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Injuries derailed DeMarcus' prime. He would be a top three center right now with Embiid and Jokic had things gone a little differently.

No, but we didn't get to see him on good teams when he was productive.

Now he'll be known in the history books as a cautionary tale against the supermax and a serial complainer who always got injured.

He won't be remembered much as an NBA Champion with the Lakers or a member of the Hamptons 5 with the Warriors or a twin towers with AD, or one of the best Sacramento Kings in franchise history.

I don't think underrated is the right word. We all know how talented he was. The fact is, injuries derailed his career by the age of 27 and when he was healthy he never made the playoffs as the man. Hard to rate someone like that. It's a **** situation all around.

No. If he was really as good as people thought he was he'd have had the Kings fighting for the playoffs instead of in the lottery every season

Prime Cousins (albeit only for a very short period of time) was a legit top 10 calibre player. He was once an MVP candidate.

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I was really a big fan of his. He would have been a perfect number 2 to a superstar wing in his prime.

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Prime Cousins (albeit only for a very short period of time) was a legit top 10 calibre player. He was once an MVP candidate.

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This season was wild. Him and AD looked amazing for a few stretches back then.

Cousins was one of the most overrated players of his generation. Ball-dominant, inefficient*, toxic, unreliable. He ticked most of the boxes for a net negative player as the face of your franchise.

The Pelicans were actually better with him off the floor (-0.7), then better with him injured (62.9 vs 56.3 WIN%), and they made their playoff run without him.

It's no coincidence he had never made the playoffs until he became a minimum player for the Warriors coming off major injury.

Boogie was the epitome of a losing player and a good-stats, bad-team guy. With the antics as a bonus. Yugh.

*Right around average in adjusted TS% for most of his career, which is actually quite awful for a center.

Another example where winning or the lack thereof clues you in to the real state of affairs far faster than interpreting other stats. You can probably arrive at the same conclusion after looking at the other numbers but some of them might mislead you first.

During my coaching days Booger Cousins was putting up some of the best numbers of his career. But he never struck fear into the heart of his opponents like some of the top players do/did.

There were guys out there that when we played them, our guys would literally not leave the hotel the night before a game. They would want to be well rested otherwise you risked getting blown out and humiliated.

Dude’s would be out all night and get back to the hotel at 9 in the morning the day of facing Cousins. Not a worry in the world.

WarriorGM wrote:Another example where winning or the lack thereof clues you in to the real state of affairs far faster than interpreting other stats. You can probably arrive at the same conclusion after looking at the other numbers but some of them might mislead you first.

Yes, another example where being a casual fan will let you confirm your biases toward an individual player based on TEAM stats. Its the pride that is taken in analyzing basketball at the level of a granny knitting on the porch that always gets me.

You know a sport where you can tell everything you need to know about an individual by their results? Tennis.

shotsquatch wrote:

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Prime Cousins (albeit only for a very short period of time) was a legit top 10 calibre player. He was once an MVP candidate.

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This season was wild. Him and AD looked amazing for a few stretches back then.

personally believed the pelicans would've knocked off the warriors in the 1st round that year if cousins hadn't got injured. him and AD were an absolute force together, and they had jrue holiday and rondo on the perimeter

Young_Fashioned wrote:

shotsquatch wrote:

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Prime Cousins (albeit only for a very short period of time) was a legit top 10 calibre player. He was once an MVP candidate.

Read on Twitter

?

Watch on YouTube

This season was wild. Him and AD looked amazing for a few stretches back then.

personally believed the pelicans would've knocked off the warriors in the 1st round that year if cousins hadn't got injured. him and AD were an absolute force together, and they had jrue holiday and rondo on the perimeter

The Pelicans were better with Cousins off the floor, and so was AD. The numbers unequivocally prove this.

Winsome Gerbil wrote:

WarriorGM wrote:Another example where winning or the lack thereof clues you in to the real state of affairs far faster than interpreting other stats. You can probably arrive at the same conclusion after looking at the other numbers but some of them might mislead you first.

Yes, another example where being a casual fan will let you confirm your biases toward an individual player based on TEAM stats. Its the pride that is taken in analyzing basketball at the level of a granny knitting on the porch that always gets me.

You know a sport where you can tell everything you need to know about an individual by their results? Tennis.

You've been high on Cousins a long time. When do you expect him to actually translate his great individual stats to something that wins a team something? A player's influence on a team can best be deduced from the team's winning.

Underachiever IMHO, He had tremendous talent though.

shotsquatch wrote:Injuries derailed DeMarcus' prime. He would be a top three center right now with Embiid and Jokic had things gone a little differently.

but the reality is he hasn't been healthy, therefore your subject line is wrong...he is NOT underrated nor will he be remembered. none of the sac teams he was on finished anywhere. they were the same with and without him - just a hi20s/30win team. thereafter he was just filler. tried to hitch a ride on contender teams that again,,,went nowhere. all in all he never moved the needle for anyone and no one saw any value to keep him for more than just 1yr

he is exactly what he is, a joel embiid who couldn't move a 30win sac team. a petulent player who created team dysfunction. even calipari couldn't handle him and they had run ins. a uk team with cousins, bledsoe, wall. and patterson and they couldn't even make the FF. he had a bad rep out of college and he maintained that rep

One of the most overrated players in the last decade. If you want to know what empty stats means look at him. As the man player with Kings never won more than 33 games. Then goes to NOP to play with AD and Jrue, Rondo... and they were fighting for championship... home court... well no they were fighting for playoff spot until the last week of RS. They were better after his injurie when they replaced him with Mirotic. Never played for team, it was always machup for him. Me against the other center, never us against them. You can dribble, shoot and jump as good as you want if you have strong character issues in team sport you can have really big negative impact.

Someone who imo was never nearly as good as his numbers would indicate

Extremely talented player that was never put in a good situation. He gets drafted to the another team and we are gushing over his skill set. Kings were an extremely dysfunctional franchise and not many players could turn it around.

I've always thought his game would shine in the playoffs. But just never got a chance to see it pre-injury.

His career would be very different if he was drafted by a different franchise that's for sure.