DeMarcus Cousins looks to be ahead of schedule

When the Golden State Warriors shocked the NBA world this summer by signing DeMarcus Cousins, it came with the caveat that the four-time All-Star wouldn’t be on the court until well into the season. After suffering one of the more debilitating injuries in sports - a torn Achilles - in January, it seemed like Cousins would likely be out until late December, or even into 2019.

But so far, the rehab appears to be going ahead of schedule. Tuesday marked the first practice of training camp for the Warriors, and while Cousins’ didn’t partake in the practice itself, he went through many drills before practice started. Head coach Steve Kerr updated the media on Cousins’ recovery, and sounded very optimistic.

“He did a lot of stuff before we started at 11, so we had a lot of action on the floor from like 9 to 11,” Kerr explained. “All the young guys were on the floor at 9 o’clock, 9:30, DeMarcus did a ton of movement stuff - court work, ball handling, shooting stuff . . . we’re just taking it slowly with him, but I don’t think it will be too long before he’s really taking part in practice.”

It’s unclear what that means, but the timetable for Cousins has always been something of a mystery. At one point after the signing, Cousins said his goal was to be ready for opening night, but most reporters have pegged him for closer to halfway through the season. For the Warriors part, they’ve never really put an estimate on his return. The only update they’ve given was at Monday’s Media Day, where they announced that Cousins will be re-evaluated in four weeks.

But with him set to rejoin practice before too long, we could end up seeing Boogie on the court sooner than we expected.