DeMarcus Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein sign new NBA deals

The NBA is, first and foremost, a business. Players come and go from franchises and it’s unknown when or where their next chance will be. On Tuesday, both DeMarcus Cousins and Willie Cauley-Stein have found where they’ll play basketball next.

After his final 10-day contract ended this weekend, the Denver Nuggets are now looking to sign Cousins for the remainder of the season, with the news first reported by The Athletics’s Shams Charania. Cousins has played in eight games for the Nuggets and the team is undefeated when he plays. In those eight appearances, he averaged 6.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 13 minutes per game.

Sources: The Denver Nuggets are planning to sign center DeMarcus Cousins to a rest-of-season contract in the coming days. Cousins’ final 10-day expired over the weekend. He’s averaged 6.1 points and 6.3 rebounds with Denver, where he’s reunited with Michael Malone.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 22, 2022

Since being traded away from Sacramento back in 2017, Cousins’ career has gone all over the place. He was moved to New Orleans where he played alongside Anthony Davis, averaging 24.8 points and 12.7 boards for the Pelicans before tearing his Achilles. Since then, he has bounced around the league with stops in Golden State, both Los Angeles franchises, Houston, and then Milwaukee earlier this season.

Denver signed him to his first 10-day contract back on January 21st after his deal with the Bucks ended. As Nikola Jokic’s backup, he will be a part of the Nuggets playoff push this season. He played a similar role in Los Angeles last season where he averaged 8.1 points as the Clippers made a Western Conference Finals appearance.

Meanwhile, Willie Cauley-Stein has found his way back into the league as a backup for another elite NBA center. NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that Cauley-Stein has signed his first 10-day contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. With the James Harden trade sending Andre Drummond to Brooklyn, it left a slim frontcourt rotation behind Joel Embiid.

Source tells me Sixers will be signing free agent 7 foot center

Willie Cauley Stein on 10 day contract

He played 18 games with the Mavericks this season and was waived January 15 pic.twitter.com/7yqy16d3nY

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) February 22, 2022

The Dallas Mavericks waived Cauley-Stein earlier this season after a personal matter kept him away from the team. In seven NBA seasons, he has averaged 8.8 points and 5.9 rebounds a game. With his career back on track and a new opportunity ahead of him, he’ll have a chance to make an impact as a lob threat for Harden behind Embiid. Still, he’ll have to produce to earn a second 10-day deal before hopefully earning an official roster spot.

Congrats to both former ‘Cats!