3:58pm: Agent Jeff Schwartz has confirmed that Cousins tore his left ACL, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter links). Cousins’ camp and the Lakers are working on determining a timeline for the surgery and his recovery, Woj adds.
11:57am: Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins has suffered a torn ACL in his knee, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter). According to Charania (via Twitter), Cousins will undergo some final tests, but they’re expected to confirm the diagnosis of a torn ACL.
As we noted earlier today when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported that Cousins had sustained a possible knee injury, it’s the latest piece of bad news in what has been a brutal two-year stretch for the four-time All-Star.
Cousins’ 2017/18 season with the Pelicans came to an end when he tore his Achilles tendon. Then, after making it back from that injury for the Warriors in 2018/19, he suffered a torn quad at the start of the postseason. The torn ACL is the third major leg injury Cousins has sustained within the last 19 months.
Cousins’ injury woes have significantly impacted his potential earnings. His torn Achilles occurred just months before he reached unrestricted free agency, costing him a chance at a maximum-salary contract. After settling for a one-year, $5.34MM contract with Golden State last season, he inked another one-year, make-good deal worth $3.5MM with the Lakers this summer.
If Cousins’ torn ACL sidelines him for most or all of the 2019/20 campaign, another one-year contract seems likely next year as he prepares for his age-30 season. At this point, it seems extremely unlikely that he’ll ever be able to recapture his old All-NBA form.
As for the Lakers, they’ll need to lean more heavily on center JaVale McGee and may also ask Anthony Davis to play more minutes at the five than the four.
Los Angeles currently has 14 players on guaranteed contracts, so adding a center as a 15th man might also make some sense. We recently highlighted a few more of the more notable free agent big men still on the market, including Nene, Amir Johnson, Kenneth Faried, Marcin Gortat, and Joakim Noah.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
poor guy
Damn
Jesus Christ
I’m sure DeMarcus Cousins is dialing him up right now….
He does pretty well with lepers, deaf, mute & blind. Has had verifiable success with paralyzed, hunchbacks and demonic madness. Torn ACL is a completely new set of miracles requiring an updated skillset.
I mean this pretty much wraps it up for him career-wise, right? Torn achilles, torn quad, torn ACL
Unfortunately I believe you’re right.
As a productive player, yes.
He may be able to last a few more years a reserve / role player, a la Jermaine O’Neal.
If he was a guard or a wing guy perhaps yes but as a big man who can shoot a little bit and has post moves his career won’t be over if he decides to rehab it 100%
Still gotta be able to guard guys/run/jump… can’t be a statue. Let’s hope he bounces back. But, I wouldn’t bet money on it.
Sadly, yes. Even Grant Hill & Penny Hardaway didn’t have multiple serious injuries like those, and those happened to Cousins in 1-year-and-half!!
Hello Melo
You’re kidding right? Melo is a cancer! Boogie would’ve been awesome Damn!
Hello to Melo what? Him joining Linsanity in China?
You beat me to it. I was about to say the same thing. Realistically, if he’s in shape & his heart is really in it, Melo can give the Lakers 10-12 pts every game coming off the bench.
Damnit. Feel badly for that dude. So much talent too…
Man that sucks
Worst luck ever. Lance hasn’t left for China yet, right?
He needs some milk
D-Rose “Got Milk” and look at what happened to his body.
Mans is made of glass
Mister Glass
First they miss out on Kawhi and now this. Remember when they were the favorites to win it all right after the AD trade two months ago? Poor Lakers.
He’s migrating north so I guess he would have thigh next and then groin tear.
I don’t think you know where your quad is located
Everyone knows where the quad is. He doesn’t know where the ACL is.
Reading the posts again and again yours makes more sense. He said thigh would be next LOL I guess he DOESN’T know where the quad is. I was giving him too much credit !
Quads are often in front of the campus library.
That’s the North Quad… mostly volleyball team. My bad – that’s South Quad.
