DeMarcus Cousins

[NMThreeMVP]

http://grantland.com/features/wesley...n-free-agency/

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/r...g-the-rewards/

Both are worth reading right now.

[NMThreeMVP]

Dominique Wilkins

That's the one and only. And that's the one everyone holds up as a best case scenario. Fingers will definitely be crossed and hoping for that as the outcome.

[NMThreeMVP]

When is it a good time to bring up our medical staff's track record?

[jprdbulldog20]

Sources: MRI on Pelicans All-Star DeMarcus Cousins revealed a full rupture of his left Achilles tendon.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 27, 2018

[rt0307]

#Pelslife

we can't get away from it, can we

I get home from work... catch the end of such an exhilarating win... and then #pelslife strikes

[jprdbulldog20]

Sources: Surgery plan for DeMarcus Cousins, as torn Achilles go: As soon as possible. He had another All-Star season, helped lead Pelicans to 27-21 and sixth seed in West so far. https://t.co/OiMykrncCi

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 27, 2018

[luckyman]

Dominique:

I didn’t feel [like I could jump the same way once I returned]. I felt like if I jumped too hard or pushed too hard off my ankle, that it would pop again. That was all mental. Once I got through that part, I told myself, You know what? If this thing is going to pop, it’s going to pop. But I’m going to play hard. I’m going to go off of it hard. I felt funny mentally. But physically, it was repaired better than ever. In fact, it was three times stronger than my other Achilles.

Elton Brand:

When I came back, I was explosive, for me, anyway. I felt pretty good. That summer, the atrophy kind of set in, and I didn’t have the strength going on from there. But when I first got back, it was pretty good. It was probably eight months.

Quite frankly this injury has happened to mostly scrubs. But in other sports like soccer and football players come back fully. Dominique is the best comp because when it happened to him he didn't have anywhere near the wear and tear Kobe had. Wasn't quite at the end of his career like Kobe. He had played in 7 less seasons than Kobe and he was an all-star type player like Cousins/Kobe.

[jprdbulldog20]

Range on recovery for DeMarcus Cousins, league source tells ESPN: 6-to-10 months.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 27, 2018

[Pelicanidae]

I definitely agree that Dominique is a better comparison. I think his comment about it being mentally difficult is very telling; is it possible that the majority of the long term negative impact comes from that mental influence? Players becoming scared to exert themselves? Possible.

[rt0307]

Range on recovery for DeMarcus Cousins, league source tells ESPN: 6-to-10 months.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 27, 2018

so... if we re-sign him... he could possibly miss the first month or so of next season too

[Pelicanidae]

so... if we re-sign him... he could possibly miss the first month or so of next season too

Or be back early enough to go through training camp and everything. All in the air.

[luckyman]

so... if we re-sign him... he could possibly miss the first month or so of next season too

The return time most of the players that had this is 8 months. So that's back in time for pre-season.

Though he'll probably be restricted in minutes for who knows how long.

[jprdbulldog20]

Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry tells ESPN in a text message: "We were starting to play damn good basketball. DeMarcus has been great." Pelicans are 27-21, just one game out of the 5th seed in the Western Conference.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 27, 2018

[AusPel]

Should the question be asked? Did Gentry's style of play, asking a 270 pound center to play at such a pace for 36.2 minutes a night, contribute to Cousins body breaking down? No player of his size has ever been asked to play this fast. I realize this was a fluke injury but, the stress put on the lower body in this scheme of such a large person has to take its toll.

I have to agree

[UNO Gracias]

I feel horrible for Boogie and the team. This is just our luck.

#Pelslife

[N.O.Bronco]

I would not put the blame on Gentry's style of play, if anything, the style of play: letting Cousins play on the ground, camping at the three point line, driving and facilitating, is probably the best way to preserve his body.

It was Andre Miller that said humorously when asked how he played til nearly 40 "Don't leave your feet." That is basically what we did for Cousins.

The problem IMO, if there is one, is the lack of depth. Which doesn't fall on Gentry.

