Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:I know this thread is about EG but I cannot help but recall how few people here liked anything about Boogie Cousins.
Suddenly, he's an asset to the Warriors.
(PS -- He is a huge re-rupture risk. He's not going to be nearly the same player, and I fear the worst. Career will be shortened by complications of the same injury)
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Of course he's an asset. He's an All-Star caliber player on a $5M contract.
The Cousins signing was atypical due to a confluence of unusual events. Cousins had a ruptured Achilles and he wanted a long term max contract. There were very few teams with max room, and those that had it, weren't willing to take the risk that he'd never be the same, nor did they want to sign a guy who was likely to not play at all for the first 50 games of the season.
After the market for max deals dried up, Cousins' next best option was to sign a one-year deal, prove that he was healthy, and then look for a max deal next year. The market for one year deals consisted of bad teams with cap room (who had no need to rent Cousins for 30 games) or good teams with MLE exceptions. Cousins figured it was best to join the best team offering an MLE exception. He would get lots of exposure while riding their coattails to a title.
It was a good move for him and for Golden State. But it's not like there were other teams who refused to make that type of offer. Nobody "missed the boat" on Cousins. It's just that circumstances weren't right for them to risk big money on a one-year rental. (Bear in mind that you don't get Bird Rights to exceed the cap if you sign a guy for just 1 year. Cousins was going to be an unrestricted free agent in 2019 either way.) Once it became a bidding war of MLE contracts, then Golden State had the advantage.