Lakers: Should they sign DeMarcus Cousins for resumed season?

With the NBA season set to resume at the end of July, should the Lakers sign eMarcus Cousins back for the playoff push?

With the NBA officially resuming the season later in the summer, the Lakers front office while working from home, has still not slowed down for a second. With the team being in title contention, they are still looking for ways to constantly improve in hopes to soundly be confident in their ability to beat other heavyweight teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

In recent reports, it is rumored that Lakers big man Dwight Howard may not go to Orlando to play in the resumed season as he feels it is not the right time for anyone to be playing basketball right now. Despite this, the season will be going on no matter who goes to play and who does not, which leaves the Lakers in a really difficult spot.

If Howard is not with the team, it leaves them very shorthanded at the center position. However, there is a perfect player waiting for them in free agency that ironically they released earlier in the year and that player is DeMarcus Cousins.

It is likely that Cousins would be more than happy to re-sign with the team as it seemed that it was the original plan for him to sign with the Lakers in the 2020 offseason. The team allowed him to still be at practice, use the team’s practice facility, and have access to the team doctors so he could fully go through the rehabilitation process and be fully healthy for the 2020-2021 season.

Throughout the season, Cousins was penciled in to be able to return to basketball at the beginning of the playoffs. With that date having passed already, by all accounts Cousins should be as close to 100% healthy that we will see him.

After seeing how the Lakers kept Cousins as a part of the team even after he was released should play a big role in his willingness to join the Lakers instead of other contending teams that are interested in him like the Miami Heat.

It would be a perfect deal for both sides. The Lakers arguably give Cousins his best chance of being able to prove himself on a big stage and under the bright lights. Along with this, it is possibly his best chance of winning an NBA championship this season which he has been desperately searching for since he joined the Golden State Warriors in the 2018-2019 season. In terms of what the Lakers get out of the deal, they will get someone who already has chemistry with the team and has been practicing and around the team for almost an entire season now.

Along with this, he will fill in the hole at center that will be left open if Dwight Howard does not join the team in Orlando. Lastly, if he comes back looking anything like the pre-injury DeMarcus Cousins we saw on the Sacramento Kings or New Orleans Pelicans, it would likely be more than enough to win the Lakers their first NBA championship since 2010.