Why the Mavs Will Politely Pass (Again) on Boogie Cousins
DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks are telling us, with both confidence and politeness, that their satisfaction with their present roster is why they have no plans to sign DeMarcus Cousins, an injury wash-out with the Los Angeles Lakers who is still rehabbing his ACL injury.
"We don’t have any roster spots,'' Mavs owner Mark Cuban said on Sunday in Atlanta, just before all sorts of Dairy Queen Hell broke loose. "If we had a roster spot, we would probably do something, but we don’t. And there’s nobody we want to release."
The Mavs have reasons to like the roster as it stands. Following the Atlanta loss and entering tonight's AAC visit from Minnesota, they are 34-23 and trying to cling to the back end of the race in the Western Conference standings.
But in truth, Dallas has lots of roster spots. Just like every team does - even the ones who don't have Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis atop their depth charts. What Cuban is saying the Mavs do not have is a roster spot who is presently being held by a player who is inferior to Boogie.
Cuban can be applauded for his manners here. But the fact is, while Dallas has often been linked to Cousins, whatever interest there ever was - even when he was a star surrounded by tumult in Sacramento - was overplayed by the mainstream media. That was especially true in the summer of 2018 when he was a free agent but was coming off a torn Achilles while playing for the New Orleans Pelicans. He ended up signing with Golden State on the cheap, and then bounced to the Lakers as a reclamation project.
Welcome to Muscle MX, an official sponsor of DallasBasketball.com at SI. Click the image to learn more!
If the 6-11 Cousins, who is just 29, could still play, at even a fraction of what he was in his prime as a 27/10 guy, teams would be scrambling to add him to the end of their bench. Dallas has depth. But not decent-Boogie-level depth.
So the Dallas Mavericks wish DeMarcus Cousins good luck on his journey, and they do so politely.
