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Should the NBA be worried about Cousins joining the Warriors?

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This year’s NBA free agency has been absolute mayhem. It’s seen new contenders rise in each division while others have run out of time, *cough* Houston *cough*.

LeBron James moved to LA and became a Laker, he made the strangest decision ever and recruited Lance Stephenson to LA to play with him. Paul George shocked many by staying with Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City and Houston started free agency off brilliantly by keeping Chris Paul on their books.

However, there was one move that no one was expecting and when it actually happened, everyone suddenly quit on the whole league, journalists and fans alike. This move was DeMarcus Cousins taking a huge pay cut to join the Golden State Warriors on a one-year deal, leaving Anthony Davis and the Pelicans in the dust.

As soon as this was announced by Adrian Wojnarkowski himself, the whole league went into chaos. People were saying, it’s unfair to have five All-Stars on your team and Boogie’s a sellout, but the funniest thing was people were on about refusing to watch the NBA until the league sorted this out.

Come on, you’re all hypocrites. Why are you scrapping the NBA now but celebrated Jordan and that Bulls team dominating the league? Why did you not stop watching the NFL when New England were getting to the Super Bowl every season? Just because Cousins joins the Warriors means the league is over? That’s wrong in so many ways and here is why…

Does Boogie deserve the blame?

Hell no, he doesn’t deserve any of the blame. People seem to miss the fact that he refused another 60 million dollars to take a 5 million deal to get a ring.

    

He was smart, he could see he was getting nowhere near a ring in New Orleans, he swallowed his pride, took the pay cut and went chasing a ring.

This is another sign of hypocrisy. Fans complain when a player leaves their team just for a bit of extra money, but when Cousins makes this move and takes a 55 million dollar pay cut, he’s simply ruining the league. Choose a side please, do you dislike players who chase money or do you dislike players who take a huge pay cut to chase a ring that he deserves?

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There are also many reasons why this move doesn’t actually ruin the NBA. This move is being taken as though Boogie will fit perfectly into Golden State’s system, but who says it’s a certainty? Another reason is that no one knows when he will be back from a major injury and the injury he suffered is particularly bad for big men. Who’s to say he comes back in March and completely flops, just because he’s an All-Star doesn’t mean he will play as well in every team as he did in New Orleans.

People also seem to forget the West has completely changed since the move.

    

LeBron James is over in the West, something we have never seen, so how can anyone predict the future when we have no idea how the West will be with LeBron in there. Houston have fallen off through free agency but who knows what happens with the Thunder? Are people forgetting that the East has been blown wide open and you have the Boston Celtics ready to dominate the league now that Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving are back from injury? There are so many factors to take in that it’s pretty much impossible to predict if this move genuinely makes the Warriors invincible.

The only thing I dislike about this move is the way Boogie treated his now ex-teammate, Anthony Davis. Davis wore his shirt during the All-Star game, Davis never spoke about how he was carrying the Pelicans through the regular season and playoffs, he always said ‘Imagine what we would be like with Cousins on the court’. I really do feel sorry for AD, he didn’t deserve this treatment from Boogie and Boogie should be ashamed of himself for how he dealt with this move in terms of AD.

Do Golden State deserve the blame?

Once again, hell no. Golden State were just smarter than all of the other franchises. If I was a high-level franchise, like Houston, LA or Boston and knew Boogie was leaving New Orleans, I’d be on that phone instantly and say ‘Whatever you want, I’ll give it you’.

I know the reports are saying Boogie went and pitched himself to Golden State but that doesn’t mean he only wanted to go there. He only went to Golden State himself because no one was offering him any deals. How can you not offer someone a deal and then moan about where he ends up?

Golden State have made the perfect deal. If it works perfectly and Boogie comes back from injury in January, plays perfectly and wins a ring, the Warriors added a fifth All-Star that won them another ring. If he struggles to come back quickly and he doesn’t quite play like he did, it still means you have taken an All-Star big man off the table for all of your title rivals. It’s such a smart move and it should really be appreciated more than it is being.

Is there a way to stop this in the future?

Honestly, I don’t think there’s a way of stopping this sort of move from happening that also doesn’t ruin the whole shock value of free agency and trades. The best thing about free agency and trades are the fact that you genuinely do not know what will happen.

Until you see a respected journalist put out a tweet saying this guy is moving there, you can only speculate. If you tried to restrict a team moving for another All-Star then you’re just ruining that team’s free agency and you’re restricting them specifically, which could be considered unfair.

It’s a massive grey area in the sport and I can see why people want it to be stopped but I also see why we should just leave it alone. Golden State will, at some point, fall off. Remember they only have Boogie for one year, Klay Thompson becomes a free agent next year and all of a sudden, they’re down to three All-Stars again. The only rule that kind of makes sense, but I am still against it, is restricting a team with three or more All-Stars on making moves for another All-Star, but even then it just doesn’t seem fair on either side.

This is a problem for a huge amount of NBA fans but I just don’t see how this move ruins the NBA when you have had dynasties in the past which everyone celebrates. However, when Boogie takes a 55 million dollar pay cut, he ruins the NBA?

I just don’t get where people are coming from. To be honest, this move should pump you up more for next season because you’ll be rooting more and more for teams to dethrone the Warriors. Golden State playoff games will mean more to most of the fans and there will be a huge buzz if they go down in a playoff series against someone like OKC or LA who have the weapons to overcome their five All-Stars.