The Tribune

By INIGO 'NAUGHTY' ZENICAZELAYA

LAST summer, All-Star centre DeMarcus Cousins took a huge pay cut to join the star-studded Golden State Warriors with the hope of winning his first NBA championship title and rebuilding his value.

After not winning the championship in this year’s NBA Finals, and suffering a serious quad injury down the stretch, there’s a strong chance now that Cousins won’t get the contract that he wants in the 2019 NBA free agency.

After failing to get back to his all-star form due to the injury bug, Cousins isn’t expected to receive a max deal this summer.

“His market has dried up,” according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, and there’s currently no market for Cousins.

If Cousins is willing to give a massive discount on his new contract, one of the potential landing spots for him is the Los Angeles Lakers.

According to Michael Shapiro of Sports Illustrated, the Lakers remain Cousins’ “top option” if they don’t land Kawhi Leonard in the 2019 NBA free agency period.

The Cousins-Anthony Davis reunion would be an exciting free–agent outcome, even after Cousins’ Achilles and quad injuries.

Running a twin-towers lineup next to LeBron James would be among the league’s most interesting experiments.

When he became an unrestricted free agent last summer, Cousins was also rumoured to be interested in signing with the Lakers but, during that time, the the Lakers weren’t patient enough to wait for him to recover from his injury.

Cousins now has more reasons to sign with the Lakers since they recently acquired his close friend and former New Orleans Pelicans teammate, Anthony Davis.

Cousins has options. He has the opportunity to win his first NBA championship title with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and the Lakers could also help him revive his NBA career and get a better chance of landing a max contract in the summer of 2020.

“If Kawhi goes somewhere besides the Lakers, I think they are an option for him,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said Monday on The Jump.

The Lakers currently have $32 million of cap room, per Kieth Smith of Yahoo Sports.

That’s almost enough to sign a max player like Leonard, but they will have more options if the All-Star goes elsewhere.

Cousins could be a key player to fill out the Lakers roster, providing more depth in the frontcourt behind Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma.

He already showed with the Warriors that he can take on a smaller role to help a contender, and he would provide the Lakers with another top option in the post while taking pressure off the other stars.

• Naughty presents ‘Mischief and Mayhem in da AM’ from 6am to 10am, Monday to Friday and ‘The Press Box’ sports talk show on Sunday from 10am to 1pm, on KISS FM 96.1.