The Pelicans were playing their best basketball, finally. DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis had clicked and become the best big man duo in the NBA. The offense was humming, and they'd finally escaped the mediocrity of .500. Winners of seven of their last eight, the Pelicans were setting themselves up for a nice run.

However, their season took a turn for the worst Friday night when Cousins came up limping on a rebound attempt. He had to be helped off the floor. The team confirmed Saturday afternoon that Cousins' injury was a season-ending ruptured Achilles tendon in his left foot. 

The Pelicans now have to figure out where they're going to go from here. Here's a look at four key questions moving forward:

What is Cousins' future?

 Players can physically come back from sprained ankles, ACL tears and even broken legs with little long-term effect. An Achilles tear, however, is historically one of the worst injuries an NBA player can have. For some players it completely destroyed their careers. For others, it changed them forever.

In recent memory, Rudy Gay, Brandon Jennings and Kobe Bryant have all had the injury. Bryant was at the tail end of his career, but he was clearly never the same player once he recovered. Jennings is out of the NBA and playing in China at age 28. There's a chance he comes back, but that he's reached this point at all says a lot about what the injury has done. Gay on the other hand has thrived in San Antonio. He was ready to go at the start of this season and, before an unrelated injury, was one of San Antonio's most important bench pieces.

However, all of those players are wings and guards. Only one of them looked even close to the same after the injury. Cousins, listed at 6-foot-11 and 269 pounds, has far more weight and the history of big men following the injury is nowhere near as good for an injury that is already pretty devastating.

Two of the more notable names are Elton Brand and Mehmet Okur. Brand was eight years into a career as an annual 20-10 threat. He still had a long and successful NBA career after his Achilles ruptured in 2007, but he was never the same player. Then there's Okur. His injury occurred when he was 31, but the results were absolutely devastating. He returned the following season to play 17 games and then never played in the NBA ever again. That's the worst-case scenario for this type of injury. 

This doesn't mean Cousins' career is over. Medical technology has made incredible strides, and there's a reason someone like Gay was able to return from an injury that derailed similar players. Cousins could make a return, still be great and become the new normal. Don't forget, it wasn't that long ago that an ACL tear was seen the same way an Achilles is now.

Can the Pelicans still make the playoffs?

The Pelicans entered this season with playoff aspirations. That's what any team with Davis and Cousins on the same roster should be doing. They've made some massive improvements since spending most of their season hanging around .500. It felt like they had finally turned a corner and could lock in a playoff spot in the mediocre bottom half of the West. 

While they can still make the playoffs, thanks to their current spot, there is a good chance the Pelicans take a dip in not only wins, but in their chances at advancing. Projections from SportsLine data scientist Stephen Oh show the Pelicans dropping into the playoff bubble zone without Cousins: 

New Orleans

Wins

Playoff 

Round 1

Round 2

Conference Finals

NBA Finals

w/ Cousins

43.1

86.40%

19.00%

4.38%

0.56%

0.08%

w/o Cousins

40.9

70.50%

13.30%

3.10%

0.31%

0.06%

IMPACT

-2.2

-15.9

-5.7%

-1.3%

-0.3%

-0.02%

Obviously New Orleans is going to continue making a run at the playoffs, even without Cousins, but it will need to decide how they're going to go about that. Do they make a move to replace Cousins in the short term, or do they just slide players down -- i.e., Anthony Davis at center -- and make moves to build around those adjustments?

The Pelicans had been active before the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline and will continue to be, ESPN reports. They want to make improvements to their roster for a playoff run. This could mean they just add additional shooting and help on the wing. However, with the injury to Cousins, they could approach it differently. There's plenty of teams out there looking to dump a big man of some kind.

New Orleans could choose to roll out a starting lineup of Rajon Rondo, Jrue Holiday, E'Twaun Moore, Dante Cunningham and Davis -- go small and use their speed to take advantage of teams. However for spacing purposes, they would probably want to finish games with Darius Miller and have Rondo on the bench. They would then approach trades for wing help to give them more shooting and versatility.

If the Pelicans want to add a big man then there's plenty of teams out there looking to move one. Nikola Vucevic in Orlando is an option considering he's in the second to last year of his contract. New Orleans might want to look at a current backup big, or someone that's been a backup before, to give depth to it's lineup. If they keep Cousins beyond this season then they'll want someone that can slide to the bench with no issues.

What is Cousins' free-agency outlook?

Cousins will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Before the injury, his future seemed kind of obvious. He would enter the summer as a max free agent no matter his destination, and the Pelicans were going to throw every dollar they could at him. If he stayed, that could be huge in New Orleans efforts to keep Davis long term. 

The Pelicans can try to play hard ball with Cousins, but then they risk losing potentially the best center in the NBA. It still could be a worthwhile gamble because there are teams out there that are going to be put off by the injury. The Pelicans might even be able to save some money in the process, but let's say that backfires and Cousins leaves. If he leaves, and it turns out that he's still the same great player as always, then New Orleans loses a franchise altering gamble.

However, Cousins market outside New Orleans will be fascinating . There are certainly going to be teams who make a play for him, but are they willing to open up their checkbook for someone that is coming off a career altering injury? Cousins was putting up historic numbers before the injury. So the talent is obviously there, but it's a gamble against the history of an Achilles injury. 

What happens to the other Pelicans?

When Cousins was healthy, the path for the Pelicans was simple. Sign him to the biggest contract possible to build around him and Davis. Continue to fine tune a system that benefits the use of those two players and then add pieces that benefit that system. Win enough games and hope that's enough to convince Davis to stay.

Now, everything has changed. Cousins probably helped the Pelicans enough to make the playoffs, which may have saved Dell Demps and Alvin Gentry's jobs in the short term. However, how they approach Cousins in the future could be what decides how long they're kept. If Demps makes the wrong decision on Cousins' free agency and the team flops as a result, ownership (which is in its own weird spot) could choose to in a different direction. Gentry at this point is always going to have an expectation of at least competing for the playoffs with or without Cousins. It has to be difficult to build a team that way. Especially when you don't know if Cousins will return and what level of play he'll bring.

The big person being impacted in all this, however, is Davis. The Pelicans hoped success with Cousins would be core to keeping Davis in 2021 . Now, they have to gamble their future on a hope that Davis wants to stay or cut their losses now and begin a rebuild with a trade. That doesn't mean they have to do this just that it's an option available to them. 

This is the kind of impact an injury like this to a player like Cousins has on a team. It throws a simple plan into chaos. It takes certainties and turns them into gambles. The Pelicans will need to ask themselves at the end of this season. Do we think Cousins can return from this the same player and what do we about it? Every decision from that point on will be a gamble. They just have to hope they'll end up on the right side of it.