At the time, his arrival at the Warriors surprised more than one. Two years after the arrival of Kevin Durant and two rings later, DeMarcus Cousins joined the Warriors to play alongside Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, “KD” and Draymond Green.
It is important to remember the context, DeMarcus Cousins had ruptured an Achilles tendon and faced with a lack of interesting offers, the former Kings and Pelicans pivot had simply chosen to take a small contract with a “title contender”. And who better than the Warriors? This is what Draymond Green remembered with Cousins.
“Bob (Myers, former Warriors GM) called me and he was freaking out, almost hyperventilating, like, 'Hey this is crazy what's going on here. I know you're on vacation but I think we can get DeMarcus Cousins, what do you think?'”, says Green. “And I said, ‘Bob, what? What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘I think we can get DeMarcus Cousins. What do you think? When I talked to him, I got the impression he was down, but he needs to talk to you and Steph (Curry) and he really needs to talk to you because I guess you guys have an agreement or something.’”
Although their duo was expected to be explosive since both players were specialists in technical fouls, Draymond Green had immediately validated the arrival of Cousins. Let us recall that Cousins had played with the Curry-Thompson duo at the 2014 World Cup, then with Durant, Thompson and Green at the 2016 Olympics.
“And I said to Bob, 'First thing, it's no problem at all. And second thing, Bob, if you can get DeMarcus Cousins, you get DeMarcus Cousins! And I remember it all worked out and you ended up on the team while you were rehabbing,” recalls the Warriors power forward.
More injuries
After 11 months of convalescence, the All-Star pivot had returned to the courts with the Warriors. In 30 matches, he had even averaged 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.3 interceptions and 1.5 blocks. But acclimatization remained physically complicated.
“It was a lot of difficult moments where I felt out of step at times, the rhythm wasn't good, I was trying to understand my own game within the attack”Cousins explains. There was a lot of things going against me and on top of that, you know, I just had confidence in my movements. I was doing things that I was used to doing, but my mind was telling me, 'You can still do it,' but my body wasn't on the same page.”
The pivot was even injured again in the first game of the playoff campaign, just like Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant after him, and the Warriors finally lost to the Raptors in their fifth consecutive final.
“It was very difficult, but you have to give yourself credit, I was surrounded by a very good group,” he recognizes. “You guys really welcomed me, you worked with me, you helped me find my way and finally, it worked. It really worked. We finally found our rhythm, everyone found their place within the team and everyone experienced success at the same time.”
