DeMarcus Cousins sat alongside the north corner of Rakuten Performance Center nearly a year ago with his future as uncertain as his bill of health.
Twelve days prior, Cousins - rehabbing a torn Achilles and sensing the free-agent market drying up around him- signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal with the Warriors in an attempt to rebuild his value on the open market while chasing his first ring alongside generational talents Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant.
Cousins' lone season in the Bay Area yielded mixed results, offering glimpses of his former self while battling through two debilitating injuries and the longest playoff run of his career.
Now - nearly a month removed from his first NBA Finals appearance - Cousins will attempt a similar move 400 miles south in Los Angeles - signing another one-year deal to team up with former teammate Anthony Davis and LeBron James and the Lakers.
Cousins' Bay Area entrance came with skepticism a year ago. Could he recover from an injury known to end careers? Could he repair a shaky attitude reputation on a team known for taking on reclamation projects? And - if healthy - could he somehow fit into Golden State's Hall of Fame pecking order?
Before those answers could be provided, Cousins went through a grueling rehab with Warriors head trainer Rick Celebrini - a process that Cousins admitted gave the veteran trainer "grey hairs." He returned in January to average 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 30 games with the Warriors. In a March road game against the Houston Rockets, he tallied 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in a win without Durant in the lineup.
However, hopes for his first extended postseason run were dashed in his second career playoff game. During Game 2 of a first-round playoff matchup with the Clippers, Cousins tumbled to the ground while reaching for a loose ball, tearing his right quad and putting the rest of his season in peril. After another intense rehab, Cousins returned in time for the Finals to play against the Toronto Raptors, putting together the most important performance his career in Game 2, when he was a plus-17 from the floor, adding three rebounds, three assists and one block in the third quarter to help tie the series.
Sports
"I want to be on this stage," Cousins said following the game. "This is what I've worked for my entire career, to be on this stage, to have this opportunity to play for something."
Cousins' current status as a veteran minimum get would've been a puzzling reality five years ago.
Drafted in 2010, Cousins blossomed into a talented - albeit enigmatic - star for the Sacramento Kings. When he wasn't yelling at a local columnist on camera in defense of his younger brother or approaching TV analysts after games, he was an easy bet to average a double-double for a season as arguably the best big man in the league. Adding to his play, he was a selfless philanthropist, donating millions to Sacramento causes, showing up to local high school sporting events and offering to pay for the funeral of Stephon Clark, 22-year-old black male who was shot while holding a cell phone in his grandmother's backyard.
Once following a game early in his career in Sacramento, he had a playful back and forth with a journalist. Towards the end of the conversation, Cousins pointed at himself and two lockers down at Tyreke Evans and suggested that the two would turn the franchise around and have their jerseys retired by the organization.
[RELATED: Ranking Western Conference powers after Clips' Kawhi deal]
Years later, the reality won't exist as Cousins takes his talents to Los Angeles. He'll suit up for the Lakers hoping to simultaneously win a ring alongside generational talents while building his value back in the hopes the summer of 2020 will be much more fruitful financially than the one he's currently living through.
