Warriors News: DeMarcus Cousins Won't Need Surgery, Playoff Return Unlikely

DeMarcus Cousins has avoided the worst possible fate, though the prognosis still isn't great. 

The Golden State Warriors big man will not require surgery on his torn quad, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters on Wednesday, though a return this postseason remains unlikely: 

Cousins suffered the injury while chasing a loose ball in Game 2 on Monday, before the Los Angeles Clippers' shocking 31-point comeback to win, 135-131. It was just the second playoff game of his career, making his loss all the more devastating.

And Down Goes Boogie

00:06

"We'll rally behind him, tell him it's far from the end of the world and tell him he has so much great basketball ahead of him," Klay Thompson said after Game 2, per AJ Neuharth-Keusch and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. "He believes that. It sucks. Injuries are part of the game, a terrible part of the game. But he'll bounce back. I know he will. He's a fighter."

The Warriors will still be favored to win the title without Cousins. They won it the past two seasons, after all. But there's no doubt they'll miss his presence on the court.

"We miss his low-post dominance, we're going to miss that of course," Thompson said. "We're going to miss his screen setting and just his energy out there."

Another tough blow for Cousins is that a second potential season-ending injury could seriously hurt his market value in free agency. Cousins went from being a max player before his ruptured Achilles in 2018 to one who took a major discount to join the Warriors this season, and it's probable he won't see the lucrative offers he would have anticipated had he made it through the 2018-19 season unscathed.

As for the team's rotation going forward, Kerr said that Andrew Bogut will be the team's starting center in Cousins' absence, per Marcus Thompson of The Athletic. Kevon Looney will continue coming off the bench, where he's provided the Warriors with a solid 12.5 points and five rebounds in 18 minutes per game during the playoffs.