Culture / Sporting Life

DeMarcus Cousins to the Warriors is a Complete Joke — and Mark Cuban Deserves the Blame: DeAndre Jordan Blunder Paves the Way for Golden State Ridiculousness

BY // 07.03.18

I‘m anything but a Warriors hater. I don’t harbor an irrational hatred of Kevin Durant, a completely nonsensical view of Stephen Curry’s skills or a personal loathing for Draymond Green. In other words, I’m no Nick Wright.

I appreciate how the Warriors move the ball and make basketball a symphony at their best, much like I loved to watch the Phoenix Suns when Mike D’Antoni coached them and first changed the NBA forever. Their brand of basketball is fun to watch — and good for the game.

But adding DeMarcus Cousins is one big step too far. It is an absolute joke that the NBA’s best dynasty of the last 20 years is signing the player who LeBron James calls the best center in the league. And the Dallas Mavericks and Mark Cuban deserve plenty of blame for letting it happen.

If Cousins, who tore his Achilles last season and likely will not play until January, has to choose between accepting a $5.3 million, one-year-prove-it, midlevel exemption deal with Golden State or Boston, of course he’s picking the champs.

Boogie may be crazy. But he’s not basketball dumb. If he only has a choice of midlevel exemptions, the Warriors are the wise decision every single time.

Only this never should have been his main choice. The Mavericks, who have never managed to convince a big-time superstar free agent to play in Dallas under Cuban and Rick Carlisle, should have gone all in on courting Cousins with a multi-year, major money deal.

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Yes, he is coming off a major injury. So? That risk is your window. It is your chance — maybe your one best chance — to sign a franchise player to compliment the brilliant Luka Doncic draft day steal. Cousins is never signing with Dallas if he isn’t hurt.

And Boogie, Luka and Dennis Smith Jr. is a potential future Big 3 that could actually challenge for something. It might even make Dirk Nowitzki stick around for several more years to come off the bench shooting in some significant games. That is a team that might even put a scare into Golden State in 2021.

Instead, Dallas signs DeAndre Jordan to a whopping one year $24.1 million deal, getting one of the hulking centers who are largely playoff irrelevant in the new NBA three years after he snubbed them and hurt the franchise. The Mavericks are paying almost $19 million more for Jordan than the Warriors are for Cousins.

That’s not just bad math, it’s the type of deal making that would get one kicked off Shark Tank every time.

The DeMarcus vs. DeAndre Mismatch

DeMarcus Cousins is so much a better player than DeAndre Jordan — so much a better fit for the league today (Cousins can shoot and hit 3-pointers and close out games while still rebounding at a beyond elite level) — that it’s akin to comparing Stephen Curry and DeMar DeRozan. One is not close to the equal of the other.

It is almost like Cuban and the Mavericks just never got over getting jilted by Jordan in that wild free-agent summer of 2015. To say they come off as obsessed would be an understatement.

There is a chance that Cousins could not be close to himself until the season after next season. Again, so? That timing should have fit Dallas just fine. The Mavericks are not contending for the championship next season. They can afford to wait for a 27-year-old Boogie to dominate again.

Doncic and Smith Jr. both need more time to develop anyway. The Mavericks are better off being bad again next season.

Instead, they’re burdened themselves with this completely uninspiring DeAndre Jordan stopgap.

Many will call the Lakers and the Rockets the big losers of this Cousins to the Warriors league rattler. While it is true that LeBron James now finds himself with no chance of challenging the Warriors (or the Rockets for that matter, or arguably even Oklahoma City) next season, this is in some ways a perverse win for Houston.

Yes, the Warriors loom even more unbeatable now, but the Rockets are essentially guaranteed to be the second best team in the West again now. No one can pass them by anymore. The Lakers whiffed in the LeBron follow up. The Mavericks lost their collective minds — and good basketball sense.

DeMarcus Cousins on the Mavericks with Doncic gives Daryl Morey scary longterm dreams. DeAndre Jordan barely registers.

One can argue that the getting Doncic is all that truly matters, that it makes up for almost any blunder. But lost opportunities tend to linger and haunt in the NBA. And unless Anthony Davis somehow ends up in Dallas in the next few years, this one will too.

The Mavericks did not just hurt themselves here — they dinged the league. Cousins to the Warriors for the exemption is a crime against competition.

Blame Golden State, Cousins, LeBron’s self-serving agents (Klutch Sports’ Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for $12 million, really?) or even NBA commissioner Adam Silver if you must.

I’ll blame Mark Cuban for not grabbing opportunity.

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