Lakers Sign DeMarcus Cousins And Rajon Rondo, Inch Closer To Twisted Re-Creation Of 2017-18 Pelicans

After reports indicated that teams were wary of bringing a still-recovering DeMarcus Cousins onto their roster—hell, Frank Kaminsky got a deal before Boogie did—a suitor has finally emerged to give the big man a job: the Los Angeles Lakers. Cousins will head to Staples Center along with his former Kings and Pelicans teammate Rajon Rondo.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Miami Heat were another team interested in bringing Cousins on board, but he was ultimately swayed by “several Lakers players — including Anthony Davis” in joining Los Angeles. With Boogie and Rondo’s arrival, there’s a good chance that the team could roll out a line up that would look as if LeBron James joined the 2017-18 Pelicans. All that’s left is for the team to make a move for E’Twuan Moore or something.

It’s not clear what kind of role the Lakers will expect Cousins to take on, but it’d be safe to assume that the workload will probably be heavier than it was last year. The big man’s quad injury during this past postseason was not that serious and, despite looking sluggish at times, he showed flashes of potential this past year of some sort of close return to form—even in the postseason. Having Boogie lead whatever second unit Los Angeles is able to put together could be fun to watch, it’ll just be a question of whether that’s something he wants to do.

All that’s really guaranteed at this point is that the Lakers are getting a version of Cousins that has actually played basketball relatively recently—he’ll definitely be more in shape by the time the regular season rolls around—and that this add-on is still not enough to supplant the Clippers as the best team in Los Angeles.