Golden State Warriors: DeMarcus Cousins and his defensive struggles

What factors are causing Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins to struggle on the defensive end?

There has been a significant amount of concern within the NBA community that the defensive struggles of DeMarcus Cousins have started to become an issue for the Golden State Warriors.

Joe Viray who writes about the team for SBNation expressed concern over his defensive struggles this week:

"Teams have picked up on the fact that Cousins is a huge liability in the pick-and-roll. Even before his Achilles injury made him less mobile and more prone to being targeted, Cousins wasn’t particularly a good perimeter defender. His slow feet and lumbering frame made him more effective down low, where he could use his strength and size to stifle other big men in the post."

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However, one would argue that DeMarcus Cousins can fix most of his defensive issues with one adjustment. Cousins has developed a habit of watching the basketball causing him to lose track of his defensive assignment.

A prime example of this was during a home game against the Boston Celtics earlier this week. Early in the first quarter, Al Horford briefly set a screen on the left wing to force Cousins and Alfonzo McKinnie to switch defensive assignments.

The switch meant that DeMarcus Cousins was no longer supposed to guard Al Horford, his new defensive assignment was Jayson Tatum. Tatum brought the basketball up the floor and passed it to Horford who had established post position on the mid-block.

Once this happened, Cousins turned his head around to watch Horford and completely forgot about his defensive assignment in Jayson Tatum. As a consequence, it allowed Tatum an opportunity to get a head start on a backdoor cut to the basket.

By the time Cousins realized what was happening, Tatum was already to steps into his backdoor cut. The head start allowed Al Horford to hit Jayson with a drop pass as he approached the basket. The pass forced McKinnie to leave Horford because Tatum had an open look at the basket.

Not only did McKinnie turn around but DeMarcus began to run towards Jayson Tatum to stop him. The possession ended with Jayson Tatum being fouled by DeMarcus Cousins as he was in his shooting motion resulting in an and one situation for him.

Cousins’s ball watching has been a contributing factor to the team being outscored by an average of 0.8 points per game when he is on the floor. If he were to cut back on his ball watching, the conversation around his defensive struggles would die down as he has enough lateral quickness to stay in front of most of his defensive assignments.

One example of this was during a road game vs. the Charlotte Hornets when he was forced to guard Nicolas Batum after a switch early in the first quarter. Cousins positioned himself on the right side of Batum’s body to take away his ability to drive right.

As a consequence, Batum chose to go left but couldn’t blow by Cousins and was forced to take a heavily contested mid-range jumper.