DeMarcus Cousins' sudden season-ending injury will play a vital part on his free agent future, as the New Orleans Pelicans managed to do better with him on the floor than on.
Cousins was posting a beefy 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.6 blocks before suffering an Achilles injury — easily his best and most well-rounded season of his eight-year career — yet the Pelicans came together and won games on the shoulders of his frontcourt mate Anthony Davis and newly-re-signed shooting guard Jrue Holiday.
“New Orleans didn't miss him,” a source told Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated. “It's not even clear he's a winning player even when he's healthy.”
Cousins was expected to get a max-offer from New Orleans prior to his injury, given his strong bond with Davis and how he thrived within the system.
Yet the latter part of the season, along with the trade for Nikola Mirotic brought forward questions regarding the need for him, given that Mirotic and point guard Rajon Rondo will need to be re-signed to contracts to keep this core together.
Cousins is hellbent on getting the max, but New Orleans could only sign him to ether a one-and-one, or a three-year deal, allowing for flexibility to take care of their free agent needs.
The Pelicans can't take the risk of signing Cousins to the max and have another hollowed out roster coming into the 2018-19 season, which now has teams like the Dallas Mavericks, among others, waiting to potentially pounce on the chance to snatch Boogie when the time is right.
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