Why The Denver Nuggets Are Right To Sign DeMarcus Cousins For The Rest Of The Season: Film Study

In recent history, two-time All-NBA and four-time NBA All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins has gone through his more than his fair share of struggles.

This season, so has the Denver Nuggets’ bench.

But after both parties had the chance to test out a potential partnership on three trial-run 10-day contracts, things began looking more and more like it could become a fruitful pairing, and that it would be in the mutually beneficial interest of all involved to make it stick with a more permanent standard contract which would keep “Boogie” on board at least through the end of the regular season and the playoffs.

Now that has apparently come to pass, with The Athletic’s Shams Charania first reporting, and then the Denver Post’s Mike Singer confirming that the Nuggets and Cousins have indeed reached a deal.

Cousins, whose career as one of the top big men in the league was effectively derailed following a torn ACL injury which kept him out the entirety of the 2019-20 season (along with a slew of other lower-body ailments since then), has since bounced around four different teams while trying to rehabilitate his health and searching an organizational home that will be the right fit.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets, as I wrote for Forbes earlier this month, have had one of the worst-performing bench units in the NBA for most of the season, and have only recently begun to turn the tide towards improvement. And Cousins, reunited with head coach Michael Malone for the first time since their days together with the Sacramento Kings, has played a significant role in that upswing.

The numbers reveal the sharp contrast between the better play of Denver’s reserve unit of late, and the dredges they were in for the first few months of the season.

DeMarcus Cousins played his first game for the Nuggets on January 23. Since that date, according to NBA.com, Denver has had the ninth-best bench in the league, with a net rating of plus-2.2 points per 100 possessions. Compare that with the bulk of the season leading up through January 22, in which they were a near-bottom 28th in the NBA, at a net rating of minus-4.5. Not coincidentally, the Nuggets are tied for the fourth-best win percentage in that more recent window, winning 10 of their last 14 games (a 71.4% win percentage that on the season would be second-best in the league), and even more remarkably winning all eight of the games that Boogie has played in.

It’s important to note that Cousins is not the sole reason for this improvement, as Denver’s reserves have also gotten a lift from Malone benching Facu Campazzo (who has the team’s worst on/off court differential at minus-21.8, per Cleaning the Glass) and inserting rookie Bones Hyland as the bench unit’s primary point guard, and the Nuggets acquiring three-point specialist Bryn Forbes prior to the trade deadline.

But ever since the departure of Mason Plumlee in free agency in the 2020 offseason, Denver has not landed on what they seem to have considered a viable backup center for reigning MVP Nikola Jokic. This has been due both to roster composition and – much to the chagrin of Nuggets fans watching their current improved performances – Malone’s apparent unwillingness to play either Isaiah Hartenstein or JaVale McGee last season.

That same reluctance does not hold true for Cousins, however, whose years-long bond with Malone, along with his All-Star pedigree, has given him an immediate leg up on penetrating the coach’s inner circle of trust – a feat which neither McGee or Hartenstein were able to achieve (and, ostensibly, one reason why president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and his front office staff seemingly abandoned the notion of acquiring a legitimate backup center at all last season).

Following Denver’s win over the Orlando Magic last week, Malone gushed about Cousins’ impact on the team. “You can see all our guys on the court and on the bench, how much they’re rooting for DeMarcus, which is really neat for me, like just on a personal level, from a family atmosphere type of thing” Malone said.

“Here’s DeMarcus, four-time All-Star, out of the league,” Malone added. “It shouldn’t be the case, and he’s here with us, he’s found a home. And I love him, and I think you can see all the teammates when he has a play like that, whether it’s blocking a shot, rolling and dunking, hitting a three, you can feel the energy.”

How long-term Cousins’ stay in his newfound home will ultimately become is yet to be determined, but for now the Nuggets will be using their one open roster spot to sign him to a standard contract at least through the end of this season.

And considering the fact that the Nuggets did not acquire any alternative for backup center before the trade deadline, and would face limited options for doing so on the buyout market, that looks like the right move for Denver, or at a minimum, a very defensible one.

