Lakers work out Demarcus Cousins and Meyers Leonard
The Los Angeles Lakers held workouts for Demarcus Cousins and Meyers Leonard last Friday, January 13. It’s clear that the Lakers are looking to add more size to their team and see a potential good pairing with either Cousins or Leonard, who have both not played a game this season.
Demarcus Cousins (0), Meyers Leonard (11). si.com
With Anthony Davis out of the lineup with an injury, Thomas Bryant has stepped into the starting center position and has been dominant for them, averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 64.8 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from three.
With the newfound success of Bryant at the center position, the Lakers are now considering having Bryant start at the center position for the rest of the season. When Davis returns, he can return to his preferred power-forward position, opening up a new opportunity for a center to fill in the backup for the Lakers.
Currently, the Lakers have center Damian Jones sitting on the bench with very little playing time. However, it’s clear that the Lakers aren’t comfortable giving Jones time due to his struggles earlier in the season. Jones’ struggles are partially why they brought in Cousins and Leonard to work out for the team. It’s still unclear how the workouts went, but which would fit better with this Lakers team?
Cousins last played 17 games for the Milwaukee Bucks and 31 games for the Denver Nuggets for the 2021-22 NBA season. In those 48 games, Cousins averaged nine points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.5 assists, while shooting 46 percent from the field and 30.3 percent from the field in just 15 minutes per game. While Cousins isn’t the dominant big he used to be, he can still provide teams with great minutes off the bench. He has also shown he can turn back the clock and show glimpses of what he used to be.
Last season for the Nuggets, he had a phenomenal game where he dropped 31 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and three steals on 71 percent shooting. Cousins is also a veteran in the NBA with a high basketball IQ which can help other players on the team, such as Bryant, Wenyen Gabriel, and Jones. Cousins knows what it takes to be a superstar center in the league and will help improve the offensive game for the Lakers players.
Leonard last played during the 2020-21 season for the Miami Heat, where he only played three games. During that season, Leonard had off-court problems where he was caught saying anti-semitic slurs on his gaming stream. He was then fined $50,000 and suspended from one week of team activities.
The Heat ended up trading Leonard to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he was then waived by the organization and has never been given another opportunity. However, Leonard has claimed to be educating himself to strive to be a better person. It would be a big risk for the Lakers organization to bring on Leonard with his past. Not to mention, Leonard has career averages of 5.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 0.3 blocks per game while shooting 48.2 percent from the field and 39 percent from three.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Lakers do ultimately end up signing one of these players. It wouldn’t hurt them to give a 10-day contract to one or both of them to see if they make a good fit. Who would sign between Cousins and Leonard if you were the Lakers? Or would you stick to the current roster?
