Tommy on team still hurting from Perk trade: "That's bologna"

[Rondo2287]

Because those stats include when we had to play the worst teams in the league, too.  Those are irrelevent.  It's only about Chicago and Miami

So your grand evidence that the trade hurt the celtics are 2 games? Against 2 teams that the celtics beat earlier in the season without Perkins?

Sure is funny that KG, Ray, Rondo, and Doc all seem to agree with me.  All of them have discussed how the team is different now and struggling.  We could argue for days about why the team isn't as good...but the fact is we were a better team before the moves than after.  Kendrick Perkins was a much bigger asset to this team than Jeff Green is

Kendrick Perkins ain't walking through that door, and if he does, he won't have many knee ligaments left.

[Yogi]

No.  Just no.  Chicago, Miami, and Philadelphia all absolutely dominated us in the paint.  We didn't even have a body to try and put on Carlos Boozer, it was just Jeff Green getting ran through

This is just wrong. All the stats show that there was no decline in defense in the paint compared to prior to the trade.

Because those stats include when we had to play the worst teams in the league, too.  Those are irrelevent.  It's only about Chicago and Miami

   Give some credit to Wade, Lebron and Rose.  You can have 28 year old KG, Shaq and Perk guarding the paint and they will still their points in their paint.  Noah, Boozer, Bosh and Deng are no slouches either.  We can't win every game.  We won 5/8 against Chicago and Miami.  I'm willing to bet that is the best record in the NBA. 

[Jon]

I think people are mixing up the effect Perk would've had on the past couple of months vs. the effect Perk would've had over the next couple of months. 

I think without a doubt Tommy is right.  It's complete bologna that the C's decline over the past two months is directly related to Perk.  They clearly proved that they could win without him earlier this year.  Furthermore, if Perk was some sort of magical elixir against sleepwalking through the end of the season, the Celtics wouldn't have gone 27-27 with him as their starting center to conclude the season last year. 

Now that's not to say that those who dislike the trade won't have their day at some point in the playoffs if this team is dominated inside in a playoff series loss.  However, that's yet to be determined and will largely hinge on how well JO and Shaq play. 

[Vermont Green]

I think people are mixing up the effect Perk would've had on the past couple of months vs. the effect Perk would've had over the next couple of months. 

I think without a doubt Tommy is right.  It's complete bologna that the C's decline over the past two months is directly related to Perk.  They clearly proved that they could win without him earlier this year.  Furthermore, if Perk was some sort of magical elixir against sleepwalking through the end of the season, the Celtics wouldn't have gone 27-27 with him as their starting center to conclude the season last year. 

Now that's not to say that those who dislike the trade won't have their day at some point in the playoffs if this team is dominated inside in a playoff series loss.  However, that's yet to be determined and will largely hinge on how well JO and Shaq play. 

Nice balanced post.

I listened to the Tommy H interview and I happen to like what he said.  The ESPN guy (Chris Boussard?) was trying to start in with the idea that we are playing bad becasue everyone's feelings are hurt over the trade of Perk.  Tommy said that was Bologna.  Tommy went on to say that what really was an issue was integrating 5 new players, mostly into the second unit, with no practice (many of which would have needed to be integrated whether we made the trade or not because of injuries to Daniels, Nate, and Erden, I might add).

Whether Tommy is 46 or 76, Homer or Hall of Famer, those two points that he made are dead on and I love that he didn't buy into the ESPN hyperbole.  The hurt feelings, lost identity lines make much more interesting stories but Tommy doesn't care about stories.  He is just a basketball guy.