The science on body fatigue is clear and only becoming more overwhelming. The reason teams have moved toward playing guys fewer minutes is not because this generation is soft(the often highly touted generations were also often eras where defense was hardly played), it is because the science is crystal clear: the more a player's body is fatigued past a certain point, the probability of injury begins to rise precipitously.

It's not just the body itself, but the mental fatigue that saps your reflexes and acuity.

It's why I can't always blame players in this day and age that are made aware of these things and seek teams that are going to preserve their body. I don't know if this freak accident could of been avoided, probably not, but I do know that this team is far more likely to endure them in the future if they can't find a way to get this roster squared away with the needed depth and role playing talent to help preserve our star's bodies.

[Bricklayer]

I don't know how anyone can watch the way Cousins plays basketball, at his size, and not recognize that blowing his achilles is career altering. I don't know of a player in the NBA who has had that injury and been as effective at any point post injury as they were before. Elton Brand is the comp I keep coming up with and he was never ever the same.

Boogie is also a big dude that had to put in a lot of conditioning work over the summer just to huff and puff up the court through a lot of the first half of this season. I can't imagine we will see anything resembling the Boogie we saw tonight or in his epic game against the Bulls, at in the 18/19 season. IF we ever see it again.

But maybe Boogie comes back and changes his game and becomes more of a post player than what he's been. Maybe if he's not playing away from the basket and driving to the goal, he'll have fewer turnovers. I think he'll have to develop a new game, and it could be effective, but it won't be what we've seen.

That is my fear as well.

Maybe, just maybe, depending on the severity of the tear and modern advances, he comes back as himself, or nearly so. Even so it's notorious that first year back after an Achilles guys are never 100% what they were. But maybe by year 2 he's largely back.

But on the other hand, that agility and shiftiness that makes him so unique for a player his size...this really could be devastating in every sense of the word and age him prematurely into a slower footed heavier thugging big man. Maybe reduced to a post player and spot 3pt shooter. Devastating for him and all his chances to silence the doubters, to make the playoffs, to assure a HOF bid and put up historic level numbers (becoming the 13th 20k pt 10k reb player seemed assured 6 hours ago), for the Pels future which had just started to look bright, to Dell and Gentry who could lose their jobs in the end, to the rebirth of a Twin Towers team, and its possible impact on the league as a walking advertisement for bigs...

Goes way beyond SMH. I'm fairly distraught at all that could be lost, I can only imagine what the people actually closer to it are feeling, including DeMarcus himself. Some players just seem to have this air of tragedy hanging over them. Like it will never go right for them, ever. Written in the stars or some such. Reminds me a lot of Chris Webber, cut down just as he was finally going to silence the doubters, win a ring etc. An injury which the Kings still have never really recovered from 15 years later, and that has left him struggling for respect and to slip into the HOF after being a lock.


Here is what I will cling to for now: if you assume you can resign Boogie now, if you assume he will think he has unfinished business, then you could go into next season knowing the potential is there and having had the better part of a year to try to put together a perfect roster to put around the Towers. Of course the question will be do you really still have them? The basketball gods seem to have something against Twin Tower teams. Ralph's knees, Admiral's back, Boogie's achilles -- every time they only get to exist for such a short little spell before bleeping injuries cut them down.

[wnelson]

I feel deflated and sick over this. Can't we ever catch a break...

[redrum]

I would not put the blame on Gentry's style of play, if anything, the style of play: letting Cousins play on the ground, camping at the three point line, driving and facilitating, is probably the best way to preserve his body.

It was Andre Miller that said humorously when asked how he played til nearly 40 "Don't leave your feet." That is basically what we did for Cousins.

The problem IMO, if there is one, is the lack of depth. Which doesn't fall on Gentry.

The science on body fatigue is clear and only becoming more overwhelming. The reason teams have moved toward playing guys fewer minutes is not because this generation is soft(the often highly touted generations were also often eras where defense was hardly played), it is because the science is crystal clear: the more a player's body is fatigued past a certain point, the probability of injury begins to rise precipitously.

It's not just the body itself, but the mental fatigue that saps your reflexes and acuity.

