Ive never posted in the forum before but im a regular reader of the blog and i wanted to share my opinion on why this
is a remarkably good trade for the Celtics.
Kendrick perkins was one of my favorite players on the Celtics. He could defend elite Centers 1 on 1. He was an
enforcer,He was NASTY at times. He was....hold on, hold on, im trying to think of other things he did well. I'll get back to you on that later.
In a need to replace Perk for a few months we were forced to sign the aging, "injury prone", "laughing stock" of has been big men Shaquille O'neal. It was all fun & games in the preseason making fun of the O'neal brothers and their age, lack of intensity, and desire compared to Perk. That all ended about 14 seconds into the Miami game for me when Shaq was running the floor better that any Celtic center ever has and was catching alley oops left and right and putting him down
with authority. I thought i was watching a game of NBA Jam from 1994 at times it seemed like it was just him and Rondo on the floor.
A little exaggeration, sure. But in the first 3+ months of the season we saw an AWESOME Celtics offense with the Diesel in the middle. We saw a guy who was NOT an offensive liability. A guy who actually DEMANDED a defender at ALL times. A guy who could catch alleys from rondo and actually convert them. A guy who played defense every bit as good as Perk and was a slightly better rebounder & shotblocker. A guy who was a great passer for a big and who didnt have stone cinderblocks for hands.
Being die hard Celtic fans its tough to face the fact that we lost the NBA title to the Lakers of all teams last year. We were out rebounded in game 7 and it killed us in the end and it wouldve been nice to have Kendrick Perkins on the floor. But Boston fans being Boston fans are too quick to say we wouldve won if we had Perk. Yes we would've gotten more boards but we would've lost out on the great offensive game Sheed had. Also i remember losing 3 games in that series with Perk in the lineup...or at least 2 and a half.(Not to mention we DID win game 7 without him except the refs saw it different.) I guess what im trying to say here is im the only die-hard
Celt fan who isn't so quick to say we would've without a doubt won game 7 with Perk.
Ever since Perkins has been back he seems like the same ol Perk in most regards. He plays with the same passion. He tries to be the enforcer. He barks with the best of em and incorporates the scowling mean mug for good measure. But to me he just hasn't passed the eye test that passive fans and media "experts" fail to aknowledge. He seems VERY uncomfortable at the offensive end which has led to a lot of turnovers and bad shots early on in games. He takes forever to make his move to the hoop and gets blocked by big men and shooting guards alike. He seems to be getting no lift off of his braced up knee whatsoever. Not to mention hes a technical foul machine as well as a moving screen factory.
I dont think i have to waste much time explaining how this trade was good for our future. I think we're all intellegent enough basketball fans in this forum to realize that we're gonna need good players for our future to match up with Rondo when the Big 3 leave. Youll never be able to draw a big free agent here 3 years down the line on Rondo alone and it would be nice to have another star on the team which i think theres an above 50% chance Green could be that. Not to mention the draft pick they got from the Clippers which is top 10 protected for a few years so we probably wont get it this offseason but that could very well be an 11-15 pick next year.
People havent wrapped their head around the fact that Big Baby is now the defacto back up center. Krstic will get a few minutes off the bat but when its all said and done Big Baby will be your main 4/5 off the bench while Green will be a 3/4. (With anything J. Oneal can contribute as icing on the cake...and im optimistic for the record.) Krstic will probably end up being the Erden of the team which is a huge
upgrade at that spot. Big baby of course doesnt give you the size perk has but what team are we going to face that we need THAT MUCH size. Orlando?...theyre going nowhere...plus Baby can cover Howard pretty decently off the bench. Were still bigger than every team.
There just wasnt a NEED to have both Shaq and Perk on the same team. Especially when people forget that neither plays a lot in
the 4th quater when its Big Baby time. We were trying to get washed up bench bums like Anthony Parker, Rojer Mason Jr., and
sorry to say it guys, its blasphemous but...James Posey. We were going to give up Nate regardless. Why not upgrade to a much more dynamic player who can avg over 15 a game and has youth and size as well as an outside touch whilst also getting a Big who is not as much of a downgrade to Perk as everyone thinks and a draft pick. It just makes perfect sense.
My favorite part of all this is the media "experts" opinion. Chris Broussard say the Celtics are the big loser in the trade deadline. He says that we just lost our ONLY advantage over the Heat: our size. He says we have no chance unless Shaq turns back the clock 10 years. I beg to differ. We beat the heat twice without Perk and the other time without Shaq. Hence we only need 1 big man to still have the "big man" advantage over them and their James Bond villain of a "big" man 'Soft'drunas Ilgauskas.Hence Shaq only needs to turn back the clock 2 months. Our newest advantage over them (adding to our point guard advantage, our defense advantage, our coaching staff advantage, and our championship
experience advantages) is now we have the best bench in the NBA in my opinion. Especially when the other shoe drops and we add to our roster. But then again these are the same "experts" who put Orlando as the team to beat when they picked up Jason Richardson. What an upgrade...the "slashing" "dynamic" Jason Richardson was definately going to put ORL over the top in their eyes. Except for one fatal flaw. JRich has been camped outside the 3 point line since the 07-08 campaign. Hasnt slashed in a good 3 years plays NO defense and lets
face it: he could lose a few lbs. Those are the "experts'.
People: dont listen to the media...trust your eyes. Remember, these guys told us when we got the Big 3 it would take us 3 years to win a title. We won in 1. Then when the 3rd year came around we were suddenly too old. But i thought "it was gonna take 3 years". Make up your minds. We had no shot this year until we beat Miami twice early on. Suddenly they say Miami cant beat us. These guys arent experts at all if you ask me. Their opionions are laughable. They say now that we lost Perkins we CANT win the tile. With that logic then the Thunder should be the hands down favorites to win it all i guess.
All in all I have a place in my heat for Kendrick Perkins and will miss him but i think this was a great move for now and moving forward.
Topic: Awesome Trade for Celtics! (Read 862 times)