Perk struggled in the Finals (Chris Bosh) but he played a pretty significant role in getting Oklahoma there in the first place.
Perk was very valuable defensively against the Los Angeles Lakers (Andrew Bynum) and the San Antonio Spurs (Tim Duncan).
Duncan killed him. It was when they went smaller and started running the Spurs off the court that they got back in the series.
Luckily for the Thunder, Ibaka has taken his game to another level with his jumpshooting which might get them over the hump.
Perk continues to regress and is just killing them at times.
He's basically an interior defender that sets screens. A rich man's Jason Collins for 9 million a year.
Duncan went 40 for 91 that series. That isn't killing. Duncan had his way with Perk in Game 5, but in the rest of the OKC wins, SA was badly outscored when Duncan was on the court. Perk also matched Duncan minute for minute the entire series. You make it sound like OKC ran Duncan out of the building when Perk was sitting. Strangely, Perk really neutralized Duncan in the two SA wins, where it took Duncan 26 shots to score 27 points.
When SA went to going through Duncan more, their offense slowed. OKC's offense ramped up, and they did a better job closing up on the perimeter, and that's why they won. While Duncan plodding his way in the post, and was shooting and missing FTs (21-36), OKC was fast breaking and banging threes.
Do you really think that Ibaka doesn't benefit from playing next to a physical, wide-bodied center? Guys with builds like Ibaka and KG, who use jumping ability and timing instead of boxing out technique, need a physical center to seal off the opposing big for them to board well. Look how putrid the Cs rebounding, and KG's rebounding numbers have been, since Perk was traded. Cs last or near last in most rebounding categories, after being in the top 1/3 of the league in 08.