DeMarcus’ cousins tore his Achilles tendon and is out for the rest of the season. What’s going on with him, the New Orleans Pelicans and the playoff races of the Western Conference? SPOX highlights the violation from the three most important perspectives.
Boogie played up to his tragic injury 15 seconds before the end of the game against the Houston Rockets, the most productive season of his career. In the scoring he was 6th in the league (25.4 points per game) and 3rd in the rebounds (12.9). With sometimes monstrous performances, he made sure that the pels were within reach of the playoff home advantage. Quite rightly, Cousins was rewarded with a starting spot in the All-Star game.
His strong season came also because he is in his contract year. Next summer he will become an Unrestricted Free Agent and was considered to be sure that he will get a maximum contract. The Pelicans were considered to be the favourite.
Before his surprising trade to the Pelicans in February 2017, Cousins had signalled that he was prepared to sign a Designated Veteran Extension at the Kings, a so-called Super-Max with a salary of 35 percent of the cap. The right to such a contract has expired through trade.
Now he can’t be sure if a team will offer him a “normal” Max (30 percent of the cap) due to his injury. An Achilles tendon tear is probably the worst “classic” injury for basketball players (including the torn cruciate ligament) because the upper ankle area is under constant strain.
This is especially true for players of Cousin’s stature, the man weighs just under 130 kilos and doesn’t play very gentle on the body. He would by no means be the first player to become the old man after such an injury. Wesley Matthews, Brandon Jennings and Kobe Bryant are recent examples of this which do not exactly give hope. For Pistons legend Isiah Thomas, his Achilles tendon tear in 1994 even meant a premature end to his career.
ESPN analyst Kevin Pelton had recently examined several NBA stars who returned after an Achilles tendon injury. He used the BEAUTIFUL projection system that statistically calculates what kind of influence a player has on the outcome of a game. His conclusion was that former Achilles patients perform almost 10 percent worse on average than before their injury.
Now cousins would still be a very good player with 10 percent less, but it seems certain that he will have to change his game, at least for the first time after his return. Rehabilitation will take six to ten months, and more precise forecasts will only be available after the operation, which is unavoidable.
At 27 years of age, Cousins is relatively young in his prime and for an Achilles tendon tear. This certainly benefits his rehab, which is why the Pels or another team may not be as reluctant to deal with a high-end contract as a 32-year-old would have been.
Nevertheless, all NBA fans must be prepared for the fact that it will take a long time, if at all, before Boogie will be able to dominate with all his strength and power as he did last time.
Page 1: This means the injury for DeMarcus Cousins
Page 2: That means the injury to the New Orleans Pelicans
Page 3: This means the injury for the Western Conference