Warriors GM Bob Myers won't rule out DeMarcus Cousins' return in 2019

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Warriors coach Steve Kerr made it clear on Thursday that the team won't have the money to re-sign center DeMarcus Cousins next summer. On Friday, his general manager wasn't so quick to shut the door.

Bob Myers told Greg Papa on "Warriors Pregame Live" that he would not rule out Cousins' return to Golden State next summer. 

"Options are open, Pap, like anything," Myers said Friday evening. "If you would've asked me a year ago before this if he was gonna be an option for us, I'd say, 'No way, that's crazy!' But he came. He came for a lot less than [what] his market value was. 

"These type of predictions -- good or bad -- are pretty fruitless because you just don't know. You don't know what's going to be going on on July 1, 2019. You don't know if it's going to be better than you think ... but it's not going to be what you think. So, with a guy like DeMarcus, who knows? If he wants to come back, let's bring him back."

Cousins signed a one-year, $5.3 million contract with the Warriors in July. The Warriors could only re-sign Cousins to a contract worth 120 percent of that value, which is still far lower than what the four-time All-Star is likely to command in the open market next summer. 

“We made no bones about it when we signed him,” Kerr said Thursday. “It’s a one-year deal. We’re not going to have money to sign him next year. He knows that. So we’d like him to help us win a championship. And we’d like to help him get a great contract next year, somewhere else.”

Myers said Cousins, who is recovering from a ruptured Achilles' tendon, still has a way to go before he can play.

"It doesn't resemble the speed and pace and physicality of even a hard practice right now," Myers said of Cousins' current on-court regimen, which does include some scrimmages. "It's a light ... I'd say light contact. They're not banging each other like they would.

"He misses playing basketball, so a lot of it's psychological, too. Let's get you back out there, feel the ball, touch the ball, put some shots up, play some defense, and each day get a little bit quicker and a little bit stronger."

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