The 2019 NBA offseason has been a rough one for DeMarcus Cousins as after signing a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers to reunite with Anthony Davis, nothing has seemingly gone right for him since.
Cousins was working extremely hard to get back to his All-Star form, but unfortunately, he suffered a torn ACL and is expected to miss the entire 2019-20 NBA season now.
Things got worse from there as TMZ recently obtained a video of Cousins threatening the mother of his child, forcing an arrest warrant by the Mobile Police Department and the NBA to launch a domestic violence investigation as well.
While the investigation is ongoing, Cousins has remained on the roster despite him expected to miss the entire season.
General manager Rob Pelinka addressed the situation for the first time at Lakers Media Day, saying that while they take the allegations seriously, they are deferring to the league while they are investigating before making any decisions on Cousins’ future in the Lakers organization.
“I think the most important thing to say is the Lakers as an organization take allegations of domestic violence extremely seriously. That said, when allegations are made for any NBA player, the league takes over and handles that investigation,” Pelinka said during his press conference.
“So, we’re gonna abide by the league’s lead on this as that’s being investigated and because that’s a legal matter, I can’t really speak any further about that. Right now, he’s a member of our roster and a part of the team and we’ll just have to wait for guidance from the league on next steps.”
It is a league-wide rule that a team cannot make any decisions on a player while he is being investigated, so this was an expected answer from Pelinka on the situation.
As far as Cousins’ injury is concerned, the Lakers pivoted to another familiar face in Dwight Howard to bolster their frontcourt on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal.
The Lakers also applied for and were granted a $1.75 million Disabled Player Exception, so they will have that at their disposal to make another potential roster move.
For now, Cousins is expected to remain involved with the Lakers while he rehabs his torn ACL injury and the league concludes his domestic violence investigation.