It may have snuck up on you a little bit, but DeMarcus Cousins has played nearly 10 games for the Milwaukee Bucks since being picked up late last month to help fill a void in the frontcourt after it was announced that Brook Lopez was undergoing back surgery.
Expectations had to be tempered for the 31-year-old as he wasn’t the player that he used to be, but he was seen as someone who could come in and give them solid spot minutes and provide a big body presence that they didn’t have without Lopez.
That is exactly what he has provided, but as we’re around 20 days out from the day in which the organization will need to decide whether they want to fully guarantee his salary for the rest of the season (January 7th). So, through his first nine games, how does the situation look for Cousins and the Bucks?
Should DeMarcus Cousins have his contract fully guaranteed by the Milwaukee Bucks?
Let’s start with the basics, Cousins is averaging 5.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 14.4 minutes per night. Not terrible numbers, it’s roughly 14 and 12 per 16 minutes, but the shooting efficiency is what’s hurting his value right now offensively.
Cousins is shooting under 22 percent from 3 on over two and a half attempts per game so far, he has a 50 percent 3-point attempt rate (the highest of his career) and is posting a sub-50 percent true shooting. He’s shooting around 62 percent at the rim, which is in the 36th percentile for his position group, per Cleaning the Glass (subscription required). He’s also turning it over at a near career-worst 18.6 percent
How about if we ignore his lack of scoring. The Bucks don’t need him to put up buckets as prime Boogie did, so how about his defense and rebounding? How does he fare at the other end of the floor?
For the latter, as he as for his entire career, Cousins is posting very strong individual rebounding numbers. His rebounding rate is 18.6 percent is great (a 10.6 percent offensive rebounding rate is what fuels his offensive value) and has certainly provided the big body presence in that regard.
But rebounding is more about the team stats than a single player’s numbers. In that aspect, the Bucks do rebound better at both ends with Cousins on the floor, which is not something that can always be said about teams he’s been on, so that’s a feather in both his and the Bucks’ caps for making it work.
His block rate is the lowest of his career right now, which shows that he’s not necessarily fitting well into what the Bucks like to do in terms of defending the rim. He has been a solid-to-good rim protector throughout his career but opponents are shooting over 78 percent in the restricted area against Cousins, per NBA.com/stats. That’s pretty bad!
He’s also been a foul magnet with over two and a half fouls per game and a 6.8 percent foul rate (third percentile among bigs).
So his offense hasn’t been great and his defense is also lacking. He is helping the Bucks rebound and they force more turnovers when he’s on the floor (as evidenced by his high steal rate). It’s not ideal through his first month or so thus far.
However, if the Bucks were to not guarantee Cousins’ contract, who would they replace him with? It’s unclear when (or if) Lopez will return this season, so the Bucks will need to have some semblance of a backup big man that isn’t Sandro Mamukelashvili and Thanasis Antetokounmpo.
He’s been a relatively solid stopgap option while the Bucks survey the trade landscape in search of a more capable big. There are options available in that regard that should be enticing to the Bucks and if they can find a suitable upgrade who can cover more holes if Lopez doesn’t return this season, they should absolutely do so.
There is something that can be said for Cousins bringing a veteran presence to the locker room. Although the Bucks are defending champs, every team still needs solid vets and toughness. We’ve seen Cousins tutoring and mentoring Mamukelashvili a little bit so far, by all accounts the rest of the team likes him, and he’s been tenacious (sometimes too much so).
Right now, I don’t see much harm in keeping Cousins around to be a veteran presence and be the “P.J. Tucker role” in terms of his toughness and attitude. When the Bucks are at full health (without Lopez), Cousins’ flaws are mitigated and masked with having so many good players around him to cover up his mistakes.
Cousins also has, as I mentioned, around 20 days to show that he can be a good fit on the court. He’s not a perfect player by any means, but for what they need him to do, Cousins has given them good value so far and has made a case to stick around.