DeMarcus Cousins sat out of the Kings’ 97-83 loss to the Grizzlies on Monday, after the team announced ahead of time that he would be doing just that.
Cousins has been dealing with some nagging injuries as of late, and with the Kings having nothing left to play for (which has honestly been the case for months now), the thinking is that there’s no good reason for him to push through.
The team is considering shutting down Cousins for the remainder of the season, but Sacramento head coach George Karl would like Cousins to play here and there if he’s healthy enough to do so.
From Michael Wallace of ESPN.com:Kings coach George Karl said Monday that he spoke with Cousins about how they would approach the final weeks of the season. Cousins has been dealing with a calf strain, sore foot and a thigh bruise among other ailments for several weeks.
“We talked when he commented after one game that his body was beat up,” Karl said before the Kings faced the Grizzlies. “I said, ‘Instead of thinking about shutting it down, let’s try to find some days that you can get your body rested.’ We might schedule a piece of our games and (rest Cousins) again.” ...
“I think Cousins likes to play and I think he’s doing it because he wants to play at a higher efficiency,” Karl said. “It gives me an opportunity to experiment a little bit. At home, I’d like to go in and (let Cousins play) every game. But on the road, I might experiment a little bit more.”
There should be no rush for the Kings to have their franchise player participate in games if he’s even the slightest bit injured.
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Cousins is simply putting up big numbers on a bad team during blowout losses at this point; he scored 39 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in his last outing, a 14-point loss to New Orleans. That’s not going to help him or the franchise in any capacity moving forward, so if his health is indeed an issue, the smart thing would be to simply shut him down.