Did the Pelicans Offer DeMarcus Cousins a Contract? ‘Only Me and Dell Demps Know What Was Said'

Here's what we know for sure: DeMarcus Cousins signed a one-year contract worth $5,337,000 with the Warriors.

Here's what we don't know for sure: Did the Pelicans offer Cousins a contract when NBA free agency opened July 1?

[LISTEN: The Warriors Insider Podcast with Pelicans GM Dell Demps]

"I'm gonna put it like this: Only me and Dell Demps know what was said on the phone that night," Cousins said on Thursday at his introductory press conference in Oakland. "We both know the truth. And I'll leave it at that."

Cousins tore his Achilles late in the Pelicans' Jan. 26 win over the Rockets. At some point between then and the end of the season, the Pelicans offered Cousins a two-year contract worth $40 million, the New York Times' Marc Stein reported, citing sources.

Cousins reportedly declined the offer, which the Pelicans then took off the table.

As ESPN's Zach Lowe wrote hours after Cousins announced he would sign with Golden State:

It is unclear precisely what happened between the New Orleans Pelicans and Cousins in those fraught final hours ... the Pelicans still had something like $13.7 million to spend before bumping into the luxury tax.

They could have outbid the Warriors' paltry $5.3 million deal -- the mini-midlevel exception for tax teams.  They didn't. The Pelicans had a tentative meeting scheduled with Cousins in the coming days, per sources close to the situation. That will obviously not happen.

We probably never will know exactly what happened. And at this point, it ultimately doesn't really matter ...

Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller

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