Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins, who has been sidelined due to a an Achilles injury for the entire first half of this season, didn't want to make his debut against the New Orleans Pelicans, according to a report from Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Cousins is expected to make his debut with the Warriors on Friday against the LA Clippers, but the former No. 5 overall pick was intent on speeding up his recovery process. However, once he learned that Golden State wanted to limit his activity to 10 minutes, he decided to sit out and continue his rehab.
There was another factor that played into his decision to wait, according to Haynes. Cousins, who suffered his injury as a member of the Pelicans, says that he didn't want to give the media any extra headlines going into the matchup.
Though the organization refutes it, Cousins claims that the Pelicans never gave him a suitable offer to stay:
“No, I wasn’t going to return against them,” Cousins told Yahoo Sports before the Warriors’ 147-140 victory over the Pelicans on Wednesday night. “I didn’t because I didn’t’ want to give [the media] a storyline. Straight up. You can ask [general manager] Bob [Myers] that. I didn’t want to give y’all a storyline. That’s why [my return] is Friday.”
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has stated that Cousins will be on a minutes restriction when he returns to action. There is no doubting the fact that Boogie is a great player, but it's not clear how his entry into the rotation will affect the team's momentum:
“We’ve got some ideas of how we are going to use him,” Kerr said, “but there is not a substitute for actual game experience. So, we’ll put him out there and see how it goes.”
Friday's Warriors-Clippers game is scheduled to tip inside Staples Center at 10:30 p.m ET with ESPN having live broadcast coverage.
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