DeMarcus Cousins Rumors | Hoops Rumors

DeMarcus Cousins Accused Of Threatening Ex-Girlfriend

August 27th, 2019 at 3:15pm CST by Luke Adams

3:15pm: The NBA is investigating the allegations against Cousins, NBA spokesman Mike Bass confirmed in a statement (Twitter link via Youngmisuk).

1:45pm: DeMarcus Cousins‘ offseason is going from bad to worse, as the injured Lakers center is being accused of threatening his ex-girlfriend after she didn’t allow their seven-year-old son to attend Cousins’ wedding, according to a TMZ report.

TMZ obtained court documents and a police report filed by Cousins’ ex, Christy West, claiming that he threatened to “put a bullet through [her] f—ing head.” TMZ’s report also includes an audio recording of the alleged threat, which reportedly occurred last Friday — West is “adamant” that the voice on the phone call is Cousins’.

According to TMZ, West has filed court documents in Alabama seeking a restraining order against Cousins, claiming that he has choked her before as well. A police spokesperson in Mobile, Alabama tells TMZ that they’ve opened an investigation into her allegations.

The latest news on Cousins comes less than two weeks after word broke that he has suffered a torn ACL that will sideline him for most or all of the 2019/20 season. The four-time All-Star has faced questions about his temperament and demeanor throughout his NBA career, and has increasingly had to battle health issues within the last two years. This offseason’s developments won’t help alleviate those concerns on either front.

If the NBA investigates the allegations against Cousins and determines that they’re credible, the league could take action against the big man, fining and/or suspending him. Should Cousins be suspended, he’d have to serve that ban after being medically cleared to return from his ACL tear.

The Lakers have issued the following statement of their own, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com (Twitter link):

“We are aware of the allegation involving DeMarcus Cousins and, of course, take this claim seriously. We are in the process of gathering information and will reserve further comment at this time.”

Details On Dwight Howard Signing With Lakers

August 23rd, 2019 at 6:19pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Dwight Howard is returning to Los Angeles in a rebounding and rim-protecting role to play alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The signing of the center was a complex process for the Lakers, as Shams Charania of The Athletic explains.

The Grizzlies gave Howard and representatives permission to seek out a deal. Once that happened, the big man met with Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd, with whom Howard played during USA Basketball activities in 2007. The two have a solid relationship and mutual respect for each other from their time in the NBA together, Charania writes in a full-length piece.

In the past, Howard wanted an expanded role on the teams he’d played for. Now, he would be fine with simply rebounding, defending and staying in his lane. Howard has reportedly made these kind of declarations before with no actions to follow up his words. However, Kidd was convinced that Howard had sincerely shifted his mindset.

Next came getting on the same page with Lakers’ stakeholders, from James and Davis to ownership and front office members, Charania writes. Howard then got the green light for the workout with the team, which went well — “amazing” was what one source told Charania about Howard’s performance.

Here’s more on Howard’s path back to the Lakers:

Charania hears that Dwight actually arrived at the Lakers’ training facility the day before his scheduled workout, showcasing initiative which impressed the team’s brass.
Howard was convincing during an emotional meeting with Lakers’ players and staff, explaining how he had hit rock bottom and understood what he needed to do to remain in the league.
Davis, who was one of the players with whom Howard met, prefers to play alongside a true center during the course of the NBA season, a source tells Charania. Davis is comfortable playing the five during the playoffs but his preference is part of the reason the Lakers were targeting centers to begin with after DeMarcus Cousins went down.
By multiple accounts, Howard is fully healthy and truly motivated. Charania writes that Howard treated his workout with the Lakers like a post-college player participating in a pre-draft workout.
Howard doesn’t feel a need to start at the five but he will compete for it along with JaVale McGee. He’s willing to play any amount of minutes the team needs of him with a source close to Howard telling Charania that “Dwight is ready. He can’t wait.”

Lakers To Work Out Noah, Speights, Howard

August 20th, 2019 at 11:51am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Lakers plan to work out free agent centers Joakim Noah and Marreese Speights as well as the Grizzlies’ Dwight Howard this week in Los Angeles, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.

Another NBA free agent, Marcin Gortat, could also come in for a look, Wojnarowski adds. The Lakers want to evaluate the physical condition and mindset of each player as they seek to replace DeMarcus Cousins.

Cousins suffered a torn ACL this month after he signed a one-year contract with the Lakers. Cousins could miss the entire season.

The Grizzlies had already granted the Lakers permission to meet with Howard. Memphis acquired him from the Wizards this offseason but he’s not part of their plans. The Grizzlies could make a trade or reach a buyout on his $5.6MM contract if the Lakers want him.

