The problem is Cousins simply isn’t finishing. His accuracy at the rim, from the same source, is down from making 62.4 percent of his close-in shots to 42.1 percent this season. Watching Cousins’ shots, a couple of factors are at play here. For one, Cousins does tend to get too cute around the basket, whether because he’s fearful of getting his shot blocked or just prefers a little extra degree of difficulty. Given that, Cousins has still had an inordinate number of shots bounce in and out so far. I’d guess this has happened at least a dozen times on his 70 shot attempts.

Over the course of the season, such luck will even out, but 70 shots isn’t nearly enough of a sample to make it reliable. Right now, his shooting percentage at the rim is mostly attributable to noise. It’s one thing to understand that intuitively, and another to see it in action when the ball bounces out.