Rockets release center DeMarcus Cousins

DeMarcus Cousins (Michael Tipton, Wikimedia Commons)

According to nba.com on Tuesday, the Houston Rockets have released four-time all-star center DeMarcus Cousins of Mobile, Alabama. At 30 years of age, Cousins was in his first season with the Rockets and 10th season in the National Basketball Association.

In 25 games this season with Houston, Cousins started 11 of the Rockets contests. He averaged a career-worst 9.6 points per game, and also had career lows in field goal percentage (.376), and steals per game (0.8).

Houston is definitely in a time of transition as an organization and trying to figure out their overall team identity. At 11 wins and 18 losses, the Rockets traded Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards prior to the season for John Wall, and then James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster deal during the 2020-21 NBA regular season.

The Rockets had hoped that Cousins and Wall would show outstanding team chemistry. They were teammates together with the University of Kentucky Wildcats, but it was clear that Cousins was not playing at the same level of basketball as he did with the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans, when he was an All-Star for four straight seasons from 2015 to 2018. In 2016-17, when Cousins shared his time with the Kings and Pelicans, he averaged a career high 27 points per game.

Cousins was also returning to the NBA this season after missing all of 2019-20 with a torn ACL. He signed with the Rockets on December 1, 2020,  after never having a chance to play with the Los Angeles Lakers. Cousins signed with the Lakers on July 6, 2019, but tore his ACL in a summer pickup game a month later.

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