Bye-Bye, Boogie: Bucks Waive Veteran Center DeMarcus Cousins
For a little over a month, DeMarcus Cousins did everything the Milwaukee Bucks asked — and needed — both on and off the court.
Yet that wasn't enough for the Bucks to guarantee the veteran center's contract for the remainder of the National Basketball Association season.
After Cousins scored 15 points and 10 rebounds for a shorthanded Milwaukee team losing to Toronto on Wednesday night, news broke that the Bucks had signed him before Friday's deadline to guarantee non-guaranteed contracts such as a one-year deal. I had planned to forgive. Signed with Milwaukee on November 30.
The team officially announced the move on Thursday afternoon.
Cousins, 31, was back home in Denver waiting for an opportunity after going through the summer and the first two months of the regular season without an offer. At the time, the Bucks were looking for shape to help take the pressure off Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, who were seeing most of the action with Brooke Lopez at center, sidelined since the season opener due to back problems. was done.
The Milwaukee Bucks have requested waivers on center DeMarcus Cousins.https://t.co/a3ylKd79K3
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 6, 2022
That became even more valuable when both players became involved in the league's health and safety protocols, leading to Cousins' five starts at Milwaukee.
In all, Cousins appeared in 17 games for the Bucks, averaging 9.1 points on 46.6% shooting with 5.8 rebounds and 0.9 blocks, while the Bucks averaged 11-6 playing 16.8 minutes.
Because of that production, the move came as a surprise, especially with Lopez still recovering from back surgery. But with many players expected to appear on the open market on Friday and the NBA trading deadline a month away, Bucks general manager John Horst decided that the flexibility that came with open roster spots was more important at this point in the season. .
"We wouldn't have gotten through this difficult phase of the season as successfully as we did without DeMarcus," Horst told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday night. “At the end of the day, we made a strategic decision to have an open roster spot, but there is nothing that can stop us from partnering with DeMarcus again down the road. He was very nice to us, and hopefully We helped him too."
After pardoning the cousins, the Bucks roster has 17 players - 14 full-time players, two on two-way contracts and the other, Luke Cornett, playing under a 10-day difficulty deal. That group also includes swingman Wes Matthews, who, like Cousins, is playing under a non-guaranteed deal that the Bucks need to make a decision before Friday's deadline.
Considering that Bucks Matthews, a Wisconsin native, averaged 5.9 points and 3.2 3-pointers per game in his second stint with the team, he would still have another roster spot that he could use to rate a player as standard or Difficulty 10 can to sign. -Day contract, get help before the deadline or sign a free agent after a round of buyouts that follow the trade deadline.