Crazy. He wasn’t injury prone until the achilles and now his body is failing him.
Karma smh
Classy comment. I wonder what your karma will be for saying that?
Classless but true…
You obviously have no idea what the word karma means.
Guarantee he’s not the first to think karma for Cousins – just the only one to comment it.
@GoldenJabs Karma how? You have video tape of him clubbing seals, tripping old ladies or beating his gf/wife? So what he can be a testy @hole sometimes. A lot of guys like him are genuinely nice people in their regular off court lives.
He was hands down one of the top 3 bigs during his career, which hopefully won’t end hear. He’s made a lot of money but man…he was chasing that max deal has to hurt a bit. He has enough to take care of a couple of generations. Hopefully he saved/invested wisely.
Meet him off the court and you wouldn’t be feeling the way. You treat people like sh*t and talk down to them, your day will come. You might find things all fine and dandy down there in South Beach, but this guy is a true a-hole.
I agree Demarcus is a real A-hole. I seen him talk down to waiters all the time in Sac.
Dude has been lauded for his charity work and other stuff in the community. What are you talking about?
Both can be true. There are jerks who sign checks for charity. Charity is good but it does not absolve being a rude dude.
But I’ve heard such great things about his work with kids. I cant say h/c I haven’t met him, but I wouldnt blame him for being jaded, if that’s the issue. The way society is nowadays, especially the media, and the internet…I dont think it’s fair to call him a piece of $#!+, considering the great things he has done
My friend’s son works for Pelicans. He said Cousins was a douche bag.
I’m pretty sure the cosmos doesn’t care enough about your perceptions, to injure someone else.
Each “karma” comment you make is more ridiculous than the last.
Done
I feel bad for the guy. He brings so much passion you know this is killing him.
Uch…
Devastating. I feel bad for the guy.
The Lakers are my very least favorite team, but this is really such a drag. The guy is so talented and played on bad teams for so long. Really a shame.
He finally gets out of Sacramento and makes the playoffs then starts piling up leg injuries like Derrick Rose. Damn I just feel bad for the guy.
Rose’s injury was recurring unlike the ones Cousins has had in the last year-and-a-half, injuries all over the place, each one being a major one.
That’s so unlucky. He was probably the best offensive centre in the game before his injury and not far off being a the best centre. This probably means the end of his career. This also definitely hurts the Lakers. Cousins would’ve been more than handy for them and I thought after the LBJ and Kawhi signings that between the Clippers and the Lakers whoever signed Cousins would’ve had a slight edge over the other.
Buhaaahaaahaaahaa! That’s funny. Karma is a B
Why would you laugh at someone else’s pain???
schadenfreude
I don’t like Boogie either, but come on… that you would laugh… really terrible.
Karma for what? Do you even know what that means? Are you suggesting it’s his own fault b/c he didnt take the 2 year/$40 million offer when he had it last year? That part, in terms of earnings may be true, but it’s still unfortunate.
After watching him fight so hard to come back from his injuries, this is really sad to hear. He was talking about considering retirement during his injury during the playoffs and I think if this ends his year, he’s probably thinking about it again.
Was looking forward to watching him play with LeBron and AD another year removed from the Achilles…poor guy can’t catch a break…and all the turds laughing about him getting hurt aren’t real sports people because anyone that plays or has played knows that someone else’s health and well being are bigger than the game, you should be ashamed of yourselves
It’s not natural for a man that big to move that way. Looking at you fat A** Zion
Quad injuries take way longer than it took him to come back. Having gone through so many significant leg I juries, myself, I seriously question the stability he had before this injury. You are much more susceptible to a knee injury in that scenario
Really unfortunate. I think he just wants to be successful so badly. Has to be super tough mentally. I hope he can stay positive through this and find things to occupy him. And next time, he needs to take his time coming back. He is still young, and messing with that can only make things worse
He can comeback from this. Third significant leg injury in a short period, but he’s not re-injuring the same body part. Probably gone for the year though.
