Off court issues made DeMarcus Cousins a trade target every season he played in Sacramento. Technical fouls, yelling at refs, belittling teammates, Cousins was the NBA embodiment of the word “distraction”. Possibly unfairly, many of these distractions brought down his on-court value, as well as the perception of his talent, and he was shipped to the Pelicans for pennies on the dollar.
Now in New Orleans, he is dominating again.
As of October 30th, two players in the league are averaging over 30 points per game; Giannis Antetokounmpo and Cousins. For those of you who don’t like points per game, fine, here’s a stat that measures impact for you; Cousins ranks second in the league, behind the Greek freak, in NBA Math’s Total Points Added.
No matter what way you shake the tree, Cousins is crushing it so far this season. Albeit a small sample size, Cousins is currently averaging a career high in points, rebounds, assists, and blocks; basically, everything. He is pummeling opponents on both ends of the floor, and it is propping up the Pelicans record.
Where does one even begin to break down Cousin’s play so far? He’s been so dominant on both ends of the floor that finding a perfect starting point is hard. But there is one thing he is doing that is unlocking all of his skills, and that is taking, and making, more threes.
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before; a big man is adapting to the modern game by becoming a skilled outside shooter. Part of being guarded and spacing the floor as a three-point assassin is consistently making threes, but the other, lesser discussed aspect is simply taking them. Cousins now does both. For his career, 8.4 percent of his shots have been from long range. This season, that number is all the way up at 34.1 percent, over one-third of his field goal attempts.
He’s also making 34.1 percent of his bombs (yes, the same percentage), which is the second highest rate of his career. He’s hitting from all over the court with no hesitation:
Such a beautiful stroke from a big man. Hitting shots like that can provide an element of spacing for the whole Pelicans team. With Boogie on the court, New Orleans is shooting 68.6 percent from five feet and in. When Boogie sits, that number plummets to 51.2 percent. Jrue Holiday is the beneficiary here, as Julius Randle, the strong side help man, is afraid to get too far away from Cousins and Holiday gets an easy layup:
You can see Cousins impact in Randles actions. Leave Cousins and attempt to stop the layup, and you’re giving Boogie a wide-open look from deep, a statistically worse shot to give up than a layup. Indirectly, Cousins has a positive effect on his teammates just by being an effective three-point shooter and standing behind the line. But his teammate’s benefits are just the precipice of the impact his shooting has.
Take this clip for example. Boogie catches it behind the three-point arc and has a great look. Nurkic sprints out for a closeout, but Boogie blows by him and gets in the lane for a runner:
With Nurkic’s momentum taking him away from the rim, DMC had no trouble putting it on the floor and blowing by him. The three ball isn’t just helping Cousins space the floor for his buddies, it’s working in his own favor, too. The court has become bigger for Boogie and the Pels as a result.
And shooting isn’t the only thing DeMarcus Cousins is excelling at this season. He has also had success getting to the free-throw line; Cousins currently leads the league with 63 attempts from the charity stripe. He is knocking down these freebies at a 77.7 percent clip.
This shooting percentage equates to an average of 1.55 points per trip to the free throw line; the equivalent of shooting 51.9 percent from 3. That is ridiculous efficiency, and with a strong force like Boogie who is already tough to stop, it presents even more of a challenge.
How are you supposed to stop a guy with this many post moves without fouling? That is the difficulty his matchups are facing, and it becomes even harder to tackle when he is nailing all of his free throws. Poor rookie Caleb Swanigan had no chance after Boogie hit him with the spin move here, so he does what he should once he’s beaten; he holds Cousins arms down and fouls him:
It’s the right play from Swanigan, but that’s only because Boogie absolutely cooked him. The free throws, combined with the deep ball, are allowing Cousins to access all of his talents on the offensive end. He’s a +49 when on the court so far this season, and his addition of volume 3-point shooting and getting to the line at a career rate is a huge part of that. He already had the post moves. Now he has the whole package.
But one does not become a +49 in six games by being one dimensional. DeMarcus Cousins has also dominated on defense.
In the Pelicans season opener against the Memphis Grizzlies, Boogie had 7 blocks, and that has propped him up on his way to an average of 2.3 blocks per game so far this campaign. Watch here as he recognizes that Dillon Brooks has his man beat with a free run to the rim, so DMC leaves his assignment and drops to the rim for a monster rejection:
The rim protection on display here from Cousins is why he is posting a career-best defensive rating so far. The Pelicans are shutting down everyone at the rim so far this season thanks to Cousins and Anthony Davis, and it is a large reason for their 3-3 record so far. Even without the blocks, Cousins has been effective stopping guys in the paint. Here, he holds his own against Brook Lopez, and Lopez is forced to go for a tough hook shot instead of an easier finish, and he misses:
And here is the exact same thing happening to Jusuf Nurkic:
DeMarcus Cousins was once known as a stout defender, but in more recent seasons he has lost some of that. His defensive rating has risen every season since 2013-14′, but this season, like mentioned earlier, he has it back down to a career low.
So far, New Orleans has been able to keep DeMarcus Cousins’s off-court problems away from their franchise. Much of the reason his value was seen to be low last season was just that, but now he is letting his play do this talking. If Cousins can keep dominating on offense and controlling the post on both ends of the floor, it won’t be long before other teams are afraid of playing the Pels. For entertainment’s sake, let’s enjoy the DeMarcus Cousins show for as long as it can last.
*All stats and figures accurate as of October 30th, 2017
