Could DeMarcus Cousins join the Washington Wizards? This article will examine the possibility as well as reality, as one of the most dominant big man in the game eyes his next move on the chessboard of his life.
Could DeMarcus Cousins join the Washington Wizards? This article will examine the possibility as well as reality, as one of the most dominant big man in the game, eyes his next move on the chessboard of his life.
However, Marc Spears, Senior NBA Writer for The Undefeated, provides an insightful glimpse into Cousins’ decisionmaking process in a recent sit down.
There’s no need to recount the 2017-18 season for Washington. A season filled with injury, high expectations and grand declarations. Whatever could happen to this Washington team, did.
Sometimes they rose to the challenge, surprising everyone. Sometimes they fell, disappointing themselves. But as the season is in the rear view window, let’s open up a realm of possibilities.
During the 2017 offseason, I penned a piece on the Pelicans acquiring Rajon Rondo. That long piece profiled what the team would look like and what they could achieve with the three Kentucky Wildcats—Rondo, Cousins and Anthony Davis.
You can read the 6-page article here, which I wrote during my 2017 offseason.
However, the last paragraph read:
"“Rondo may not have been the hero that the Pelicans thought of initially, but he’s the now the hero that they need. Not saying that Rondo, Davis, Cousins and Holiday will now transform the Pelicans into the Dirty Dozen, but it’s going to be filthy.”"
I had high expectations for that team and expected them to be in the playoffs. But they exceeded those expectations. They rocked Portland.
The floor general Rondo channeled his two bigs’ energy. Such that if Cousins didn’t go down, the Pels would show the Warriors that small ball “aint got nuttin on me”.
Not saying they would beat the Warriors, but I’m also writing that there was the possibility that they could. More importantly, they believed that they could.
Either way, no one was walking out of that epic battle unscarred.
The Pelicans were fearless, had fought and this season they were a close-knit family on the court.
So now that Cousins is a free agent this summer, I was conflicted. Should he stay in New Orleans or test the market? But then I reminded myself, the market already tested him.
Rewind to the 2017 All-Star game, and whom I believe was his agent, whispered in his ear. At that point, I said, this Cousins, whom everyone wants to place labels upon, could have been a world leader.
Once he learned that the Kings traded him to the Pels, he quietly said, “that’s what’s up?” Turned to the national media, did not miss a beat and extolled his love for New Orleans. That is a person who was met with adversity and faced it with such calm and professionalism.
Although, he was traded on his day off.
Before he left the Kings, I wrote that the Wizards shouldn’t try for Cousins. Based in part on the theory that the team’s tech count would go up with Markieff Morris and chemistry. But that didn’t happen in NOLA. No one is more fiery than Rondo.
So it’s not about what the fans want, the media want and even some owners want.
As a fan of the game, I thought Cousins should finish what he started in NOLA. As a writer, it did not matter to me. As an individual who believes that a person should control their own fate, whatever Cousins wants he should try to get.
Thus, when this interview by The Undefeated was recently published, I must have read it three times. Not because it was so well written, one expects that from Mr. Spears, but because the questions and answers were real.