There is never the right time to get an injury like this but I'm glad he at least managed to get that $31.5million contract from Indiana last Summer and secure his future. If he had got the same injury last year, he would have been left without contract for a year and then probably playing out his next couple of season on minimum deals. That's also why I am always in favor of players choosing to take less money for long term deals rather than waiting it out (e.g. Draymond last year).
Cousins and IT must have lost about $300million between the two of them due to injuries. Cousins has maybe 1% chance of getting back to being a $10million+ player, IT has no chance to even get mid-level exception and he's earned $34million during his career so far which is really not that much for a former All-NBA. Cousins has made $89million which is still fine.