The biggest story of the offseason, of course, has been LeBron James’ decision to sign with the Lakers on a four-year deal. But perhaps the most underrated story has been DeMarcus Cousins joining the Warriors. Golden State used LeBron’s announcement almost as an opportunity for a news dump, hoping the rest of the league wouldn’t notice or that they’d be too distracted to scrutinize it to closely.
And not only have we still not had a chance to process it fully, we won’t understand all of its implications until Cousins is fully recovered and back on the court, which could be somewhere around the midway mark of next season. It goes without saying that it he comes back fully healthy, the Warriors will be an unfathomable force of nature.
Adding Kevin Durant to a 73-win team was already difficult to comprehend – and virtually impossible to compete with – and the Warriors will now field a team that consists of five All-Stars, two former MVPs, a Defensive Player of the Year, and perhaps the two greatest shooters in NBA history.
It’s truly something to behold, a marvel of modern professional sports team building. Whether it’s good for the league is an entirely different debate. Commissioner Adam Silver has himself experienced evolving feelings on the matter, initially expressing his reservations about the Durant signing two years ago, but now apparently is all in on Golden State doing whatever they can, within the rules, to win, via Ben Golliver of SI.com.
“We want teams to compete like crazy,” Silver said. “I think the Warriors—within the framework of this deal—should be doing everything they can to increase their dominance. That’s what you want to see in a league. You want teams to compete in every way they can within the rules.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s per se bad that the Warriors are so dominant. As I’ve said before, we’re not trying to create some sort of forced parity. What we really focus on is parity of opportunity.”
It bears mentioning that Cousins’ future with the Warriors beyond this season is still up in the year. He’s on a one-year deal and could opt to ply his wares elsewhere if he so chooses.
But his acquisition is just the latest indication that Golden State doesn’t plan on being complacent, regardless of how much talent they’ve already amassed over the years.
(SI.com)
