The last time the basketball world saw DeMarcus Cousins, he was being carried off the floor after tearing his left Achilles in a season-ending, non-contact injury late January.

Now re-introducing DeMarcus Cousins, a man on a mission.

Cousins posted a video on Twitter on Saturday, showing snippets of his journey to recover from that unexpected — and unfortunate — injury. It appears the all-star big man has taken a quantum leap from being unable to put weight on his left foot to now full-sprinting on the treadmill, shooting three-pointers in the practice gym, and, maybe most importantly, one-legged weighted leg presses.

Boogie’s return to health is a reminder that even the most unfortunate of setbacks can be overcome with willpower and resilience. But it’s also a reminder of the delicate situation both Cousins and the New Orleans Pelicans face while maneuvering a critical summer for both sides. Cousins is an unrestricted free agent and it’s hard to know exactly what kind of financial commitment the Pelicans (or any other team) can make for him given his injury.

Cousins’ free agency should be a no-brainer, but it’s not necessarily

Before Boogie went down in that Jan. 26 matchup against the Rockets, he was putting up legendary numbers. Since 1960, only a handful players have averaged the 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists Cousins posted in the first half of the season: Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and Russell Westbrook.

Sacramento traded him to New Orleans two all-star breaks ago, and it seemed the Pelicans fan base had finally accepted him as a star of their own. They fell in love with him, and rightfully so.

That’s why it was so difficult to stomach his injury. In a season defined by gruesome, season-ending injuries from the beginning, only Gordon Hayward’s live TV dislocated ankle was more painful to watch.

It was also odd to watch the Pelicans take off without him

The day after Cousins’ injury, New Orleans sat sixth in the Western Conference with a 27-21 record. At the end of the regular season, the Pelicans still finished sixth, but were in a three-way tie with a 48-34 record. They had gone 21-13 without one of their all-star big men, and if that regular season finish wasn’t enough, New Orleans swept the No. 3 seed Portland Trail Blazers right out of their own building in the first round of the playoffs.

Along the way came the murmurs that New Orleans was better without Cousins on the floor. No one could point to the numbers, because data from NBA.com says the Pelicans were essentially just as good with Boogie on the floor as they were off. In fact, without Cousins, New Orleans made fewer threes at a lower percentage and shot a lower field goal percentage altogether.

But the Pelicans also increased their assist average while lowering their turnover rate. They were able to space the floor out for Anthony Davis, who had one of the most incredible months of basketball in NBA history when he averaged 35 points and 11 rebounds in February. It was Davis’ play that sparked a 10-game winning streak stretching into March, and it was inserting Nikola Mirotic — a feared three-point gunner — into Cousins’s slot that gave the Pelicans’ offense a jumpstart.

For a team with arguably the two best big men in the league, a 27-21 record is pedestrian at best. And for that team not to be much worse — and some would argue better off — without Cousins seemed like an indictment on both his game and of his value to the team.

Then you can’t forget about the injury

At age 32, Dominique Wilkins suffered a torn Achilles on almost the same date as Cousins did. Wilkins returned Nov. 6 of the next season and went on to average 25.2 points per game through the remaining 312 games of his career.

But not every player is as unique as Wilkins, and not every player recovers the same way. A torn Achilles is the worst possible injury that can hit an NBA career. It’s the injury that spelled the beginning of the end for Kobe Bryant and countless others who don’t belong in the same breath.

The best example of a player close to Cousins’ stature suffering the same injury is Elton Brand, an all-star power forward who tore his Achilles at age 28 during an offseason workout in 2007. Brand never averaged more than 15 points and/or eight rebounds a game in a season after.

“I didn’t have the same explosiveness that I had,” Brand said, according to Mark Medina, who wrote for InsideSocal.com at the time. “I regained and then I re-lost it. I didn’t have it. I had to change my game a little bit where I jumped off two feet and I was a little bit slower.

The video Cousins posted on Twitter shows he’s working hard to regain his all-star form, but no one will know how close to that form he’ll get until he suits up and plays basketball against real competition. That could definitely happen over the summer, especially with the rise of summer workout sessions like Chris Brickley’s famous open gym that players of all walks travel to New York to attend.

