NBA Rumors: Should Lakers Consider Cousins Again? Rockets Turning To Small Ball, Report Says

The Houston Rockets are starting to rebuild anew, with their 2020-21 NBA season not looking so promising. From the start, it was known that the club wanted to invest in younger players, and such raised questions on the tenure of veteran big man DeMarcus Cousins.

With the NBA trade deadline set for March 25, the Rockets are one of many teams likely to tinker with their roster or let go of some veterans. “Boogie” is unsurprisingly on the radar. Unnamed sources told Shams Charania of The Athletic that Cousins and the Rockets are heading toward a divorce.

Despite his injury woes, Cousins has managed to show he's impactful for the Houston Rockets this season. He averaged 9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds, ideal numbers considering what he went through. But apparently, the Rockets need someone who can give more than that.

With perhaps nothing to lose, a curious move to once again try the forgettable small ball approach is allegedly in the Rockets' plans. Most know last year that Houston tried this out with stars like James Harden and Russell Westbrook around.

Once Cousins is out, Christian Wood is seen as the player who will step up in the frontcourt. While it would make sense, it raises questions on what the Houston Rockets intend to achieve.

They do have players like John Wall, Victor Oladipo and Eric Gordon who could fit that small ball philosophy. But given they are in a stacked Western Conference, this may be more of an experiment than something that head coach Stephen Silas would want to employ moving forward.

Rather, another report claiming that the Rockets are keeping their options open on getting another big man makes more sense. Kelly Iko of The Athletic reported that Houston is interested in Ersan Ilyasova and Dewayne Dedmon. This makes more sense, especially once Cousins is let go.

Should Cousins be available, he could be a curious big man to monitor as well. Even if he has been struggling with injuries, there is no question that “Boogie” can still play and contribute to any team.

On that note, it would be interesting to see if the Los Angeles Lakers would explore giving the 30-year-old another try. The purple and gold are believed to be looking for another big man so a reunion with Cousins could make sense if general manager Rob Pelinka and head coach Frank Vogel would be open to it.