Perkins and Baby do the things our teams needs a lot better than David Lee.
Perkins low post defense is arguably the best in the nba. Perk is also a very good shot blocker, besides those 2 things neither player holds a candle to Lee. Davis hustles his big butt off but Lee is superior in every aspect of the game. I'm sure he can handle our defensive sets.
Dwight Howard averaged 12 a game on 47% shooting vs the Celts during the regular season, and 23 a game on 83% shooting vs the Knicks. In a related note, Orlando hits about 5 more threes a game vs the Knicks (at a higher fg%), no doubt in part due to the fact that Lee can't handle Howard on his own. I don't think that "besides those 2 things neither player holds a candle to Lee" is as accurate as "without those 2 things we can't get past the Magic". Don't underestimate the power of great defense in the playoffs.
Great defense his...well...great? But keep in mind that as soon as SVG realized that DH is 10X more mobile than Perk and get Howard moving in S/R's with Nelson, Perk was not nearly as effective.
There is more than one way to defend.
There is more than one way to win.
Bring the best together.
Learn the roles.
Play together.
Win.
So after last year's regular season, last year's playoffs, this year's regular season and part of this year's playoffs Van Gundy suddenly realized that DH was more mobile than Perk? Interesting. And there's more than one way to defend but our defense against Orlando is based on the ability of our center to guard Perk 1v1. Good luck plugging Lee into that.
Not quite... Howard is more dangerous from the mid-post than the low post. The quality of Perk's defense declines with each step away from the basket [he's a great LOW post defender]. Whenever Howard started working some one-dribble moves, i.e. the Waltonesque running hook, Perk wasn't nearly as effective, though nobody would be, as the NBA rules make it hard to defend a player that is moving.
This is far from the case. It's been pretty well established during the last two playoffs vs the Celts that the farther from the basket Howard is when he gets the ball, the less effective he is. He scores on occasions on those running hooks vs Perk but he's almost as likely to miss the rim.
The point is that Perk's value as an outstanding defender is limited to low-post situations, and in other situations he is average or worse (much worse offensively). There is no question that David Lee is a much, much better basketball player than Perk, which means a trade involving the two as principle pieces would heavily, heavily favor the Celtics and would make the C's a better team.
There is no question that Lee is a better player than Perk but the improvement to the Celts would be much more marginal than you imagine. People remember that the Celts lost in game 7 because they struggled to score late in the game. They remember the offensive droughts the team went through in other games during the season. But they seem to forget that almost every bit of success we enjoyed in the playoffs came from our outstanding defense, and sacrificing defense to improve our offense isn't the way to go. The better player isn't always the better fit.
We can talk about matching up with Orlando all day, when it may very well be true that Atlanta or Milwaukee would've been tougher playoff matchups with Perk unable to control Horford or Bogut.
If you're expecting Lee to help on the defensive end against either player, good luck. Horford "ran wild" against Perk to the tune of 12 points a game, while the "much better" Lee held him to a mere 21 a game, which is about 50% above his average. And, you're right, Perk had trouble controlling Bogut. Andrew scored 25 a game against Perk and shot 60% from the field. Not to be outdone, Lee gave up 17 a game on 72% shooting, but Perk gave up those 25 points in 41 minutes a game, while Lee gave up the 17 in a mere 24 minutes a game. And I wouldn't count on Lee's help defense being in the same league as Perk's.
I'm not saying Lee isn't a better overall player than Perk. I'm not even saying that Lee's improvements to our offense might not be bigger than what having him on the court takes away from our (calling card) defense. I'm just saying it's not a slam dunk.
Topic: Talking to David Lee's Agent (Read 21073 times)