The Saga of DeMarcus Cousins

[sono]

It's going to be a long offseason; on the positive side, he got a good chance of recovering from the Achilles injury completelly though. Although I'm not an expert, it seems the torn quad isn't severe as the Achilles injury.
Does that mean, he's going to stay with the Warriors another season?

 

[ppine]

Some teams in the past have loaded up with talent in big cities, like the NY Yankess and the LA Lakers.
The Golden State Worriers fall in the same category, a team of all stars. Too bad for Cousins. Many players cannot take the pounding of the NBA.
I could not be more proud of the LA Clippers living in the shadows of the Lakes and the Worriers and winning in the playoffs against Golden State with a no name team and a good coach and hard work.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

why wouldn't he be? He can lose weight if he truly and fully committed to it, but that's just my opinion. At what point do you look yourself in the mirror and say...you know what, being this big, burly and heavy big man just isn't going to cut it because the last two seasons he's had season ending injuries and I don't think that's a coincidence all of a sudden.

Because there's only so much weight he could afford to lose, before he ceased to be effective at the things that enabled him to play in the NBA in the first place. When you call him "big" and "burly," I think that you and others grossly overstate how much of his weight might be fat. He would have to shed a significant amount of muscle mass in order to get appreciably under 260 and, at that point, he's not the same player. Like, he might still be in the league if he could get down to 245, but Cousins at 270 was an All-Star/All-NBA caliber player, and Cousins at 245 would be a guy who has to fight to make a roster.

 

[kingsboi]

Because there's only so much weight he could afford to lose, before he ceased to be effective at the things that enabled him to play in the NBA in the first place. When you call him "big" and "burly," I think that you and others grossly overstate how much of his weight might be fat. He would have to shed a significant amount of muscle mass in order to get appreciably under 260 and, at that point, he's not the same player. Like, he might still be in the league if he could get down to 245, but Cousins at 270 was an All-Star/All-NBA caliber player, and Cousins at 245 would be a guy who has to fight to make a roster.

if Cousins wants to remain on a NBA roster and be effective, with the way bigs are more mobile, agile and faster, it would do him a big service to lean up. I think his days of being a NBA All-Star are done after these two injuries but that's just the way I see things. If you remember back when Tim Duncan was playing center, he mentioned that losing weight helped prolong his career because all of that weight was a burden on his knees running up and down the court for years.

 

[Sac.1989]

if Cousins wants to remain on a NBA roster and be effective, with the way bigs are more mobile, agile and faster, it would do him a big service to lean up. I think his days of being a NBA All-Star are done after these two injuries but that's just the way I see things. If you remember back when Tim Duncan was playing center, he mentioned that losing weight helped prolong his career because all of that weight was a burden on his knees running up and down the court for years.

Yeah, leaning up would be on the agenda id say as much to offset age as well as part of the rehab program let alone taking into account the pace of the game

 

[SLAB]

Apparently it’s only a six week injury.

Sucks for his playoff run, but I thought it was going to be so much worse.

Wonder if he will have to play next season on a prove-it deal as a huge man with failing legs.

 

[Sac.1989]

Wonder if he will have to play next season on a prove-it deal as a huge man with failing legs.

You know the markets going to offer him just that.

No one is going to pay him on a longer deal. No one

 

[Iced Espresso]

Apparently it’s only a six week injury.

Sucks for his playoff run, but I thought it was going to be so much worse.

Wonder if he will have to play next season on a prove-it deal as a huge man with failing legs.

Only way he makes over MLE for one year is with a team option in year two.

 

[SacTownKid]

Apparently it’s only a six week injury.

Sucks for his playoff run, but I thought it was going to be so much worse.

Wonder if he will have to play next season on a prove-it deal as a huge man with failing legs.

Unless the pics I saw were doctored it's a miracle. The problem with any muscle tear though is you never want to come back early. He'll just re-injure it if he does. Even worst case though he should be ready by the start of next season.

