Gianstoppable wrote:He's betting on himself. He could make much more money by declining that 2 year deal. He also could get injured again and piss away his chances. If he has a great year there will be some team out there that will offer a bigger contract than 2/40 and he likely walks away with a ring after this season. Very possible that he also didnt like the Pelicans
According to my math, this is false. You're welcome to double check and correct me if I'm wrong. There's no way Cousin can gain ALOT of money from signing the MLE with GSW. He did this entirely out of spite and is probably going to lose millions of $ for this move.
He signed a $5.3 million contract with GSW. His max is ~$35 millionish. He rejected an extension of 2/$40 million. Question is was the last year a team option or a player option. Lets assume Cousins gets to max contract shape next season. If it was a player option, he straight up lost $14.7 million, because the NO offer is essentially a 1 year $20 million offer. If it was a team option, he gained $300k. ($5.3 mil with GSW + $35 mil max with next team = $40.3 mil compared to the $40 mil from NO he rejected) If Cousins doesn't recover, then he lost $34.7 million or whatever the difference is for the non-max contract he gets.