DeMarcus Cousins simply cannot catch a break and the Los Angeles Lakers seem to still have some brutal injury luck. UPDATE 9:56 PDT: The initial diagnosis on Cousins is a torn ACL, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that Cousins suffered a knee injury during a workout in Las Vegas that forced him to leave the court and end the sessions, sending him to Los Angeles will he will undergo testing. Further reporting from Woj revealed that Cousins hurt his knee after banging knees with another player.
The injury is a brutal blow to the Lakers. Cousins signed a minimum deal to sign with the Lakers in the offseason and would have been the favorite to start for them at center, especially given his previous success playing alongside his former Pelicans teammate Anthony Davis. Davis and Cousins outscored their opponents by 5.8 points per 100 possessions during their 42 games together in the 2017-18 season, prior to Cousins tearing his Achilles and missing the rest of the season.
Cousins is also coming off of a quad injury that forced him to miss much of the playoffs before coming back to play in the NBA Finals for the Golden State Warriors.
Thankfully the Lakers do have contingencies behind Cousins after bringing back last season’s starter, JaVale McGee.
While the Lakers were always most dependent on LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Cousins rediscovering his All-Star form of a few years ago would have raised the Lakers ceiling.
