Danny Deserves the Benefit of the Doubt

[Kane3387]

First off in any trade, when you get the best player in the deal you win. Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade. Green is. He is a combo forward who can defend anyone in the NBA. He is now a legitimate sixth man of the year caliber guy, aka Lamar Odom like impact. He can shoot, score, and is a great athlete. He is 23 and has tremendous upside. He is also a team oriented player and very unselfish. (5th overall pick who took a backseast to Durant and Westbrook for the betterment of the team) No one sacrificed more for the Thunder then him.

Perk while a great compliment to our team rebounds poorly and has no offensive game at all. On top of that he has two knees that are now both less then 100%. You don't commit the kind of money he is commanding to that. I will miss him but you have to get something while you can. A S+T leaves you little leverage.

Krstic is another 7 footer who can space the floor for Rondo and provide six fouls. We basically traded Nate for a potential late lottery pick. We also opened three roster spots to sign and keep away from our rivals key free agent buyouts.

We can't cast final judgement until we see what Danny does with these three roster spots.

Also this team was first in the east and beat SA without Perk. KG is a different player and as of now we have KG, BBD, Shaq, Krstic, and likely more bigs on the way. I feel good about what we are doing.

[hpantazo]

I agree, he has earned it. Did he ever make it onto WEEI today to talk about the moves?

[Andy Jick]

Don't do this...you're making too much sense and the Danny Haters won't be able to comprehend your wise words. 

Well put...TP!

[bruinsandceltics]

First off in any trade, when you get the best player in the deal you win. Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade. Green is. He is a combo forward who can defend anyone in the NBA. He is now a legitimate sixth man of the year caliber guy, aka Lamar Odom like impact. He can shoot, score, and is a great athlete. He is 23 and has tremendous upside. He is also a team oriented player and very unselfish. (5th overall pick who took a backseast to Durant and Westbrook for the betterment of the team) No one sacrificed more for the Thunder then him.

Perk while a great compliment to our team rebounds poorly and has no offensive game at all. On top of that he has two knees that are now both less then 100%. You don't commit the kind of money he is commanding to that. I will miss him but you have to get something while you can. A S+T leaves you little leverage.

Krstic is another 7 footer who can space the floor for Rondo and provide six fouls. We basically traded Nate for a potential late lottery pick. We also opened three roster spots to sign and keep away from our rivals key free agent buyouts.

We can't cast final judgement until we see what Danny does with these three roster spots.

Also this team was first in the east and beat SA without Perk. KG is a different player and as of now we have KG, BBD, Shaq, Krstic, and likely more bigs on the way. I feel good about what we are doing.

TP. Awesome post. There isn't a single thing I disagree with here.

[Roy H.]

Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade.

I disagree.  Perk has proven himself as a starter on a championship team.  Green might put up better numbers, but Perk was a perfect cog in our machine.  Also, if you knock his rebounding, I feel bad for when you see Krstic.

Also, I think you're vastly overrating Green.  He's a decent player, but he can't "defend anybody in the NBA".  He's a pretty good defender at SF, and a poor one at PF.  He's nowhere near as good as Lamar Odom.  Rather, he's a good but not great player.

I think Perk is pretty clearly the most important player here, which is why OKC gave up two players, a potential lottery pick, and took on salary for him.

[fairweatherfan]

You're overselling Green by quite a bit, especially on defense.  But a mediocre starter will probably make a very good backup, and we desperately needed another wing, especially one who can score a bit off the bench. 

I agree with you overall, but also because we haven't seen the rest of the moves.  The Semih trade made it pretty clear that Danny is expecting to add some buyout guys; we have to see how that shakes out before we can really judge today's trades.  In the meantime, I have enough faith in Danny to believe he's got some things lined up.

[Andy Jick]

Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade.

I disagree.  Perk has proven himself as a starter on a championship team.  Green might put up better numbers, but Perk was a perfect cog in our machine.  Also, if you knock his rebounding, I feel bad for when you see Krstic.

Also, I think you're vastly overrating Green.  He's a decent player, but he can't "defend anybody in the NBA".  He's a pretty good defender at SF, and a poor one at PF.  He's nowhere near as good as Lamar Odom.  Rather, he's a good but not great player.

I think Perk is pretty clearly the most important player here, which is why OKC gave up two players, a potential lottery pick, and took on salary for him.

If Shaq gets healthy, he can do everything Perk did (and do it wiser without the loud mouth)...  We won't miss him, Roy.

[Roy H.]

Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade.

I disagree.  Perk has proven himself as a starter on a championship team.  Green might put up better numbers, but Perk was a perfect cog in our machine.  Also, if you knock his rebounding, I feel bad for when you see Krstic.

Also, I think you're vastly overrating Green.  He's a decent player, but he can't "defend anybody in the NBA".  He's a pretty good defender at SF, and a poor one at PF.  He's nowhere near as good as Lamar Odom.  Rather, he's a good but not great player.

