DeMarcus Cousins is done for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon, an injury that seems unfair for a young man in the midst of the best season of his career and on pace to play in his first NBA postseason. Unfortunately, he'll have to wait at least one more season to make his postseason debut, and he has a long offseason of rehab and work ahead of him. Condolences to the man known as Boogie.
How does Cousins' absence affect the fantasy basketball landscape moving forward? To answer that question, let's take a look at what Cousins was providing for the Pelicans and what their options might be for trying to replace those contributions.
Cousins' production is at or near the top of every statistical category for the Pelicans. He's second on the team with 25.4 points per game (Anthony Davis, 26.5 PPG), first in rebounds with 12.9 RPG, second in assists with 5.2 APG (Rajon Rondo, 7.4 RPG), second with 1.6 blocks per game (Davis 2.0 BPG), and first with 1.6 steals per game.
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He also took the most shots (18.1 FGA) and averaged 46.9 FG%, which ranks fourth among Pelicans starters -- Davis is first at 55.6 FG%. Cousins also shot the most free throws (8.3 FTA) and averaged 74.8 FT% (fourth among starters, Davis is first at 82.0 FT%). And, by far, he led the team in turnovers (5.0 TO) with almost twice as many as second place (Jrue Holiday, 2.6 TO).
Thus, the Pelicans will need several players to step up in order to try to fill this huge hole in their lineup. Do they have the personnel to do this?
To get some insight into what the team can do without Cousins in the lineup, let's take a look at what they've done during the six games Davis has missed, since they have similar roles and Boogie had yet to miss a game this season.
Davis missed full games on October 26, Dec 2, Dec 4, Dec 6, Dec 11 and Jan 10. In those six games, these were the counting stat averages for the other primary rotation players for the Pelicans: