Mavs Won't 'Boogie'; Why Cousins Isn't A Dallas Fit
DALLAS - In this space in the last couple of years, when I’ve broached the idea of the Dallas Mavericks solving their rebounding problem by acquiring “old-fashioned center” Andre Drummond, Mavs media friends and MFFLs kick me around something awful.
READ MORE: Mavs 'Help!' Trade Donuts: Beal? Oladipo? Drummond?
Now comes the pending availability of another “old-fashioned” big DeMarcus Cousins - and amid rumors connecting Boogie to Dallas ... I’m going to kick back.
The Mavs are once again a poor rebounding team. That hasn’t changed. “Long-standing interest” in Boogie? That rumor hasn’t changed, either.
I just don’t think it’s ever, in recent years, been true.
Cousins is available, having been waived by Houston after a very short stint as a “good soldier” for the Rockets. (His willingness to attack the bad teammate that is Rockets ex certainly earns Boogie a place in my heart.)
But ... he’s out of gas.
And the Mavs need fuel.
There is, simply, not a match here.
Cousins was an All-NBA-level force five years ago. But he wasn’t good enough to earn an important role with Houston, and while his Rockets averages (9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds) are respectable, his shooting and his mobility (the result of a series of debilitating leg injuries) are awful.
READ MORE: Mavs Plotting To Trade Porzingis? 3 Problems
I don’t know what Boogie wants. To play a similar-to-Houston role for a .500 Dallas team that is trying to iron out its own issues, including trade rumors regarding Kristaps Porzingis? I doubt it.
But I know what Dallas needs and I think I know what Dallas wants. And a shell of what Boogie Cousins used to be isn’t it.
CONTINUE READING: Mavs' Mark Cuban To DBcom: No Porzingis Trade Talk - But 'Somebody's Talking Shit'
