Boogie Experiment Over?

Demarcus Cousins holding his Golden State Warriors jersey after signing with the Warriors.

The signing of Demarcus Cousins, much like the signing of Kevin Durant, came as a huge surprise and shook the entire league. All around the National Basketball Association (NBA) from analyst, coaches, players, and sports talk show hosts were all caught by surprise by the signing. The addition of Demarcus Cousins meant the entire starting line up of the Golden State Warriors team would be the assembling of five All-Stars. Many players and fans were wondering how this could happen and if it were against some kind of rules. It's been said before but now the joke about there being no need for the season to even take place resurfaced. Twitter buzzed on about how the league should just hand the Golden State Warriors the ring now because 'we all know who's going to win.' The impact of bringing in Demarcus sent a shockwave throughout the entire basketball community and made headlines everywhere. The 2018 - 2019 NBA season started on October 16th in 2018. Although the Warriors were anxious to experiment with their new powerhouse of a player Demarcus still had healing and rehab to get through before he could even dream of stepping back on the NBA court for a full-length regular season game.

Demarcus Cousins (Right) high-fives his teammate Draymond Green (Left) in his Warriors debut.

After a long awaited return the day finally came when Demarcus Cousins was cleared to play. Although the Warriors organization wanted to be cautious placing him on a minutes restriction this was still an exciting moment anticipated by Demarcus and all of the Warriors fans. Dub Nation and Demarcus Cousins have been waiting for the moment since July of 2018 when the Warriors first signed Cousins. The Date was January 26, 2019 against the Los Angeles Clippers who they are currently playing in the first round of the NBA 2019 Playoffs. Demarcus Cousins assisted the Warriors in defeating the Clippers in his Warriors debut and everyone who cheered for the Warriors were happy. the team was happy, and above all, Demarcus was happy to be back on the court playing the sport he loved so dearly.

Demarcus Cousins holds his left leg writhing in pain on the floor.

Unfortunately for Demarcus Cousins and all of Dub Nation his first season with the Warriors was short lived. The experiment had failed due to an unforeseen injury. This was to be expected as a possibility. The Warriors were taking a gamble by signing an injured Demarcus Cousins and unfortunately for both sides the gamble didn't play out in the Warriors favor. Demarcus Cousins tore his quad during the first round of the NBA Playoffs. He made his return against the Clippers and made his unfortunate exit against the Clippers as well. The question now isn't, "Do we resign a re-injured Demarcus Cousins and take another gamble all over again?" The question is, "Is it even possible to resign Demarcus Cousins?" With rules in place like cap space and luxury taxes it makes it hard to predict the plans for the Warriors future. I'm sure the Warriors are just as uncertain about their future as we the fans are. Until things unfold organically and we see after time who will decide to stay and who will choose to leave, then, and only then will we know our options. NBA Teams are hesitant to sign injured players, especially one that came off of an injury and re-injured himself. This is part of what makes it possible but Demarcus would have to also be willing to take a deal offering him less money than what he's truly worth (which he already did for this 2018 - 2019 season.) We'll all just have to wait and see if the Boogie experiment is over but for now let's enjoy the Playoffs and hope for another championship!

Thank you very much for your time,

Dan.