I think Perk is pretty clearly the most important player here, which is why OKC gave up two players, a potential lottery pick, and took on salary for him.

If Shaq gets healthy, he can do everything Perk did (and do it wiser without the loud mouth)...  We won't miss him, Roy.

Even assuming Shaq gets healthy, he's nowhere near as good of a defender as Perk.  He lacks lateral movement, he can't defend the pick-and-roll, and he fouls too much.  He's simply not Perk's equal, and again, that's assuming he stays healthy.

I'm a Shaq fan, but let's not oversell him.

[Andy Jick]

...and let's not oversell Perk either.

[celticinorlando]

danny just on weei....

1. hard to let perk go…agononized over the decision
2. shaq will return next week
3. expects JO to be full go by april and feels he is a big piece going forward...felt shaq played very well with starters and was best used as a starter
4. danny was worried about the injuries…esp with erden and perk
5. they will look to sign 3 guys…a big, wing and a guard in that order…
6. had an eye on the other contenders when they made this deal
7. they know who they want in buy outs and said they are ready to pounce as soon as they can..
8. would love to sign either a great defender or a great shooter
9. johnson is a guy that is going to get them through until next week when kristic comes and shaq returns
10. said shaq is closer to returning that perk was

[hpantazo]

Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade.

I disagree.  Perk has proven himself as a starter on a championship team.  Green might put up better numbers, but Perk was a perfect cog in our machine.  Also, if you knock his rebounding, I feel bad for when you see Krstic.

Also, I think you're vastly overrating Green.  He's a decent player, but he can't "defend anybody in the NBA".  He's a pretty good defender at SF, and a poor one at PF.  He's nowhere near as good as Lamar Odom.  Rather, he's a good but not great player.

I think Perk is pretty clearly the most important player here, which is why OKC gave up two players, a potential lottery pick, and took on salary for him.

If Shaq gets healthy, he can do everything Perk did (and do it wiser without the loud mouth)...  We won't miss him, Roy.

I agree except for the part about the loud mouth, Shaq is up there with him

[Andy Jick]

Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade.

I disagree.  Perk has proven himself as a starter on a championship team.  Green might put up better numbers, but Perk was a perfect cog in our machine.  Also, if you knock his rebounding, I feel bad for when you see Krstic.

Also, I think you're vastly overrating Green.  He's a decent player, but he can't "defend anybody in the NBA".  He's a pretty good defender at SF, and a poor one at PF.  He's nowhere near as good as Lamar Odom.  Rather, he's a good but not great player.

I think Perk is pretty clearly the most important player here, which is why OKC gave up two players, a potential lottery pick, and took on salary for him.

If Shaq gets healthy, he can do everything Perk did (and do it wiser without the loud mouth)...  We won't miss him, Roy.

I agree except for the part about the loud mouth, Shaq is up there with him

Let me rephrase that: without all the needless technical fouls.

[ManUp]

From everything I've read so far. The OKC fans are just happy to be rid of Green. Getting Perk back is just the plus. I just feel we could've and should've gotten more for Perk.

As of right now this trade is just horrible. But I fully expect Danny to pull something off that will make these moves start to make sense. So in that way I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. 

[More Banners]

Love Perk but he is not the best player in this trade.

I disagree.  Perk has proven himself as a starter on a championship team.  Green might put up better numbers, but Perk was a perfect cog in our machine.  Also, if you knock his rebounding, I feel bad for when you see Krstic.

Also, I think you're vastly overrating Green.  He's a decent player, but he can't "defend anybody in the NBA".  He's a pretty good defender at SF, and a poor one at PF.  He's nowhere near as good as Lamar Odom.  Rather, he's a good but not great player.

I think Perk is pretty clearly the most important player here, which is why OKC gave up two players, a potential lottery pick, and took on salary for him.

Two points on the above:

First, Perk is a proven 5th starter/role player on a title team.  Let's not go making him Finals MVP or anything.  He's not Bill Russell.

And our machine still runs well, but we're going to be putting antique plates on it pretty soon.  Back when PP and the others could more easily score at will, Perk fit better than he might now, and surely better than he will with every minute that is added to PP, Ray, and KG's odometer.  The scoring droughts happen for a reason, and I'm not sure it's poor execution; the guys just aren't as quick as they used to be (who is?).  E.g. the PP iso:  he has near-zero chance of getting to the cup any more...just the ole step-back 22 foot jumper.  So Perk was a great complement to Paul, Ray, and KG circa 2008, but not so much in 2011.

[Jon]

This absolutely could blow up in our face.  However, I do agree with the OP, let's give Danny the benefit of the doubt.  

While there are many reasons why this trade could fail, there are also many why it could work.  

And I still think that Danny must be expecting a big buyout and must have some understanding with someone.  There's no way he just gave away Semih and Luke on the off-chance that someone might eventually become available.