Late last night, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee relayed a report that DeMarcus Cousins has agreed to an extension with the Sacramento Kings for the maximum salary under the new CBA. The Kings agreed in principle on a four-year, $62 million extension for the former No. 5 pick out of Kentucky in the 2010 NBA Draft. The deal does not include an option for the final year of the deal, or a fifth year.
Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed the specifics of the deal over Twitter.
To be accurate: DeMarcus Cousins' extension with the Kings is a four year, $62 million max deal, sources tell Y! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) September 27, 2013
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And added that there is no opt-out after the third year of the deal.
No early termination option in the Cousins agreement, league source tells Y! Sports. It's a full four-year deal, no opt-out after three.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) September 27, 2013
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That fifth year would have made Cousins the “designated player” for the Kings, but Jones adds via Twitter, that he preferred the four-year deal, which locks him up in a Kings uniform through the 2017-18 season after the deal goes into affect for the 2014-15 year.
The lack of a fifth year also allows the Kings to hold on to their designated player tag. The Wizards and Pacers inked five-year max extensions with John Wall and Paul George earlier this summer making Cousins the third player from the 2010 Draft class to sign a max extension, but without that fifth year.
The 23-year-old out of Kentucky averaged career highs with 17.1 PPG, 9.9 RPG and a PER of 20.2 during the 2012-13 regular season. There has been some discussion as to whether he warrants a max extension since he’s battled teammates, coaches and even the press during his first three years in the league. The deadline for any rookie-scale extensions for players from the 2010 Draft is October 31. If the Kings had been unable to extend Cousins before Halloween this year, he would have become a restricted free agent this summer.
Is Cousins worth the four-year max extension on his rookie deal?
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