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When I heard the news that DeMarcus Cousins signed with the Warriors I immediately thought.
Oh god.
Not again.
Couple summers ago you add the 2nd best player in Kevin Durant to a 73 win team,
now you add the best center to back to back champions and have an All-Star starting 5.
That’s just not fair.
But the more I thought about this, the more I understood, that it’s a shot in the dark
whether Demarcus will be an all-star again.
I wouldn’t have my doubts with any other injury, but man, those achilees are real career
killers.
There’s only one player in the NBA History to ever come back as good or close to as good
as he was before the achilles injury and that’s Dominique Wilkins.
Wilkins was averaging 28 and 7 before the injury and he was averaging 28 and 7 after
the injury so there was no notable statistical drop, but otherwise he wasnt as explosive
as he once was.
And that’s the greatest example.
Others havent been so good.
One of the more recent examples is Wesley Matthews who was a defensive ace for Portland
while averaging almost 16PPG.
He suffered achilles injury in March 2015 and boy was that a bad time, cause Matthews
was having his best season as a pro and looking for some big bucks in the free agency market.
Considering his injury and Portland’s sad history when it comes to injured players he
didn’t receive an offer he was looking for so he signed with the Mavericks.
He started his season OK, and even had a 36 point game along the way, but even 3 years
later it still looks like he’s worse than before the injury.
His numbers are lowes, he isn’t as quick on defense and his pull up jumper, especially
at the mid range game isn’t where it
There obiously is a Kobe Bryant as well.
He suffered his achilles injury in March 2015.
What DerMarcus Cousins has over Kobe is definitely his age.
Kobe was 34 at the time, already starting to decline a bit, but the injury just boosted
that decline to a whole another level.
Kobe played only in 6 games the next season, in 35 games the season after that and 66 games
in his last season.
He was dealing with other injuries as well, but mostly it was his achilles that didn’t
allow him to be the player he once was.
After the injury he averaged 19 points on just 37 percent shooting from the field.
Another notable example is Elton Brand.
Brand looked like a superstar and was super athletic.
he was averaging 20 and 10 in his sleep, but unfortunately right in the middle of his prime
he suffered an achilles injury in an offseason workout.
He was 28 at the time.
Brand played just 8 games that season and just 29 games the next season.
He was back to pretty much full health once the 2009-2010 season rolled around, but he
never was the great big man and a possible hall of famer if not for the injury.
In his best season he averaged 15 and 8 and other seasons were less and less productive
until he retired in 2016
And there are a lot of other players like Rudy Gay, Anderson Varejao , Mehmet Okur and
Chauncey Billups who recovered but just never were the same.
And the thing you need to remember about Cousins is what his achilles has to hold.
Even guards have had problems recovering from an achilles injury and Cousins is a 7 feet
280 pound center.
He might just have a similar recovery and results as Elton Brand did.
An all-star before the injury and just a solid center afterwards.
I don’t like Goldenstate because I finally want someone else to win the championship,
but I’m sure as hell am rooting for Cousins to recover, stay on the level he was before
the injury and prove that achilles injury is not a career-ending injury anymore.
So should the NBA be scared of this move?
No.
Because first of all Cousins most likely won’t be ready for the start of the season.
Second of all, he will be gradually implemented into warriors system and he most likely won’t
be playing the same minutes he did before the injury so he wont have a chance to be
as productive as he was.
And thirdly, it’s still the achilles man.
It has a bad history with NBA players and Demarcus Cousins is a big body to carry.
What do you think?
When does DeMarcus come back?
How good of a player will he be?
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This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out.