Notice that Perkins is getting killed by mobile big men Zachary Randolph and Marc Gasol?
OKC has actually been okay with Perk in there, only getting outscored by 1. The bigger issue has been when Perk has been on the bench (-12).
Awesome stat with Perk walking down the floor on defense quite a few times in the 3rd.
I just think it's hard to blame Perk's defense, when the Thunder are getting blown out when he's on the bench but are playing even when he's in the game.
That doesn't mean that Perk has been great, but it does mean that he's not the reason they're losing by this margin.
It goes both ways. Plenty of times I've seen here Perk having a poor game, yet giving him a ton of credit for the win, which makes little sense to me.
Also, for better or worse, Perk plays most if not all of his minutes with the main unit of OKC. Then you figure how the OKC bench has been out matched, and you see how it skews his +/- a bit compared to the rest of the team.
Is it so hard to fathom that Perk at the moment is not all there? Do we have to credit Ibaka's good play being due to Perk? Why do we have to go to that extent to judge how Perk is playing?
I liked what he did defensively for a bit there against Randolph, but Randolph was just too good offensively regardless. But other than that, I've been underwhelmed with his game.
If Gasol and Randolph were destroying the Celtics as they are currently destroying the Thunder you bet the first reaction by everyone would be "if Perk was here this wouldn't have happened". Well it happened against Memphis, who everyone argues have the best defensive big man combo in the NBA.
All in all, Perk is simply a solid player to have, but overall a low impact one regardless.