I've always thought that Danny won the trade "on paper", but thought -- and still think -- that he underestimated the importance of chemistry and the difficulty of working new players into our rotation (especially on the defensive end). I'm still in that boat.
The talent we got back was good; I don't think anybody can really deny that. However, time will tell whether changing the face of a lead championship contender with 25 games left in the season was a good idea.
I understand your worries and your reasoning but I think that in this particular situation it's cause for concern, but not really something drastic either. Here is why in my opinion :
1. We lost our starting center but we are going replace him with a guy who was our starting center for a long part of the season and already knows our plays and systems. So while in the short term we have Krstic starting, once Shaq is back, he will fit in right back in the lineup, causing no defensive or offensive issues because of a lack of cohesiveness.
2. This team is led by veterans who are willing to integrate new guys, advise them and help them fit in as quickly as possible. This can't be underestimated.
3. Add to this point that all of the new additions are known for having good to great basketball IQ's and being fast-learners. Especially Green who is the center piece here.
4. The biggest concern is obviously their integration defensively but they all belong to the 2nd unit and ultimately will only play in short bits in the playoffs, mostly coupled with the starters, which means the starters can make up for whatever deficiencies they have on that end.
5. Even though Doc says he doesn't know how to best utilize Green yet, the essential point is to make learn the defensive schemes and he will be fine offensively. His versatily allows him to be efficient in so many ways that he can only fit with our Big 4 in key moments/games.
6. It's fair to say that the Big 4 has embraced the new guys and there is no chemistry problem so I don't see this kind of issue appearing all of a sudden.
To me, we are talking a lot about how drastic a change the trade was but when you look about it wasn't so huge, we just lost one key guy in Perk, will replace him in the starting lineup with a guy already integrated and who has proven his worth, and we just have to integrate key guys off the bench. The big change (the loss of Perkins) was made months ago, when we played from October to mid-January without Perk, which is a lot of months to learn how to play without him and with Shaq instead. The transition was made there.
We're not talking about a major shakeup a la Orlando this season where you lose two key starters and have to integrate two new ones. Plus, extra practice time and an easier schedule will only help integrate the new guys and I'm sure it was taken into consideration when the idea of the trade emerged.