DeMarcus Cousins' reputation as a feared inside-outside threat that stuffs the stat sheet with across the board numbers that have Fantasy owners foaming in the mouth, has long been accompanied by criticism about his inability to translate those to winning basketball. This reflects on the now-Golden State Warriors big man's glaringly 565 game total without a single postseason appearance, ranking second among active players and fifth all time.
When he appears in his first-ever playoff game tomorrow, DeMarcus Cousins will snap the second-longest (and fifth longest of all-time) active run of games played without a playoff appearance at 565.
Omri Casspi has the current longest active run at 588 games. with no playoffs.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) April 13, 2019
By joining the Warriors last summer, Boogie virtually guaranteed that he will finally snap the streak and get the monkey off his back. It's an educated gamble given that the Dubs are the reigning world champions and hasn't missed the playoffs since 2013 (including four-straight NBA Finals trips) and the outlook of them doing so isn't too good either with their star-studded roster. And his gamble certainly paid off – barring any last second niggle that prevents the 6-foot-11 center from suiting up tomorrow – we can pencil this streak as officially over.
It's worth noting that technically Cousins did make the playoffs for the first time last year with the New Orleans Pelicans (and he was certainly a big part of them getting there) but failed to actually play due to a nasty injury that ended his season. This also explains why the Pels chose to let him go and why he got such a bargain contract in the first place.
Nonetheless, Cousins' 2018-19 averages of 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.5 blocks, in just 25 minutes of action is right around the area of his pre-injury stats. Not only could this prove to be of a gigantic boost for the Warriors, but also for his free agency hopes as he tries to secure what could possibly be that one last huge payday.
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