It's why I can't always blame players in this day and age that are made aware of these things and seek teams that are going to preserve their body. I don't know if this freak accident could of been avoided, probably not, but I do know that this team is far more likely to endure them in the future if they can't find a way to get this roster squared away with the needed depth and role playing talent to help preserve our star's bodies.

I get what you are saying but, I think the constant forced sprints back and forth might be too much for a person that big. Resting at the 3 point line for 5 seconds does not relieve the pounding of 270 pounds back and forth for 36 minutes on a lower body. I am not saying this caused the injury, I am just pointing out that no other big man has ever been asked to play at this pace.
Also, you can blame the make up of the roster all you want but Gentry could have used Cunningham or Asik more especially recently to absorb some of the wear and tear on his stars. He chose not to.

Man, I am sorry Bronco, who knows why this happened, I am just thinking out loud trying to deal with my frustration, great post.

#pelslife

[MistaWhoDat]

Very sad Boogie played his heart out every night . Let’s pray for Boogie


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[N.O.Bronco]

I get what you are saying but, I think the constant forced sprints back and forth might be too much for a person that big. Resting at the 3 point line for 5 seconds does not relieve the pounding of 270 pounds back and forth for 36 minutes on a lower body. I am not saying this caused the injury, I am just pointing out that no other big man has ever been asked to play at this pace.
Also, you can blame the make up of the roster all you want but Gentry could have used Cunningham or Asik more especially recently to absorb some of the wear and tear on his stars. He chose not to.

Man, I am sorry Bronco, who knows why this happened, I am just thinking out loud trying to deal with my frustration, great post.

#pelslife

I think we all are. It's only natural to go through the motions of asking yourself "what happened?" "Why?" "Was there anything that could of been done differently?"

I.E. who do we blame for this?

I don't know if we tried to play a more slow tempo pace if that would of alleviated things. If Gentry forced more of the burden onto subpar role players.

At the same time, you can prepare all you want and freak accidents still occur. The Spurs are the model franchise when it comes to proactive player health management, and yet Kawhi went down, and the recovery has been behind schedule.

It's just an unfortunate situation all around.

[pelicanchamp]

I️ think cousins has a good chance of coming back as an incredible player. It sucks really bad right now though. It’s 2018, they diagnosed it properly and he’s getting the surgery ASAP. He is 27 years old. He’s the best center in the league and he has matured a lot this season imo.

We really don’t know how well he’s going to recover but if he resigns with the pelicans and isn’t the same player I’m still going to expect 22ppg 10rebounds 38 percent 30 point shooting. He WILL adapt and adjust his game. While I️ feel bad for him I️ still feel like we need to see our team get in the playoffs and prove ourselves. It can happen.
THE SEASON ISNT OVER!!!

We have 34 games left. I️ think we will keep winning. That’s exactly what I️ think. We will make adjustments.


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[kinglio21093]

I'm in Vegas for a bachelor party, and this put a damper on my night. Just been looking at my phone the whole time looking for updates, and when I saw the official news, I couldn't take it anymore. I was legitimately getting so excited at how hard we competed and beat the Rockets. It was a season defining game for us as a team, and it came at the ultimate price. I don't know what to think, all I know, is that I'm ridiculously upset and every time something good happens to this franchise, we always get the shaft. It's rough being a fan of this god damn team.

[pawel]

You can blame anybody You wish.
1. Gentry for MPG played. Especially recently.
2. DMC for his style of play.
3. CP3 being a**hole during/around FT shooting.
4. Bad luck
5. Voodoo.
Or whatever.
It happened.


Boogie was sidelined because of Achilles last year. Had some problems this year.

So It is combination of everything.

It is too early to talk about next season.
Lets finish this one first.

[Mythrol]

Cousins had an Achilles injury last year before he even got to the Pelicans. I don't think Gentry's system caused it to be injured, I think Cousin's body was already predisposed to being injured there.

It was a fluke injury, non contact. Sometimes things happen and there isn't a good reason why, they just do. This is one of those times.