Noah averaged 7.1 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 41 games for Memphis last season after his woeful stint with the Knicks. He hasn’t drawn much attention on the free agent market, though he reportedly was being very selective about his next NBA destination.

Speights, who played in China last season, worked out in front of numerous NBA executives last month in Las Vegas.

Gortat was waived by the Clippers at the trade deadline last season and didn’t get picked up.

The Lakers currently have 14 players with guaranteed deals.

Pacific Notes: Cousins, Kuzma, Fox, Suns

August 18th, 2019 at 12:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

NBA players and coaches sent messages of sympathy to Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins after news broke that he suffered an ACL tear that may sideline him for the entire season, relays Sam Amick of The Athletic. Team USA was working out in the Lakers’ practice facility when the news broke on Thursday.

“I’m devastated for DeMarcus,” said Steve Kerr, who coached Cousins with the Warriors last season. “It’s been a couple years of hell for DeMarcus with the injuries, first the Achilles and then last year in the playoffs with the quad. I was really hoping that this would be a year for him upcoming with the Lakers where he could get healthy, get his rhythm, get his conditioning and really start his comeback. We’re all crushed for him, everybody in this gym, all these fellow players and coaches.”

Along with the physical toll, the injuries have impacted Cousins financially as he appeared to be in line for a max contract last summer that would have paid $207MM him over five years if he had stayed healthy. Now he may be looking at another veteran’s minimum deal in 2020.

“It hurt, man, breaks my heart,” Rockets forward P.J. Tucker said. “DeMarcus is such a good guy. He’s one of the best bigs I’ve ever played against — ever. He’s amazing. And to see somebody like that get hurt, fight to come back, get in shape, lose weight, do all this stuff, and then get hurt again, man, it’s heartbreaking, honestly.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Cousins’ injury may force Lakers teammate Kyle Kuzma into significant minutes at center, and he tells Amick that he’s using his time with Team USA to get ready for that possibility. “One thing that’s going to prepare me well playing with USA Basketball is they really like my versatility and how I can play the three, four and put me at the five a little bit,” Kuzma said. “Last year, I didn’t really have experience with that, but now USA Basketball is allowing me to work on those things. And if (Lakers coach Frank) Vogel wants me to do that, that’s what I gotta do.”
The combination of a tough travel schedule and no guarantee of playing time may have convinced De’Aaron Fox to leave Team USA, suggests James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area. The Americans will spend 12 days in Australia and maybe 17 days in China, then the Kings have a preseason trip to India. Ham notes that amounts to about 40,000 air miles before the season begins.
The Suns are poised to make the biggest improvement this season, according to projections from Kevin Pelton of ESPN. His formula has Phoenix doubling its win total from 19 to 38.

DeMarcus Cousins Suffers Torn ACL

August 15th, 2019 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

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.

DeMarcus Cousins Undergoing Tests On Possible Knee Injury

August 15th, 2019 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

DeMarcus Cousins‘ time as a Laker is off to a worrisome start. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Cousins has suffered a possible knee injury and will undergo tests today in Los Angeles to diagnose the issue. He’s also expected to meet with Lakers team doctors, Woj adds.

Sources tell Wojnarowski that Cousins was working out in Las Vegas on Monday when he had to leave the court after what one source described as “bumping knees” with another player. Woj’s report is otherwise light on details, so it’s unclear whether Cousins’ camp and/or the Lakers are concerned that the big man’s injury is significant.

Cousins has been hit with some terrible injury luck in recent years, starting with the torn Achilles tendon he suffered with the Pelicans during the 2017/18 season.

After signing a one-year contract with the Warriors for 2018/19, he made it back on the court during the second half of the season, but tore his quadriceps muscle early in his playoff run with Golden State. Although Cousins managed to get healthy enough to return to the Warriors’ lineup by the NBA Finals, he didn’t look at all like his old explosive self during that series.

There was optimism that a full offseason of rest and rehab would put Cousins in position to bounce back in 2019/20 on a one-year deal with the Lakers. However, it sounds like his latest leg issue – this time a knee injury – could represent another setback.

Before we speculate too much about Cousins’ outlook though, we’ll have to wait for further details on what the test reveal — hopefully it’s not a serious injury.

[UPDATE: DeMarcus Cousins suffers torn ACL]

Daniel Theis Re-Signs With Celtics

July 17th, 2019 at 2:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 17: The Celtics have officially re-signed Theis, the club confirmed today in a press release.

JULY 2: The Celtics have reached an agreement to keep forward/center Daniel Theis, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The two-year, $10MM deal was confirmed by Theis’ agents, Michael Tellem and Aaron Mintz of CAA.