 

[kingsboi]

Apparently it’s only a six week injury.

Sucks for his playoff run, but I thought it was going to be so much worse.

Wonder if he will have to play next season on a prove-it deal as a huge man with failing legs.

there is no way a team gives him more than a one year deal

 

[ppine]

Eighty two games plus the playoffs is a lot of basketball. Half the players out there have some kind of injuries they are dealing with. Cousins is a large human which makes it even worse. Many big guys have short careers like Bill Walton.

If Cousins lost 25 pounds, and got down to 250 it would be easier on his body. I think he would be just as effective, maybe more so.

 

[sergmatt]

All of this talk about DeMarcus needed to lose weight (especially a significant amount of weight like 25 LBS) I believe is unwarranted.

Here is a picture of Cousins from the other night:

What about him looks heavy here? He looks to be in pretty good shape to me. Maybe he could stand to lose 10 LBS but that's about it. Plenty of big men have played at a similar size/weight to that of DeMarcus over the years and thrived without major injuries.

I think these last two injuries of his are mostly just bad luck freak injuries. It happens and sometimes it does seem like once the first one happens it leads to more. DeMarcus may just be injury prone but I don't think it's because he's too heavy.

 

[Peter_Gibbons]

It's not as much his weight as his playing style. Yes, he can/should lose a few pounds, maybe 10. But 25lbs is way too much.

Most bigs the size of Cousins do not burst into passing lanes or explode and chase loose balls. Bigs his size don't usually ISO, dribble drive, cross their defenders up and attack the rim.

I think the best thing Boogie can do for himself is to develop an unstoppable go-to move from 15 feet inward. Turnaround fadaway from either side (many great bigs have used it). An iteration of the "Sky Hook", yes, this dude has the hands and touch to do it. Cut down on the try to shake someone guard moves that he loves and unfortunately, refrain from burst of speed moves. Instead, defend with superior positioning and spacing. There are other ways for guys that are slower and less athletic like Bogat and Gasol to be effective defensively.

 

[Suicide King]

A DPT posted this excellent video to Reddit explaining the injury, how it happened and DMC's outlook moving forward. Figured I would share it here.

 

[VF21]

A DPT posted this excellent video to Reddit explaining the injury, how it happened and DMC's outlook moving forward. Figured I would share it here.

Holy crap.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

If Cousins lost 25 pounds, and got down to 250 it would be easier on his body...

Well, yes...

... I think he would be just as effective, maybe more so.

... And no. Like I said, Cousins isn't really carrying that much fat on his body. The only way for him to get down to 250 would be to shed muscle mass, and that would absolutely not make him as effective, never mind "more so." Cousins isn't fast, and he can't jump, and losing 20+ pounds of muscle isn't going to change that. His handle isn't that good, it's pretty good for a guy his current size. Likewise, his shot isn't that good, either, it's pretty good for a guy who scores most of his points in the paint.

Like, real talk, a lot of the skills in Cousins' repertoire are remarkably average: what makes him special is the ability to do those things at that size; dropping muscle mass might be better for his long-term health, but it would also pretty much kill his career. Everything that Cousins can do on a basketball court, including his ability to take his man off the dribble, or step out and hit a jump shot, is predicated off the respect that has to be paid to the fact that he can go down to the post, and muscle his way to the basket. Remove his strength, and all that goes away. If Cousins gets smaller, that means that you can guard him with smaller defenders, guys that he's not going to be able to take off the dribble. That blow-by stuff only works because you have to guard him with players who are also big and slow, and not accustomed to defending against guys who are facing the basket. Same with the jumper: Cousins isn't an effective jump shooter when he's guarded by guys with the quickness to chase him out to the three-point line.

And, by the way, Cousins' defensive shortcomings aren't the type that can be corrected by him losing weight, either: lateral, side-to-side quickness is something you have, or you don't. Losing weight might help with his stamina, but it wouldn't make him any better at defending against pick-and-roll, it wouldn't make him any better at guarding out on the perimeter, and it wouldn't make him a better weak-side shot blocker. If anything, it would actively make him worse at defending the rim, which is the one defensive area that he's actually halfway good at.

