Will a healthy Cousins make the Warriors better or worse?

The entire basis for trading is that net gains can be made my putting players in better situations.

If you don’t understand how DMC could help one team but not another, then you don’t really understand trading at all. Has zero to do with homerism.

 

what?? 75-80% of cousins is not better than what capela does for the rockets right now.
boogie is and has always been a high volume, low efficiency player with lazy def on top of that. he would get killed in our defensive scheme and has been slow on defensive rotations even when healthy. he also wouldn't be willing to run up and down the court, and set those high screens the way capela does so enthusiastically for us.
add that to the fact that he is notoriously known as a terrible teammate, and that he's in a contract year trying to prove that he's still worth a lot of money... i wouldn't want to touch him with a 10ft pole. and you guys thought melo was a cancer... there's a good reason why cousins has never been on a winning team - and the pelicans played so much better once cousins went down with injury last season.

 

DeMarcus is a more skilled big than Clint, yes. But you're completely ignoring the fit.

Harden/Capela >>> Harden/Cousins.

 

No, you said that.

I’m saying that trades would not occur if, on average, neither team became better after the fact.

It’s the basis for all trade offs in economics, nevermind basketball, and you’re arguing that it doesn’t exist.

Would Lebron make every team better? Yes. Would some teams utilize lebron’s contribution better than others? Also yes.

In cases that occur at the margin, like DMC, it’s entirely possible that the player could contribute to some teams, and not to others. MAINLY in teams with high opportunity cost (cough, the warriors)

 

look at it this way.. there's only so many shots a team can take in a game.
would you rather have:
a) 3 all time great shooters (klay, kd, steph) taking 90% of your team's shots
or b) a low to mid 40s fg%, and low 30% 3pt shooter in cousins taking 25% of those shots that are available in a typical game

sure cousins has great footwork and is highly skilled on the offensive end, but he's never been efficient... just like melo - who has always had great footwork and an unbelievable offensive arsenal of moves. any shots that cousins takes is taking away shots from steph, klay, and kd who are that much better at shooting than he is. and against teams that have legit big men who can defend cousins one on one (capela, gobert, steven adams), there is no advantage for the warriors. they'd actually be playing into the other team's hands by playing cousins instead of using their small ball lineup with draymond at the 5 kd at 4 and igoudala at the 3.

 

odds are he doesn't come close to pre-injury hops/quickness/agility. odds are also that he's too dumb and stubborn to have re-made his game in the past few months in order to still be effective. F the worriers

 

Worse he wont know how to fit in.

 

I'm hoping worse, I like knowing that the Warriors are having a shitty season too, I mean if they were straight up killing it right now I'd be more worried for the Rockets, but with how tight the West Conference is... It gives me hope for someone to dethrone them, unless of course they're coasting atm .. But I don't think they are because if some crazy injury/injuries happen they'd be at the same record as us. So... If at the 1/2 or 3/4 point it's still close maybe some of their chemistry is broken.

With Cousins back I think on paper it sounds awesome (for them), but with the chemistry rumors and the fans at their throats between Durant vs Green drama it at least makes it fun. Especially knowing that this might be their last year with all their stars.

Regardless Cousins is great but I'm not sure he fits with their play, unless they're more banged up and slow the pace. What's scary is it could allow them to switch to a 1/2 court slow offense/in the paint team when the 3s broken. If they had that ability in game 7 against the Rockets last year... It might have been a lot worse showing after the Rockets missed their historically worst 3 point % I can recall.

 

On a side note ..

I also wonder if Kerr has any trouble with all the egos. Especially Durant, have to hold him with kid gloves. Great player and person off the court regarding humanitarian efforts but... Not the alpha. I mean Jordan could control Rodman for the most part, that stupid ass shouting match would not have ended with Rodman getting suspended. I mean think about that ****ing time Hakeem the Dream straight up slapped Maxwell in the locker room, you didn't hear about Maxwell/Dream getting suspended, that's some b**** ass **** by the Warriors. Durant must have really been crying or they're worried he's gone and want a shot still so they sided with him. Good job on the chemistry and letting the ****ing guys figure it out on their own. This wasn't some stupid ****ing Gilbert Arenas ****, GTFO and fix it in the locker room or on the court, not with HR

 

When they first announced the signing my initial reaction was too many mouths to feed and he isn't really what they need in a center. But seeing how many minutes some of their trash role players get on a nightly basis, I don't see how throwing Boogie Cousins into the mix possibly makes them worse at this point. I guess we'll see how healthy he really is