It was reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN early Friday morning that the Denver Nuggets were planning to sign center DeMarcus Cousins to a 10-day contract on Friday. The Nuggets have a string of six games over the next 10 days, including a back-to-back starting tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies. It had been announced nearly two weeks ago on January 9th that Cousins had planned to sign a 10-day contract with Denver, but that never came to fruition.
Now, with a string of six games in 10 days, the two sides have agreed to this new deal. Cousins was with the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this season between November 30th through January 6th when he was waived by the squad after playing 17 games, including five starts, while averaging 9.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 16.9 minutes per game. Per 36 minutes, those averages jumped to 19.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Cousins signing with Denver gives the team a true backup center behind Jokic, which is a position they’ve lacked this year, as they’ve more often opted to play a small-ball center during his bench minutes. This will be a key stretch of games for Denver, and they’ll likely have Cousins playing around 15 minutes a night or more in some of these matchups, including against his most recent team as Denver has a matchup in Milwaukee on January 30th.