Boston will use its Early Bird rights to re-sign Theis, allowing the team to exceed the cap, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The deal won’t be finalized until after the Celtics exhaust their cap space by adding Kemba Walker.

Theis has been a reliable backup since coming to Boston in 2017. He appeared in 66 games this season, starting twice, and averaged 5.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in about 14 minutes per night.

Theis may complete the Celtics’ efforts to fortify the center position after losing Al Horford in free agency and trading Aron Baynes. They reached an agreement with Enes Kanter on Sunday and French center Vincent Poirier earlier today.

Boston has no plans to pursue free agent DeMarcus Cousins, believing the “potential drama” outweighs any benefits, according to Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald (Twitter link).

Lakers Notes: Pelinka, Contracts, Green, Cousins

July 12th, 2019 at 6:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Lakers are taking an all-or-nothing mentality into next season with the acquisition of Anthony Davis and numerous veteran free agents, including DeMarcus Cousins. GM Rob Pelinka said there’s only one goal for next season, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “For us, anything short of a championship is not success,” Pelinka said. “So we have to learn from last season, because we didn’t win a championship. And a lot of that went into the construction of the roster this year.”

We have more on the Lakers:

Pelinka notes the benefit of signing players to short-term contracts. While Davis is expected to be a long-term Lakers, only James (player option) is currently on the books beyond 2021, Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times relays. “It gives us the ability to not only contend in the short term with the players we wanted, but also add a superstar or max player in that July of 2021,” Pelinka said.
Shooting guard Danny Green, another off-season free agent addition, said he waited for Raptors teammate Kawhi Leonard to make his decision before he chose his destination, according to another Ganguli story. Green may have stayed in Toronto or gone to Dallas if Leonard hadn’t joined the Clippers. “Those five days seemed like five months. … You think a day, it goes by pretty fast but the way it was happening, the way I was talking to him, you would think it was a week. Like, ‘I got to wait another day, dude? Like, come on!’” Green said.
The Cousins signing will only work if he’s willing to come off the bench and split the center spot with JaVale McGee, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times opines. That could be a tough for Cousins to accept, given that he was a premier player prior to rupturing his Achilles two seasons ago, Woike notes. Cousins is thrilled to be reunited with former Pelicans teammate Davis, Youngmisuk writes in a separate story. “We realized how much better we made one another and how much we made the game easier for each other. We both appreciate each other’s presence,” Cousins said. “To add LeBron James to the mix, his résumé speaks for itself.”

Lakers Officially Acquire Anthony Davis In Three-Team Trade

July 6th, 2019 at 9:54pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers, Pelicans, and Wizards have officially completed the three-team trade that makes Anthony Davis a Laker. All three teams issued press releases tonight to announce the deal. The structure of the trade is as follows:

Lakers acquire Anthony Davis.
Pelicans acquire Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, the draft rights to De’Andre Hunter (No. 4 pick), the Lakers’ 2021 first-round pick (9-30 protected; unprotected in 2022), the Lakers’ 2024 first-round pick (unprotected), the right to swap 2023 first-round picks with the Lakers, and cash ($1.1MM; from Wizards).
- Note: The Pelicans will also have the option to defer the 2024 first-round pick to 2025.
Wizards acquire Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga, Jemerrio Jones, and the Lakers’ 2022 second-round pick.

The long-awaited deal was held up slightly today as the Lakers officially finalized a series of signings using their cap room. In order to maximize its cap space, the club had to sign free agents first before acquiring Davis. Danny Green, DeMarcus Cousins, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Quinn Cook, and JaVale McGee all signed their contracts with the Lakers since the July moratorium ended this afternoon.

The Pelicans, meanwhile, will now flip the rights to Hunter to the Hawks in a separate deal, putting the No. 4 pick on track to join his new team for Summer League action. Once the deal is done, Atlanta will also be able to complete its trade with the Sixers involving Bruno Fernando and Jordan Bone, then Philadelphia will be able to flip Bone to the Pistons.

For more details on one of the summer’s biggest trades, be sure to check out our previous stories on the Lakers/Pelicans aspect of the deal, as well as the Lakers/Wizards part of the swap.

Lakers Announce Multiple Signings

July 6th, 2019 at 8:42pm CST by Arthur Hill

After a flurry of moves today, the Lakers have made five of them official, tweets Bill Oram of The Athletic.

The team announced the re-signing of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and JaVale McGee, along with the free agent additions of DeMarcus Cousins, Quinn Cook and Danny Green.

Still to come are the signings of Rajon Rondo, Troy Daniels, Jared Dudley and Alex Caruso, along with confirmation of the mega-deal that will bring Anthony Davis from the Pelicans.