DeMarcus Cousins
It was all going so well.
The Pelicans had won six of seven games, were shooting up the Western Conference standings, and starting to look like a team nobody wanted to play come April…and then one false step changed everything.
I originally had Boogie in the low 40s before he tore his left ACL in a game against the Rockets on Friday night. It seemed both way too low and way too high for a player that has perplexed many in the league for years.
On one hand, just last week Cousins became the first player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to post a 40-20-10 stat line. That he hit five 3s in the process spoke to an offensive ceiling that truly knows no heights. On the other hand, this was a home game against the Bulls that New Orleans needed two overtimes to win, and that featured this defensive gem by Boogie in the first quarter:
We thought we’d find out the answer to the “was it Boogie or was it the Kings” question by now. Guess what…we still don’t know. The injury only complicates matters for a player whose free agency will be fascinating.
Was Cousins putting up First Team All-NBA numbers for a playoff squad? Check. Would the Kings have taken him back for free if they had the chance, despite having one of the league’s worst records? Not in a million years. Everyone seemed to agree that the Pelicans employed two of the 10 best players in the NBA this season, and that despite the tepid market Sacramento encountered back in February, the market for Cousins’ services this summer would be a competitive one.
It still might be. Before the injury, he was the only player in the NBA this season averaging 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists a night, with a block and a half and a steal and a half thrown in for good measure. He’s also the guy, as ESPN‘s Zach Lowe noted on a recent podcast with Bill Simmons, not on your screen for a few possessions per game because his failing to get back on defense is still a semi-regular occurrence.
Maybe he grows up. Or maybe, at 27, he is who he is.
Who knows the answer? I’m just sad we’ll have to wait until (at least) next year to find out.
Next up, our honorable mention section, which is grouped into five parts, starting with five players who are as hard to value as any on this list, including one in particular whose situation is quite literally unprecedented: