Currently without an NBA contract, DeMarcus Cousins has received offers to relaunch in the Taiwanese championship. The opportunity for the multiple All-star pivot to prove himself before perhaps a return to the Big League, by the deadline?
Decidedly, it would seem that the new NBA retirement home is now emerging not in mainland China but on the side of the island of Taiwan. After welcoming Dwight Howard, who seems to be enjoying himself, the T1 league seems to want to expand its reach by taking on other NBA retirees. And a deal would be on the way with Cousins.
The 32-year-old pivot still has 11 NBA seasons in his hands, and if the first seasons looked very promising, Boogie’s career seems rather to be a succession of missed appointments. Trained in Kentucky, a benchmark university in the 2010s with interiors like Anthony Davis or Karl-Anthony Towns in its ranks, “Boogie” arrived at the Kings and immediately impressed with his completely insane power-mobility combo.
All-NBA Second team twice in 2015 and 2016, there was a time when DMC truly dominated the league’s indoor sector.
But following this second All-NBA selection and Boogie’s departure for New Orleans – where DeMarcus joined Anthony Davis in particular to form a huge interior duo – Cousins chained minor injuries and no longer managed to exceed 50 games per season. A year and a half and only 65 games later, DeMarcus Cousins decides to join the defending champions Warriors, he who has never played a single playoff game.
Unfortunately, the pivot is still not recovered from his torn Achilles tendon: he will only play 30 games with Steph Curry and his Warriors.
Since then, Boogie hasn’t been the same: a white season to let his ankle recover fully, and a career as journeyman since then, with a few games played in Houston, at the Clippers, in Milwaukee or even in Denver, often off the bench and for averages no longer exceeding 10 points. Free from any free agency contract this summer, DeMarcus has not seen any offers arrive, but this offer from the Taiwanese league may sound like a new start. After all, Dwight Howard seems to be enjoying it, Carmelo might well land thereremains to be seen now if Boogie will join the party.
Basketball teams in Taiwan are pursuing DeMarcus Cousins, per https://t.co/fVpMteMehm pic.twitter.com/JDrO9HroCY
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) November 24, 2022
According to the newspaper Taïwan News, the contract would already be almost signed, and the former Kings star interior should join a team in southern Taiwan, namely the Tainan Ghosthawks or the Kaohsiung Aquas. However, it is clarified that no public statement has been released by the T1 League at this time.
Boogie’s NBA career seems to be at an impasse, and going to martyrize the Taiwanese championship hoops probably mightn’t hurt him. In any case, the hype that the T1 has been offering since this summer is real.
Sources : Taïwan News, Basketball Network