Days after NBA free agency opened, DeMarcus Cousins still doesn’t have a new team, but he does have a new agent.
Cousins changed representation from Jarinn Akana to Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports, per the New York Times’ Marc Stein, presumably a result of his being unable to find a contract to his liking.
The former All-NBA center took a discounted one-year, $5.3 million deal to play for the Warriors last season after suffering a ruptured Achilles. Amid mixed results on the court and another injury, though, he failed to do much in terms of rehabilitating his value.
“There is no market for him,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said Monday on Scott Van Pelt’s SportsCenter. “He hoped some big-market teams would strike out, would have cap space and he’d get a ($12-20 million) deal. That’s not happening.”
Cousins may even struggle to get the same money he did last season, Wojnarowski said.
Given his pedigree, and that he was effective at times for the Warriors, there’s reason to believe Cousins can provide value for a team. But he was a liability on defense in the Finals, and had numerous off-court issues with the Kings earlier in his career. That, combined with a dwindling center market, seems to have resulted in the current situation.
Cousins will hope a shift in agents can change things. But hiring a new agent several days into free agency rarely means that a good thing is happening.


