https://youtu.be/uCaIUxNHYdA
It’s been almost 7 years since I uploaded any sort of DeMarcus Cousins video (and that includes compilations, I was always too lazy to make one of him getting techs) to my channel. By the time of that final uploadment, in April of 2014, Cousins had really put things together (at least in terms of putting up numbers, actually being a winning player has always been a different story) and was clearly too good for my Hall of Scrubs. So I bid him farewell, thinking that I would get to see him again in about a decade. Or that I would retire before then.
Well, I haven’t (fully) retired yet, but Cousins’ tragic accumulation of various injuries has accelerated his timeline for DownToBuck reinduction drastically. He was still kinda decent-ish for the Warriors back in the 2018-19 season, but he ended up getting SO injured with them that he could only make a reappearance for the start of this season. Even still, I thought that he would be able to at least put up stats somewhat resembling his Warriors stint; he had a long time to recover, and playing with John Wall would probably motivate him a little bit or something.
I (and everyone else) was not prepared for how utterly, completely, and unequivocally WASHED he looked. He’s never been all that impressive athletically, in fact I’ve always been baffled by how little lift he got on his dunks even in his prime, but now all those injuries have made him nearly immobile. He’s still got the strength, but as Shaq will attest, all the strength in the world doesn’t do a whole ton of good when you can’t change directions without first having your team take a timeout.
Good thing he added that three-pointer to his game while with the Pelicans, I guess. That’s the insurance that bigmen have against becoming totally irrelevant as they get older.
The game prior to this was the most tragic one yet: 2 of 16 from the field. 15 rebounds and 7 assists are cool, and good for him for contributing in other ways, but 2 of 16? That’s Giannis-at-the-free-throw-line numbers right there. I should go rewatch that game and see what went wrong there, or I can just assume that all his attempts to score at the rim were stymied by Mason Plumlee in embarrassing fashion.
This game went a little better, since he had the human papier-mache figurine named Willie Cauley-Stein guarding him, and he hit some threes. Those things aren’t going to happen every game, but I’m happy that he at least found within himself one more good performance before all traces of ligamentation in his knees poof into dust and disperse into the screaming gale-winds of torment, never to return.
I would also like to take this time to remind people of this little vignette I wrote for him back at the end of the 2013 season. Three words: “Nacho Cheese Fairy”. https://downtobuck.net/2013/04/17/demarcus-cousins-36-pointscareer-high-22-rebounds-full-highlights-4172013/ .Maybe if he has another good game I’ll write a followup.