondered if Cousins would return to New Orleans over the summer, as the big man was entering unrestricted free agency.
What ended up happening shocked everyone.
The Pelicans wanted nothing to do with Cousins, nor did most of the rest of the league. Originally viewed as a max player, Cousins had to resort to a one-year, $5.3 million contract with the Warriors as a sort of rehab for his injury. He just returned to the floor earlier this month.
Fast forward to January 2019, one year after Cousins' fateful Achilles tear, and Davis is asking the Pelicans for a trade.
My, how quickly things change.
It just makes you wonder: what if Cousins didn't get injured last season? What would have happened, and would Davis be in search of greener pastures right now?
We'll never know the answer, and we actually aren't even able to determine if the Pelicans would have even made the playoffs last season with a healthy Cousins. New Orleans went 21-13 after Cousins' injury, with many claiming that the Pels looked better without Boogie.
Maybe Davis and Cousins just weren't a great fit, but again, the two bigs did not exactly have much time playing with one another, so perhaps the Pels would have progressively gotten better as last season went on and would have been even scarier in the playoffs had Cousins been on the floor.
It's a question that will never have a factual conclusion, so we are just going to have to draw our own.
But one can't help but think that Cousins' injury was essentially the final straw for Davis, who was drafted by the organization in 2012 and has made the playoffs just twice since then.
Does Davis deserve some criticism for not being able to lead his team to the postseason? It's a subjective opinion, and if we are comparing him to the other great power forwards in history, Kevin Garnett was dragging terrible Minnesota Timberwolves teams to 50 wins and playoff appearances in a Western Conference that was even more competitive then than it is now, so maybe he does deserve some of the blame.
That being said, the lion's share of the culpability should fall on the Pelicans' front office for consistently failing to surround Davis with appropriate talent.
Take this past summer, for example.
Rajon Rondo played a pivotal role in New Orleans' run last season, but the Pels did not even make an attempt to bring him back before he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, instead opting for Elfrid Payton.
Yeah. That worked out well.
Sure, the Pelicans did go out and get Julius Randle, but they needed more than that, as their bench was incredibly thin last year and that hasn't changed by now.
To be fair, the Pels tried with Cousins, but it didn't materialize, to no fault of their own.
But one has to wonder why the Pelicans waited so long, and why they were so incompetent throughout most of Davis' tenure. For example, giving Solomon Hill $12 million a year? Really?
This season, New Orleans currently owns a record of 22-29. It is not in the Western Conference playoff race, and Davis clearly can't take the losing anymore.
This is his seventh year in the league, and he has accomplished virtually nothing outside of his own personal statistics. He then looks around and sees other stars around the NBA making deep playoff runs and winning titles, and it just makes that fire burn even more.
Davis likely knows that Cousins was the Pelicans' lost hope.
Let's face it: New Orleans is not exactly a free-agent hot spot, and with Davis on the roster, the Pelicans are never going to be bad enough to earn a top draft pick. So, Davis is basically stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He knows there are other franchises out there who can give him more, and he is ready to explore those options.
It's a shame things didn't work out in New Orleans for Davis — but hey; this is the NBA, and stuff like that happens sometimes.
Just ask the aforementioned Garnett about what happens when one remains with a dysfunctional franchise for too long. He expressed loyalty, and then poof. Twelve years of his career were wasted.
Davis doesn't want that to happen to him.
Can you blame him?
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