 

[ppine]

Cousins has always been chunky. He could easily lose 25 pounds and no muscle mass. No sense in arguing about it. different opinions.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

^^^^ That isn't a "difference of opinion." That, right there, is a straight up lie. He could lose about ten pounds, maybe 15 (unlikely) without having to shed muscle mass. Thinking that dude is carrying around twenty-five pounds of fat isn't a "difference of opinion," it's ignorant and wrong.

 

[Cojc]

I liked Cousins and still do as I have always thought he liked being here with the Kings.
I also was in favor of moving him but also at the time thought we got fleeced in the deal. It just turned out that better minds saw beyond what I saw.

I have said it before and still believe he was injury prone. Just a inkling on my part maybe but he just missed way too many games for a variety of reasons.
Throw out his rookie season and the season he was traded and those 4 seasons in the middle he missed over 70 games for injury,illness, penalty’s and the such.
A few of those seasons we just might of been closer to the playoffs but stuck at that position.

 

[macadocious]

^^^^ That isn't a "difference of opinion." That, right there, is a straight up lie. He could lose about ten pounds, maybe 15 (unlikely) without having to shed muscle mass. Thinking that dude is carrying around twenty-five pounds of fat isn't a "difference of opinion," it's ignorant and wrong.

Well, sorry to differ here (I don’t think he needs to lose weight) but to say he doesn’t have an extra 15-20 lbs of fat is not accurate.

He’s probably at ~13-17% body fat. If he lost say 5% body fat and he’s 265 that’s 13+ lbs of just fat. If he weighs more than that it’s 15+ lbs of fat.

He didnt hurt his Achilles because he’s fat, he hurt it because he’s a giant man that over stressed that tendon over a season of pounding it into the ground playing basketball at a tremendous pace. It happens.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

When I was in my physical prime (JUCO wrestling team-level shape), I was around 15 percent body fat, and I wasn't anywhere near as cut as DeMarcus Cousins; there's no chance that Cousins' body fat is that high.

If Cousins is around 7-8 percent body fat, which I could actually be convinced of, that would mean that he's carrying somewhere around 18-20 pounds of fat. That would mean that both me and @ppine are wrong; I could live with that.

 

[VF21]

I liked Cousins and still do as I have always thought he liked being here with the Kings.
I also was in favor of moving him but also at the time thought we got fleeced in the deal. It just turned out that better minds saw beyond what I saw.

I have said it before and still believe he was injury prone. Just a inkling on my part maybe but he just missed way too many games for a variety of reasons.
Throw out his rookie season and the season he was traded and those 4 seasons in the middle he missed over 70 games for injury,illness, penalty’s and the such.
A few of those seasons we just might of been closer to the playoffs but stuck at that position.

No offense, but IMHO that's just silly.

 

[ppine]

^^^^ That isn't a "difference of opinion." That, right there, is a straight up lie. He could lose about ten pounds, maybe 15 (unlikely) without having to shed muscle mass. Thinking that dude is carrying around twenty-five pounds of fat isn't a "difference of opinion," it's ignorant and wrong.

Says some guy on the internet.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Your lack of refutation is noted.

Signed,
Some guy on the internet

 

[Telemachus]

When I was in my physical prime (JUCO wrestling team-level shape), I was around 15 percent body fat, and I wasn't anywhere near as cut as DeMarcus Cousins; there's no chance that Cousins' body fat is that high.

If Cousins is around 7-8 percent body fat, which I could actually be convinced of, that would mean that he's carrying somewhere around 18-20 pounds of fat. That would mean that both me and @ppine are wrong; I could live with that.

When Cousins came into the league, his body fat was at 16%. I think it's safe to say that he is in much better shape now than he was then. I would guess that his body fat was around 8-10%.