Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry denies that Anthony Davis didn’t want DeMarcus Cousins to return, William Guillory of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Cousins stunned the basketball world by signing a one-year, $5.3MM deal with the Warriors but it had nothing to do with his relationship with New Orleans’ franchise player, according to Gentry.
“Someone said A.D. didn’t want DeMarcus back, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” the Pelicans’ head coach said. “I don’t know where that came about, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
In other news around the Southwest Division:
- The Mavericks don’t plan on having a full roster heading into training camp, Dwain Price of Mavs.com tweets. “Unless something falls in our lap we’ll keep an open roster spot,” owner Mark Cuban told Price.
- Kyle Anderson‘s defensive metrics were a major reason why the Grizzlies gave the small forward an offer sheet the Spurs didn’t match, according to Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com. He ranked fourth in steals percentage, sixth in defensive rating and 13th in steals per game and rated as the league’s second-best defending small forward last season behind the Sixers’ Robert Covington. Offensively, Anderson could be used an additional ball handler and initiate half-court sets, Wallace adds.
- If the Mavericks show significant improvement, Dirk Nowitzki could play beyond next season, Cuban said in a Sirius XM radio interview that was relayed by the Dallas Morning News. The Mavs will re-sign Nowitzki, who is currently a free agent, once they finish their offseason moves after turning down their team option.”I’d say it’s under 50 percent right now (he’ll retire after next season) but if he’s playing 77 games and we’re getting better, and we’re starting to win games? You know what a competitor he is — he’s going to want to come back.”
Of course AD wanted DMC back, the problem is the Pels didn’t, which shows to me that either they don’t want AD to stay long term or they know he won’t, either way they screwed this up, again.
That would be awesome if Dirk hangs around beyond next year.
I can see the Mavericks continually signing Dirk annually, even after he died. They would probably even plop his corpse into the 15th seat.
Couldn’t be more somewhat the truth.
There was also of course the injury, the contract year, the uncertainty. But can Cousins follow a plan?
The talk in Nola last offseason was Davis & Cousins working on things to deploy together. But when a player can do whatever he wants against an opponent, it is hard not to.
Davis recruited Randle, and Randle was not looking to be a backup on a mid-pack playoff team. Offers to Cousins stopped, even though Demps was proud of the trade that landed him.