Milwaukee Bucks waive DeMarcus Cousins
On Wednesday night, DeMarcus Cousins had 15 points, 10 rebounds and three steals off the bench for the Milwaukee Bucks. On Thursday, the Bucks waived the former Mobile prep star.
A four-time NBA All-Star whose career was derailed by injuries that started four years ago, Cousins had been with the Bucks since Nov. 30. In 17 games, the former LeFlore standout had averaged 9.1 points and 5.8 rebounds while playing 16.9 minutes per game.
But a looming league deadline prompted Milwaukee to release the 6-foot-10 center. On Friday, players on NBA rosters who have non-guaranteed contracts will see those contracts become guaranteed for the remainder of the season.
“We wouldn’t have been able to get through this difficult stretch of the season as successfully as we did without DeMarcus,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst told ESPN. “At the end of the day, we made a strategic decision to have an open roster spot, but there’s nothing that would prevent us from partnering with DeMarcus again down the road. He was so good for us, and, hopefully, we helped him, too.”
The fifth player picked in the 2010 NBA Draft after one season at Kentucky, Cousins earned selection for the NBA All-Star Game in 2015, 2016 and 2017 as a member of the Sacramento Kings and in 2018 while playing for the New Orleans Pelicans. He also won a silver medal in men’s basketball playing for the U.S. team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
On Jan. 26, 2018, Cousins suffered a torn Achilles tendon in his left leg while playing for New Orleans.
Cousins did not return to the court until Jan. 18, 2019. With the Golden State Warriors, he played in 30 regular-season games. In the postseason for the first time in his NBA career, Cousins suffered a torn quadriceps in the second game of Golden State’s first-round series. He overcame the injury to return in the third game of the NBA Finals, but the Warriors lost to the Toronto Raptors in seven games in the league championship series.
The Los Angeles Lakers signed Cousins on July 6, 2019. But he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament on Aug. 19, 2019. The Lakers released Cousins on Feb. 23, 2020, before he could make it back to the court, and he did not play during the 2019-20 season.
In the 2020-21 season, Cousins played 25 games with the Rockets and 16 with the Los Angeles Clippers in the regular season. He averaged 8.9 points and 6.4 rebounds while playing 17.4 minutes per game.
In 623 NBA regular-season games, Cousins has averaged 20.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.2 assists.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