To look at why that’s the case, we now turn to the film to examine the impact of Cousins’ contributions so far in his short eight-game tenure with the Nuggets.

Film Study: How DeMarcus Cousins Has Impacted The Nuggets’ Bench

Playmaking

Starting off with DeMarcus Cousins’ ability as a passer and playmaker is deliberate, as it is both undervalued when it comes to his impact, and also an area in which his frontcourt reserve teammates such as JaMychal Green, Jeff Green and Zeke Nnaji, while capable in this area, do not quite excel to the same degree.

As seen in the first clip where Campazzo hits Cousins on the cut in down the lane, Boogie has a strong combination of quick decision-making and passing acumen which adds an extra dimensionality to his game as a roll threat (more on pick-and-rolls later).

While not all of the shots fall after he dishes to teammates in these clips, both the variety and competency with which he’s able to deliver the ball, whether on drive-and-kicks, cross-court passes out of the post or entry passes consistently finds open looks for his teammates.

For a bench unit that has struggled to generate offense, and now one which prominently features an elite perimeter gunner in Forbes, and highly competent shooters in Hyland, Austin Rivers and Zeke Nnaji (who, while at 48.7% leads the NBA in three-point percentage among players with at least 30 makes, has not yet garnered a big enough sample size to earn that “elite” title), Cousins’ playmaking skills combined with his gravity in the paint are highly valuable, and one reason for the improved performance of the Nuggets’ bench.

Scoring Skills

Before getting to the video clips for this category, which admittedly cherry pick makes (or tips to the free throw line) and exclude misses, two things need to be acknowledged upfront: One, going strictly by percentages, Cousins has frankly shot abysmally for the Nuggets on the whole, with a 34.3% effective field goal percentage that is in the first percentile (i.e., bottom one percent) in the NBA. But two, as will become clear below, that my case for this being a positive signing for the Nuggets leans heavily on Cousins’ more intangible contributions which don’t always show up so clearly on the stat sheet.

With all those caveats on the table, the main point to emphasize regarding Boogie’s scoring abilities is that at a foundational level he still has a solid offensive skill set with good fundamentals, albeit one that’s been diminished by age and injuries. And although he’s lost a great deal of his former lift and bounce, causing him to have struggled to finish around the rim for Denver, he still commands a degree of gravity down low (as mentioned in the playmaking section above), along with a rebounding prowess which facilitates his being more effective in his overall offensive execution than his shooting numbers would indicate. And those, too, may see an uptick as his health continues to improve.

With the spin move and reverse seen in the first clip, Cousins’ aforementioned fundamentally sound skill set is on display, but another key factor here is just his pure size. When he can get this type of mismatch, as he does here with six-foot-six Chuma Okeke – and given his fairly massive six-foot-ten, 270-pound frame, there will be mismatches – exploiting those opportunities should come relatively easily to him. The same applies to when he drives down the lane with a head of steam, where few defenders will be able to do much to impede that freight train.

And despite not having found his shooter’s touch in recent years, Boogie has shown to be a capable three-point shooter for his position at times throughout his career, notably averaging 34.4% from the arc his four seasons from 2016-17 through last year. He’ll never be high-volume from long range, but if he can restore his three-point percentage back close to that mid-30s range, it should increase his opportunities to attack closeouts and either drive to the basket or kick it out to his higher-percentage three-point shooting teammates.

Pick-And-Rolls

Not too much needs to be elaborated on here, as Cousins operating in pick-and-rolls (PnRs) might essentially be viewed as the synthesis on the above sections on scoring and playmaking – with some of those clips themselves featuring PnRs – as well as being a bridge to the following section on screens.

But it’s worth highlighting just how quickly and comfortably Boogie has slid right in to running PnRs with Denver’s entire reserve guard cadre of Hyland, Forbes, Rivers and Campazzo, with a high degree of competence in those sets that facilitates easy and open looks for his co-pilots.

