Demarcus Cousins was midway through his second season with the New Orleans Pelicans — where he put up per game averages of 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.6 blocks — when his season came to an abrupt ending after he tore his left Achilles against the Houston Rockets.
Upon entering free agency, many Pelicans fans hoped that he would resign with the team. However, in a shocking turn of events, Cousins chose to join the Warriors on an outrageously-cheap deal.
Warriors fans were pretty excited when they found out that Cousins had agreed to join the defending champs. Cousins will be joining a Warriors team that features the likes of current All-Stars Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry.
Much like the Golden State fanatics, there is a former NBA All-Star who also believes that Cousins will recover quickly and even come back as a better player. Elton Brand — who is well-known for his tenure with the L.A. Clippers in which he made two All-Star appearances with the franchise — expressed his thoughts on Cousins' recovery in an interview with The Athletic's Ethan Strauss. To recall, Brand also suffered the same injury that put his career on an unexpected turn for the worse.
“When I had mine, it was 10 years ago. I think with today’s technology, with the modalities that they have, it’s different. My opinion? He’ll be better than that. I feel like he’s going to be great.”
“Things move fast. Technology moves fast, modalities move fast, there’s all types of different treatments.”
“People go, ‘Oh, Elton Brand said, “No one’s ever the same.” But that doesn’t count Cousins.’”
“I think he’s going to destroy the league once he comes back.”
It is nice to see that Cousins has support from an NBA great as he prepares his big comeback from injury. The NBA community is hoping that Cousins will come back stronger than ever in the 2018-19 season.