Coach Kerr Explains DeMarcus Cousins' Role Upon Return Against Clippers

DeMarcus Cousins joined the Golden State Warriors as a free agent in the summer of 2018, but is yet to make his debut for the Bay Area team owing to an Achilles injury sustained while he was with the New Orleans Pelicans in January last year.

The 28-year-old center signed a one-year deal with the Warriors but has missed the first half of the campaign as he continues his recovery process. Cousins is expected to return to action on Jan. 18 when the Warriors travel to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers.

Steve Kerr recently revealed that he was impressed with the progress made by the center and admitted that he was close to making a comeback. Cousins' return will see the Warriors team possess five All-Star’s in their lineup with – Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green being the other four.

The Warriors coach is aware that Cousins has not played for almost a year, but confirmed that the center will start when he makes his return from injury later this month. He believes it will be difficult to immediately adapt their game style to the new player, but is hopeful that they can understand each other’s games better by the time the playoffs come around.

"He'll start," Kerr said after Thursday's practice, as quoted by ESPN. "I'll start him. After that, everything's on the table. We have to figure out what the rotations will look like, how many minutes he can play. We'll have to play around with the minutes, the combinations, the sets.”

"We haven't had a player like him here before. So it will be new; it won't be as simple [as] plug him in and he'll fit right in. We're going to play through him some so there will be a period where we all have to adapt. Fortunately we're halfway through the year, we have a lot of games to figure this out,” the Warriors coach added.

Cousins was initially expected to return earlier, with some reports penciling him for a return just after Christmas, but the center has revealed that the Jan. 18 date was picked after a discussion between him, the medical staff and the team management.

"It was a battle between myself, the training staff, the guys at the top," Cousins said. "Eventually we all got on the same page and we settled for that date."

The four-time NBA All-Star also admitted that he is excited to be back on the court after a year of being in rehabilitation, stating: “It's a relief. It's been a long year for me. A lot of ups and downs. But the finish line is ahead, and I'm extremely excited to be back on the floor."