As we will see more of below, one key component of Cousins’ success in the pick-and-roll is how good he is at setting screens – large, immovable screens that present huge obstacles for opposing defenders to try to either fight through (good luck with that) or go around, creating plenty of space for his guard teammates to find good looks from their spots. And as seen in the second clip, even if those shots don’t fall, his ability to get to the rim and throw his weight around tends to put him in good position for offensive rebound putbacks. Additionally, he also just shows a great feel for his timing on handoffs or short push passes in conjunction with his screens that facilitates a smooth flow on the PnRs.

Screen-Setting

When I asked Bryn Forbes following the Nuggets’ win over the Golden State Warriors last week how he thought the bench chemistry was coming together, the first point he made was that “DeMarcus and JaMychal are two of the best screeners [he’s] played with.”

Screening is probably the most notable of Cousins’ early contributions to Denver’s bench improvement which does not show up in the box score, but is highly impactful.

Beyond his sheer size and bulk, a big component of Boogie’s ability to set great screens his how well he reads the floor and reacts. In the first clip here, Bryn Forbes has all the time in the world to drain the corner three-pointer after Cousins rotates on the weak side to prevent Otto Porter Jr. from closing out on him.

But size is an important factor as well, as seen in the next two plays where Jonathan Kuminga and Gary Harris – both proficient in fighting through screens – get caught on Cousins’ picks to free up Forbes for open shots. It’s just a long, long way to go around and object that won’t be budged.

Another key aspect is Cousins’ skillfulness at repositioning himself to set second and third screens, often out of the pick-and-roll, creating multiple chances for guards to shake their defenders and get good looks at the basket.

Rebounding And Interior Presence

Statistically speaking, Cousins’ rebounding numbers are basically the mirror image of his shooting percentages. According to Cleaning the Glass, DeMarcus Cousins’ defensive rebound rate with the Nuggets of 33.0% is in the 100th percentile for his position, and he in fact leads the NBA in this category, and his offensive rebound rate of 14.5% is in the 94th percentile, good for tenth-best in the league. Returning to the same split between the pre-Cousins era through January 22 and post-Cousins from January 23, Boogie’s impact on the bench unit as a whole is very pronounced, with the Nuggets’ reserves at 21.2 rebounds per 100 possessions before Cousins’ arrival, and or 21st in the league, versus 27.4 since he joined, which is third best.

The first three clips here encapsulate very well two key components of Boogie’s rebounding prowess. Every bit of his enormous seven-foot-six wingspan is on full display in the first, and just how effectively he uses his size, strength and mass to get position and block out can be seen in the second and third.

But it’s not only his physical attributes that make Cousins a capable rebounder, but a good nose for the ball and sense of timing, especially on the offensive glass, as seen in the last clip.  

Defense: Size, Length And Skill

With Cousins on the defensive end of the court, the Nuggets are plus-0.2 points per possessions, which although being a middling 49th percentile, still earns him the best defensive on/off court rating of all regular rotation Nuggets bench players. And while time and injuries have tamped down his ability to move as quickly or with the same agility as his early years, he has still shown the capability of putting his size, length and skills to good use on defense.

The first two clips here are actually a single possession in which cousins puts his exceptionally long wingspan to great use and almost singlehandedly forces the Warriors into a 24-second violation, first roaming and getting into the passing lanes to knock the ball out of bounds, then deflecting the inbound pass down the court.

The second, third and fifth clips show that Cousins, although his block rate has been low for Denver, does provide a measure of rim protection, again owing in part to his size which presents smaller players with a formidable obstacle to get around and over. And though Boogie may not be so fast on his feet anymore, he’s still quick and crafty with his hands in deflecting passes, disrupting plays and forcing turnovers.

Conclusion

Following Denver’s win over Orlando last week, DeMarcus Cousins explained his approach to fitting in with the Nuggets’ bench unit. “I just try to come in and be a good energy for the guys, be a spark, bring some new life to it,” he said. “And they’ve been receptive to it, been receptive of me, and I’m grateful for that. They welcomed me with open arms, and respect my voice.”

Now the Nuggets organization as a whole is set to officially welcome Cousins to Denver on a longer-term basis in the form of a new contract, in a symbiotic deal which gives him a real chance to jump-start his career, and the team the opportunity to add an important dimension to their roster which it has lacked for too long.