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Many people seem to think the Pelicans can't trade DeMarcus Cousins as an expiring contract because of AD's affinity for him and that it'd cause AD to immediately request a trade.

If they traded him to a team who needed to save money such as the Portland Trailblazers and he was waived immediately is it against any league\team rules for Cousins (as a free agent) to still be in the Pelicans:

training facility for rehab?
Given tickets behind their bench at games?
On team planes/trips?
In the locker room before or after games?

Could he be hired as a coach for the rest of this season?
Could he be hired as a coach next season and then fired then hired as a player once healthy next season?

(I understand their trading him would eliminate their bird rights.)

A lot of what you are getting at would be really close to cap circumvention. The league has a lot of leeway on what is cap circumvention and what isn't.

Being the training facility to rehab isn't a big deal. This is a somewhat regular occurrence if a player is waived. Following a trade and then being waived, that gets a little trickier.

Tickets, team plane, in the locker room, no issue there. Teams can give those privileges to almost whoever they want.

The coach part is where it gets really, really sticky. At that point, I think the NBA would have some questions.

DoItALL9 wrote:Could he be hired as a coach next season and then fired them hired as a player once healthy next season?

Smitty731 wrote:The coach part is where it gets really, really sticky. At that point, I think the NBA would have some questions.

Course, we have seen this circumvention in reverse (Elton Brand).

Thanks on both responses
LoL

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