DeMarcus Cousins To Golden State Warriors: How Kevin Durant Allowed All-Star Signing

While majority of the headlines since Sunday were about LeBron James and his move to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Golden State Warriors are making their own headlines now after reportedly agreeing a deal with free agent DeMarcus Cousins.

James signed a four-year deal with the Lakers, making them go from a 35-47 team to having the joint-second best odds of winning a championship next season, and with plans for Kawhi Leonard to join, many believe the Los Angeles franchise will become the new super team to challenge the Warriors.

However, the Bay Area side, -110 favorites to complete a three-peat next season, have just seen their odds improve further to -150 as ESPN sources reported Monday that they've agreed a one-year, $5.3 million deal with Cousins.

Although not official yet, Warriors star guard Stephen Curry even welcomed the 27-year-old on Twitter.

Formerly of the New Orleans Pelicans, Cousins averaged 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.6 blocks in the 48 games he featured in before suffering a season-ending torn Achilles tendon in January. The expectation is he will take his time to continue his recovery before returning sometime in December or January.

One of the best centers in the league, Cousins will replace the Lakers-bound JaVale McGee in what is a significant upgrade that will see the Warriors now potentially boast five All-Stars in their starting lineup — something not done since the Boston Celtics did it during the 1975-76 season.

But how did head coach Steve Kerr's side manage to land another All-Star just two years after acquiring Kevin Durant?

Not surprisingly, a majority of the NBA world was not happy with this deal, as there were already complaints about how the sport had become a one-team league after Durant's move to the Warriors. NBA commissioner Adam Silver even recently called the deal for the former Oklahoma City Thunder star "a bit of an aberration in our system."

The fact is, however, that it was actually Durant who helped pave the way for the Cousins deal to happen. The 29-year-old opted out of his Warriors contract this summer, but only to re-sign on a new one-plus-one deal which will pay him $30 million next season with another player option afterward.

By signing a one-plus-one deal instead of a max deal, Durant will not only be eligible for a supermax deal next year, which allows the Warriors to exceed the salary cap to retain his services thereon after, but it also saved the franchise over $5 million in tax money. In turn, the Warriors were able to use their $5.3 million midlevel exception to sign Cousins.

Yahoo! adds that the recruitment process for Cousins was led by Warriors forward Draymond Green, Durant and general manager Bob Myers. ESPN reported that the two choices for Cousins were the Warriors or the Celtics, but Yahoo! states an agreement was developed "fairly quickly" after a few phone conversations Monday.

Cousins is bound to receive a lot of criticism once he eventually makes his debut for the Warriors but if he returns to his old levels, James and the rest of the Lakers could face the possibility of not even making the Western Conference Finals.