This really sucks. Thank God the Lakers are loaded at every position that this injury will really have no impact. Really like this guy so I hope he comes back better than ever.
What? Lol… how are the lakers loaded?
Please explain your definition of loaded?
They barely had a decent 9-man rotation before losing Boogie. If they start LBJ, AD, Bradley, McGee, and Green then they will have Kuzma, Rondo, and KCP coming off the bench but not much else. Players like Jared Dudley, Troy Daniels, or Quinn Cook will have to be counted on to give them productive minutes as the 9th or 10th player in the rotation. Saying the loss of Boogie will have no impact on the Lakers is absurd, it is a devastating loss for them crippling an already weak bench.
r.i.p.
Terrible horrible news!
I hope he has a great return to health and gets a good run of injury free ball.
Though man golden misfit you are delusional. Lakers weren’t favs with him. All i see this doing is upsetting Davis being pushed to 5 more and it certainly weakens them below the top teams (which they weren’t with anyway)
Remember Andrew Bynum?
Dwight
Was he a hall of famer?
I’m not sure boogie gets in. His numbers were terrific for a long time… but…
JonnyLucas: well what do you think about the Lakers now?
JonnyLucas: they’re going to have to fill that hole at Center they were counting cousins to fill.
JonnyLucas: do you think the Lakers are still Championship contenders?
JonnyLucas: that remains to be seen but I’m sure they’re playoff-bound.
Even without Boogie they should still make the playoffs, but the Lakers are a 5th seed at best. The Clippers, Rockets, Nuggets, and Jazz should take the top 4 spots quite easily. While the Lakers, Spurs, Blazers, and Warriors fight for the remaining four spots along with the Kings and Pelicans (maybe the Mavs and Wolves too, if they’re lucky).
To think that after Cousins tore his Achilles, the Pelicans offered him a 2 year /$40 million contract . He declined. Pelicans retracted the offer after he declined. Yikes !!!!
He said he thought about retiring when he hurt his quad, this probably put him over the edge. Sad because like so many other people have said, when he was healthy he was a dominant player.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy! Hope he recovers well & fast… One of the best centers I have ever seen playing
This comment is very confusing. The first sentence rally contradicts the last two sentences and vice versa. Do you think he is a bad guy or do you hope he recovers or do you think he is one of the best ever? I guess it could be yes to all three, but it seems a strange way to react after this if you like the guy.
Different body parts are getting injured; he may finally take enough time off to let them heal. Of course as before, there’s no choice but to look and stay in shape and deal with himself while others contest. But he’s probably not done as a player yet; what else would he do.
*look on while teammates work
I would rather have no luck than Boogie’s luck.
Lakers top 5 players all missed significant time last season and they have lost their 1st one for the new season.
Lakers lacked depth prior to this, Zubac give away…. errrrr Trade, just wont go away.
Instead of keeping a roster spot open for Iggy, they will now be forced to sign someone like Nene or Noah to be the backup center. If LeBron or AD gets hurt and misses a significant number of games their lack of depth will truly be tested. Danny Green might be their only starter who they count on not to miss at least 10-20 games like most of the others will.
I think Suns should plan on having him next year and think very wholeheartedly about devoting a lot of their training staff to his condition through this year, even if he isn’t going to sign with them in the Spring. An injury like this to one of the most revered players to younger NBA fans isn’t a joke. He needs more support now from the entire league even if that means it’s just one other organization who likes him
As very many other people do, I just can’t wait for this guy to slam again, and I am not talking about just once. If I thought that his future was going to be relegated to playing off the bench then I would have assumed so too for KD and Klay. But DMC can still resurrect a beautiful basketball career
Why Suns? Do they revere him? I’m not aware of an Arizona connection. I would be surprised if the Lakers did not pay for rehab even if he never plays for them.