Sacramento Kings: Should the Kings take a risk at resigning DeMarcus Cousins?

With the Los Angeles Lakers waiving former Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, should the Kings consider signing him in the offseason?

On Friday, February 21st Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne both reported that the Los Angeles Lakers were creating room for an additional spot by waiving former Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins has been out most of the season, because of a torn ACL injury he suffered while working out in August in Las Vegas.

With the Lakers waiving Cousins, Kings fans are asking should the Sacramento Kings re-sign Cousins? To answer this question, one needs to examine the pros and cons of Cousins.

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Injuries

DeMarcus Cousins has suffered a boatload of injuries since being traded from the Sacramento Kings. He suffered his first major injury during his season with the New Orleans Pelicans in January of 2018, which was an Achilles injury.

He later signed with the Golden State Warriors and made his debut one year later in January 2019. Later during the Warriors’ second playoff game, he suffered a second injury in the quadriceps. He would return for the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors but fell short of his first NBA Championship.

Low risk, high reward

With Cousins having all these injuries, it makes a lot of fans and teams question whether he can still play? That has still remained an unanswered one, as he still has not played in an NBA Game, since June 2019.

With, no one really highly valuing Cousins in 2019 free agency, and his third injury coming after the injury period, it pushes Cousins value down even lower in the free-agent market.

With his value at an all-time low, a team like the Kings can attempt to sign him without ruining the core pieces on the team. He would be relatively cheap to sign, and he will want to make an impact as this could be his last opportunity to play in the NBA.

Cousins recent activity off the court

Cousins still has had issues off the court recently before the summer ended in what appeared to be a domestic violence case filed by his ex-girlfriend who did not want his 7-year-old son to attend Cousins’ wedding. Later Cousins made death threats at his former girlfriend.

One other example of this is receiving a technical while on the bench in a game against the New York Knicks. Many of these examples are the passion that Cousins has for the game, and for defending his team, but the ones that are out of pure frustration are what drives coaches and teams crazy.

Cousins still has a love for Sacramento

Cousins still has some emotion over the trade that went down, because he has a love for Sacramento. He recently said in an All the Smoke Podcast that he wanted to “finish his career there, but he understands it is a business”.  This backs up Cousins’ statements on “When he retires his jersey will be hung in the rafters in Sacramento.”  This also represents Cousins’ motto that Loyalty is Love which he has a tattoo of on his back.

Cousins before the injury, and after

Before Cousins suffered through his injuries he was a remarkable talent, averaging 25 points and 12 rebounds per night for the teams he played for and shooting threes at a 34 percent clip.

After the first injury,  he managed to still average16 points in 25 minutes per night for the Warriors in 30 games.

After his second injury during the playoffs, Cousins returned to average only 8.3 points per night in 6 games, although this was less time to get adjusted after returning.

Overall thoughts

Although Cousins there are plenty of negatives to point at in Cousins’ career,  the Sacramento Kings should really consider giving him a second chance. Cousins would be a low risk, a high reward at this point in his career, and the Kings can waive Anthony Tolliver to create room for him, without giving up any core pieces.

Secondly, Cousins has matured throughout these brutal injuries and he is hoping for one more chance, so teams should know that he will put his ego last before the team.

Thirdly, if he can produce just some of what he used to be that would still be a decent talent off the bench, and lastly, with Cousins talking the way he did about Sacramento, he still has a love for Sacramento and would love to come back if the front office changes their mind.