Lakers News: DeMarcus Cousins' 'Goal' Is to Play 82 Games After Quad Injury

DeMarcus Cousins has been limited by injuries the past few years, but he has high hopes for 2019-20.

"My goal is to play 82 games this season," he said Wednesday, per Matthew Moreno of Lakers Nation.

The center most recently dealt with a torn quad muscle that limited him in the 2019 playoffs, but he said the issue is "100 percent healed."  

Cousins agreed to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The quad injury kept the center out for a month during the first postseason run of his career, but he returned in time for the NBA Finals. Although he was far from the player he was in the past, he still averaged 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds for the Golden State Warriors against the Toronto Raptors.

The injury was even more disappointing for Cousins considering he missed about a year of action due to a ruptured Achilles suffered while a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.

Although the 28-year-old wants to play every game next season, he's suited up in only 78 regular-season outings over the last two years combined and has missed at least seven contests in each of his last eight seasons.

Still, with four All-Star selections in his career, Cousins has shown he can be a game-changing player when healthy. He was averaging 25.2 points and 12.9 rebounds before the Achilles injury in 2017-18.

The Lakers took a low-risk gamble that he can resemble that player again—at least somewhat—in 2019-20.