Usage is a boondoggle.
1) First of course, we aren't able to wean ourselves from the Cousins teat because we are completely dysfunctional without him. If prime Hakeem got dropped onto the 76ers tomorrow and he wasn't setting all time usage rate records by the end of the week, it would be a sign the coach was either incompetent or that they were still tanking. And things have only been getting more extreme for us of late as suddenly part of what has brought down our run is Rudy sitting out game after game with injuries, Omri losing his spark, Collison slumping into a 6pt a night scorer, and Belinelli completely falling off the map. There ARE no other options than Boogie, and that was highly evident in the Charlotte loss, in the Portland loss, games where we absolutely needed people to step up, and nobody did. Half the team is slumping.
2) of course if Boogie's usage was a major problem then when Boogie was NOT on the floor we should do better than we do. Instead the only minutes we ever win are precisely those when he is on the floor, and dominating the ball and shots.
3) usage is deceptive unmoored from minutes. In every game there are a certain number of shots taken overall, and then those are broken down by player. Boogie takes more shots per minute of play than virtually anybody else, but as mentioned we win those minutes, and because he plays fewer minutes than the 40min/night big men of the past, he actually isn't taking many more shots out of the offense than they did. His percentage of shots/touches per game is high, but hardly shocking compared to great offensive bigs of years past:
For the following FTA will be multiplied x .44 to represent possessions used (the standard for TS% etc. to take into account +1 finishes):
Total FG/FT attempts taken out of the offense per star center:
2014-15 Cousins 16.8/3.7 = 20.5
2015-16 Cousins 18.1/4.1 = 22.3
2016-17 Cousins 20.6/4.5 = 25.1
1989-90 Hakeem 19.6/2.9 = 22.5
1992-93 Hakeem 19.5/3.1 = 22.6
1993-94 Hakeem 21.2/3.0 = 24.2 MVP, Champion
1994-95 Hakeem 21.5/3.3 = 24.8 Champion
1995-96 Hakeem 20.8/3.3 = 24.1
1989-90 PEwing 20.4/3.5 = 23.9
1990-91 PEwing 20.3/3.4 = 23.7
1993-94 Admiral 20.7/5.1 = 25.8
1994-95 SO'Neal 20.2/4.8 = 25.0
1996-97 SO'Neal 19.4/4.1 = 23.5
1999-00 SO'Neal 21.1/4.6 = 25.7 MVP, Champion
2000-01 SO'Neal 19.2/5.8 = 25.0 Champion
Bottomline: Cousins is neither taking any more shots out of our offense per game, nor comprising a larger percentage of our offense per game than previous great offensive centers. The worst you can say with usage is he is taking an unusually large percentage of shots while he's on the floor. But given that we WIN those minutes of his on the floor at a MUCH higher percentage of the time than when he's not there, it becomes a pale speculative argument, in particular given the utter lack of offensive support again. Of late its been Rajon Rondo, Ben McLemore, Omri Casspi, and Willie Cauley Stein. Last game our big punch of the bench was slumping Marco Belinelli, Kosta Koufos, 6pts from Darren Collison, and James Anderson.
