DeMarcus Cousins‘ current 10-day contract with the Nuggets will expire this weekend, but head coach Michael Malone doesn’t sound like someone who expects to part ways the veteran center in a few days, as Mike Singer of The Denver Post relays.
“You can see all the guys on our bench, even on the court and on the bench, how much they’re rooting for DeMarcus, which is really neat for me, just from a personal level, from a family atmosphere type of a thing,” Malone said on Monday. “Like here’s DeMarcus, four-time All-Star, out of the league. Shouldn’t be the case, and he’s here with us, he’s found a home.
“I love him, and I think you can see all the teammates, when he has a play like that, whether it’s blocking a shot, rolling and dunking, hitting a three, you can feel the energy.”
Cousins has signed three 10-day pacts with Denver so far and the last two have been standard (non-hardship) deals, which means the team will have to decide whether to sign him for the rest of the season when his current contract expires. There has been no confirmation yet that the Nuggets plan to take that route, but it certainly seems like it’s trending that way.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- If a February 24 MRI on Paul George‘s injured elbow comes back clean, the expectation is that the Clippers forward will begin a ramp-up period of approximately two weeks and could return to the court – barring setbacks – during the second week of March, Chris Haynes reported on Tuesday’s TNT broadcast (video link via Tomas Azarly of ClutchPoints).
- Warriors rookie Jonathan Kuminga has been named a replacement for Pacers guard Chris Duarte in this Friday’s Rising Stars game, the league announced today in a press release. Kuminga will replace Duarte, who is dealing with a left toe injury, on Team Payton for the event.
- Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee believes there are a handful of parallels between the Kings‘ pre-deadline acquisition of Domantas Sabonis and their trade for Chris Webber nearly 24 years ago.
My western note:
Lakers and AD throw a Brick to the Lakers, and Lakers are doomed.
Whoever says Westbrook will opt out of the contract in summer, he is a fool.
At this point Bron might pay him the 40 mil himself to decline the option
No sh*t on Kuminga.
He’s phenomenal. The Warriors look to have secured an absolute star.
I’m really impressed with how they’ve navigated the last few years. They’re a decent backup big (Wiseman notwithstanding) away from being the deepest team in the league.
I don’t think you can pencil in another Championship for the Warriors. But, I think it is to soon to say there window has closed.
Kuminga is one of the most highlight producing rookies for sure. I am impressed though with how much he has developed from the player we saw busting out sometimes but making mistakes left and right in summer league.
The kid is super coachable he constantly keeps fixing flaws in his game on the fly. Pretty much other than continuing to clean up his defensive game his only areas that even need work are his 3pt consistency, and ball control when he is coming downhill from the perimeter with the ball.
The more and more I have seen Kuminga play he has the makings of a mini Luol Deng. He’s so athletic and rangy, and mix that with learning from Iggy/Steph/Klay on a nightly basis. He has no excuse to be a very good player if not franchise player in this league. The potential is real with him. Warriors really nailed it with this pick.
Deng was a really good shooter. Kuminga is not that
Kuminga is only 19. There has been a huge improvement from his shooting in the G League. To soon to knock his shooting.
He was really bad to start and has been above 35% since his starting 3/25 or whatever. His shot mechanics need to speed up still so he can get his shot off faster if players start guarding against it more, and he needs to get more reliable where both his 3pt and FF shooting seems streaky still.
He’s way more athletic than Deng.
Okay Gundys
Everyone cam see him jump
Cousins is really giving Denver’s second unit an identity. He is playing so intelligently with regards to spacing and screening and is a nice running mate for Facu who was in a real nosedive over the last couple of months. Facu needed a big pick and roll partner and it’s paying dividends – the bench are maintaining or even building leads.
Nnaji is having some minutes staggered with the starters as a 3 rather than an overmatched 5 with the second unit and Bones is having a positive impact in his ‘with Jokic’ minutes.
How’s Cousins’ defense? A weak spot for him historically.
I mean he’s huge and he isn’t being tasked with chasing people around. The whole Denver defense is designed around an earthbound center so it’s working quite well. If he can’t steal or block it (still has excellent hands) he’ll foul the sh*t out of you! He’s most often playing alongside Nnaji, JMike and Facu so that’s a fairly strong supporting cast defensively. They’re scrappy and it’s effective.
I mean, Sabonis seems like he can pass pretty well. I haven’t watched him enough to see if he has an elbow jumper. But everyone I’ve heard says he doesn’t had a good jumper.
If we are going of the pattern of the Kings Trading for Webber and then Trading (j-will) for Bibby, kings did trade for Sabonis and traded away a point guard.
Overall, I’m not seeing the comparisons.
Sabonis has a decent jumper out to about 17 feet.
If Kuminga can’t shoot, he is small size Giannis
Warriors have good shooting coaches
Wiggins 3pt % goes from 32% to 42%
Warriors coaching team may be the best in the nba
What are you babbling about now? He is only 19. Give him time.
He is 34% from 3 since the start of Dec.
With George, Clippers can defeat Lakers and make playoffs
Wolves have 5 more wins than Lakers
Are you kidding me?
They drop Boog, Sixers got a spot. Knucklehead or not I’ll take a Bucket and a Board. Waiting for the Freedom and Tragic to become FAs first. Imagine they’ll try to get one of them.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Freedom black balled from the nba. Not many teams want to be blacked out from the China revenue stream
Morey already fired shots at China
My thoughts exactly, Boogie or Enes for that second unit centre. Boards and buckets
Congratulations Kuminga! No bigger honor than being an injury replacement in a rising stars challenge game. Go get em!