But until he’s 100 percent confident in his Achilles, we won’t see Cousins playing any 5-on-5.

Which brings us to contract negotiations

A healthy DeMarcus Cousins is one of the three best big men in the league, right behind his teammate and right up there with anyone else you can name: Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Clint Capela, Rudy Gobert, have your pick. None of those players want smoke with Boogie. A healthy Cousins would command a max contract in free agency, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

But this isn’t a healthy Cousins. This is Cousins coming off of a torn Achilles. And even though Boogie is still reportedly is seeking a max contract, it’s unclear if the Pelicans will offer it.

New Orleans could re-sign Cousins to a five-year max contract worth 30 percent of the salary cap. That’s the same thing the Oklahoma City Thunder could offer Paul George: A five-year, $175 million deal depending on the official salary cap figure that will be revealed at a later date. That offer seemed likely at one point, ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported in late April that wasn’t necessarily the case anymore.

The success that followed New Orleans’ faster, spaced-out brand of basketball surely made Pelicans’ brass think twice. In early March, Anthony Davis told The New York Times’ Marc Stein he wanted Cousins to re-sign in New Orleans, but that was before the Pelicans swept the Trail Blazers out of the first round.

There are also the financial implications, which might box the Pelicans in. If the Pelicans let Cousins leave, they wouldn’t be able to clear enough cap space to sign any meaningful free agents. If New Orleans wants to keep him, they can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him because they own his Bird Rights, but will likely bite the luxury tax bullet that comes with his contract.

It’s unclear what Cousins’s line of thinking is during his first-ever unrestricted free agency, but it’s probably his last real shot at a major payday on the court. He liked an Instagram comment that suggested he chase the cash and that the Pelicans should offer the max.

Cut the check, Pelicans pic.twitter.com/wp93Qj8Arf — Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) May 21, 2018

$175 millions is a lot of money, and five years is a whole lot of time to commit to a player coming off of a damning torn Achilles. But it’s also a message to Anthony Davis, who is great friends with Cousins: We want to win, we want you happy here, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

That might be what it takes. Lowe also reported the Pelicans have thought about offering Cousins “a two- or three-year deal at less than the max,” but also said he wouldn’t expect that to go over well with Cousins’ camp. A five-year max is undoubtedly what would make Cousins happiest, but it’s unclear on how far he’s willing to come down, if he’s willing at all.

He might not have to, with other suitors like Dallas sniffing around. But if the market is cool due to Cousins’ injury situation, the Pelicans might be able to retain Cousins while limiting their financial obligation.

What’s clear is that when healthy, DeMarcus Cousins is an all-world talent immediately deserving of the most amount of money his team can give him. What’s also clear is that Cousins is coming off of the worst possible injury an NBA player can suffer, and the Pelicans swept the Trail Blazers out of the playoffs without him.

The Pelicans also lost 4-1 to the Golden State Warriors in the second round, and having Cousins might have helped them fare better in that series. It’s a tricky scenario both sides have to work through, but it’s one that must resolve itself in the coming weeks.

Cousins can field offers elsewhere, and the Pelicans can’t really replace him with a player of equal value or talent if they let him walk.

Several teams could use a star player of his caliber, and The Athletic’s Michael Scotto reports the Mavericks — a team that had been linked to Cousins in the past — believe they have a chance at landing him in free agency. The Lakers could also have enough cap room to sign not one, but two max free agents this summer, and both the Hawks and Bulls project to have cap space for contract offers just under the max.

But what is the value of playing competitive playoff basketball, and how much is Cousins potentially willing to sacrifice to stay in New Orleans? And how much is Pelicans’ brass willing to spend in luxury tax dollars on a player who might not be 100 percent healthy and might not really make them much better even if he is?

At the same time, having DeMarcus Cousins on your team is better than not having him on your team, especially when there’s no avenue to sign a comporable replacement. It’s a big decision at a critical juncture for both Cousins and New Orleans.

And it’s a decision neither side can afford to get wrong.