Cousins' NBA career is coming to an end again.
According to a piece of news from yesterday, bucks reporter Jim Owczarski reported that the Bucks have officially laid off DeMarcus Cousins, who struck a one-year insecure contract with the Bucks a month ago.
It is reported that the main purpose of the Bucks' move is to save money and free up places, local time on Friday, all non-full guarantee contracts in the league will be converted to guarantee contracts, in order to maintain the flexibility of the lineup, the Bucks chose to abandon Cousins.
Bucks general manager Horst said in the interview: "We made some decisions (to cut Cousins) and then reserved a place on the lineup, but nothing stopped us from wanting to continue working with him in the future, without him we wouldn't have been able to get through this tough season, he's great and hopefully we can help him as well." ”
Honestly, Cousins played really well with the Bucks.
In the 17 games he played for the Bucks, Cousins averaged 9.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game, shooting 46.6 percent from the field, 27.1 percent from three-point range, 81.6 percent from the free throw line and 57.1 percent from the true range.
It should be said that Cousins only scored these data in 16.9 minutes of playing time, which translates to every 36 minutes, Cousins can average 19.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
In just 17 games, Cousins has made an impressive performance on several occasions:
— Against the Cavaliers, he made 4-of-11 and had 12 points, 12 rebounds and 5 steals
— Against the Rockets, he made 7-of-13 and had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists
Against the Lone Ranger, he was 8-of-15, with 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists
Against the Magic, he made 5 of 7 and had 15 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks
It is worth mentioning that in the previous game of being cut, Cousins just made 5 of 8 shots in the game against the Raptors, with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals, and he only played less than 20 minutes in this game.
Probably some people will say that Cousins offense has not been bad, the problem is in the defense, not false, but during this time for the Bucks, Cousins defense is not so bad, he can average 0.9 steals and 0.5 blocks per game, limiting the opponent's shooting rate is 45.9%, limiting the opponent's three-point shooting rate is only 18.9%.
Data from the field can also illustrate Cousins' role:
In Cousins' presence, the Bucks scored 117.1 points/109.4 points per 100 possessions, outperforming their opponents by 7.7 points
Cousins is not present, and the Bucks score 110.6 points/108.6 points per 100 possessions, outperforming their opponents by 2.0 points
One of the reasons Cousins has been repeatedly abandoned over the past few years is that he has lost to the team on the field, take the performance after last season's transfer to the Clippers:
In the regular season, Cousins was present, and the Clippers lost 2.8 points per 100 rounds
Cousins was not present in the regular season, and the Clippers won 8.0 points per 100 rounds
— Cousins was on the floor in the playoffs, and the Clippers lost 17.4 points per 100 games
— Cousins was not present in the playoffs, and the Clippers won 6.0 points per 100 rounds
That's why we say "chills" — you could say he dragged the team's hind legs before the Clippers and Rockets, but this time at the Bucks, Cousins really tried his best, you know, he's just a base salary player, and it's very rare to have this kind of performance.
Of course, this journey of the Bucks is not useless.
At least for Cousins, he proved that he still has the strength to rotate on a strong team, which is definitely helpful for his subsequent career, and hopefully in the rest of the season, we can see Cousins go back to the NBA and fall into the sky, and over the years, he has really experienced too much.