By Shockingly Agreeing to Terms With DeMarcus Cousins, Warriors Steal the Show in Free Agency

DeMarcus Cousins. Yes, THAT DeMarcus Cousins. The only DeMarcus Cousins there is.
 
In the least conceivable idea in the history of the National Basketball Association, the Golden State Warriors have used their mid-level exception on His Boogieness to be all of the team's centers in the coming season. In other words, The Boogster and his still idling Achilles tendon will make $5.3 million this coming season, and the deal will cost the Warriors an additional $16 million in luxury tax fees.
 
The deal makes sense as a basketball matter. It may even make sense as a chemistry matter, though Cousins' well-documented volatility will pout the Warriors' general happiness. It will certainly cement the team's technical foul crown of a year ago.
 
But on a day when Rajon Rondo became a Laker and joined LeBron James, Lance Stephenson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to make a funhouse mirror in Los Angeles, the Warriors trumped the entire market – well, okay, after James, of course – with a signing so beyond the pale that it was never even suggested in the over-active rumor mill as a potential glint in Bob Myers' eye.
 
Cousins' leg, which was injured in late January, remains questionable for the moment, though most experts believe an injury like his takes a good 10 months to heal, with some leeway about how complete the recovery will be. 
 
But even allowing that Cousins reportedly will not return until December or January, the Warriors have still taken the free agent season and given it its first genuinely unexpected twist. For all those who thought the West was becoming even more top-heavy with talent, it has now become spectacularly laden down with...well, character, in that "Oh good Lord, what fresh madness is this?" kind of way.
 
In any event, the Warriors, who had been about even money to win the 2019 NBA title when James went to Los Angeles, are now 6-5 favorites again, and the Lakers went from 7-2 to 4-1. The NBA is the drunkest, loopiest, best thing there is – especially when the games don't get in the way of the real fun.