When news broke almost simultaneously that the Los Angeles Lakers were waiving Quinn Cook and the Houston Rockets were doing the same with DeMarcus Cousins, a lot of folks’ minds went to the same place.
Cousins must be heading to the Lakers.
Not so fast.
The Rockets reportedly are waiving the center Tuesday so that he can sign elsewhere. While the Lakers soon will have a vacant roster spot, the expectation actually is that they’ll go in a different direction.
“There are no immediate plans to fill Cook’s roster spot,” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike and Broderick Turner. “And multiple people with knowledge of the situation said they don’t expect the Lakers to reunite with Houston center DeMarcus Cousins if he becomes available as expected. The team will, however, monitor the buyout and trade markets for potential additions to their frontcourt.”
If the Lakers don’t jump immediately to sign Cousins, it’s possible other teams take the same route and see who else becomes available before signing the veteran big man, who has bounced back fine enough after a few injury-riddled seasons.
That said, he hasn’t rebounded to vintage Cousins form, so adding him is more for name recognition than anything. The 30-year-old has averaged career lows in points (9.6 per game) and boards (7.6 per game) with the Rockets this season.
As for potential Boston Celtics interest in Cousins, he seems like an unlikely fit.
