Shaq is a vast upgrade over Perkins.

[guava_wrench]

Perkins probably caused me the most amount of frustration last year.

Everytime he caught the ball on offense, he got his shot blocked, bricked, airballed, or (mostly) turned the ball over.

He takes about 6-7 seconds before he decides to make a move, mainly because he has no offensive confidence. And his moves are primitive. Offense is where our team struggled last year. Remember those stretches of not scoring for 8 minutes? That hasnt happened this year, not with Shaq in the game.

I think you might want to watch videos of last season's games, because your memory is very faulty. Unless you don't know what 'everytime' means. Heck, those things didn't even happen the majority of the time. Did you even bother to look at his shooting percentage or number of turnovers that weren't illegal screens?

It is hard to take your analysis serious when you use such hyperbole that is so far from reality.

[Bahku]

Been said before, Perk is a Beast. His defense is miles above Shaq's especially on the pick and roll. He shows harder and rotates quicker. Perks offense is underrated, besides you have to feed the beast every once and a while. Glad to see Shaq having fun out there and still getting it done; but Perk will be a major asset regardless of if he's starting or playing with the second unit. Perk would be able to score against the second unit with ease.

Perk doesent score against anyone with ease, when the ball ends up in his hands its usually a turnover, not a basket.

I'd like to see the stats that support this ... can you provide a link, please?

From what I find he shot a .602 FG% last year, averaging 10.1 PPG with a 2.12 TO average ... that doesn't seem to support your claims here. Hey, I love having Shaq on this team, and I've said from before he came that he would thrive in our system of unselfish play, but Perkins was also a very strong member of this team, and deserves more kudos than a lot of people are willing to give him. Having them both healthy at playoff time will give us one heckuva one-two punch in the paint!

Stats: http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kendrick_perkins/career_stats.html

[LooseCannon]

If they both played 15 minutes, the difference between Shaquille O'Neal and Kendrick Perkins isn't that huge.  Perk's big advantage over Shaq is that, when healthy, he can play more minutes.  In 2008-2009, Perkins had to play 40+ minutes in four of the games of the Chicago series.  I don't think Shaq can do that.

When Perk comes back, I'm expecting his level of play to be around what it was when he had a knee injury last season.

[kozlodoev]

Apparently, as of now our defense against 16-23 jumpers is worst in the league -- I attribute this directly to the fact that Shaq isn't quick enough in challenging jump shots.