With nine games left in the season, the Sacramento Kings are strongly considering shutting down star center DeMarcus Cousins. The Kings aren’t even close to making the playoffs with a 26-47 record in the West so there’s no reason to risk more injuries to Cousins and take the chance of a harsher injury that could make him miss some of next season. Cousins has had calf, thigh, and foot injuries this season on top of the viral meningitis that forced him to miss 10 games at the beginning of the season.
Cousins is averaging 24.1 points a game, which places him fifth in the NBA. He is averaging 12.4 rebounds per contest and has 44 double-doubles this season, the second most in the NBA. “I think Cousins likes to play and I think he’s doing it because he wants to play at a higher efficiency,” head coach George Karl said, according to ESPN. “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.”
I’m not sure how much experimenting he will actually get done, but it should be very interesting to see what lineups Karl rolls out there in lieu of having a big man like Cousins.
