Doc Rivers: If we kept Perk we would have been a No. 1 seed

[Roy H.]

Sorry, Doc, but no, we wouldn't have been.

I tend to agree, although I think we would have had home court against Miami.

I wish Doc would come right out and say he hated the trade.  To me, between his comments about how we would have been the #1 seed, and about how he had to throw out half the playbook, it's clear where his feelings are.

Just for my curiosity, I'd love to know every member of the team's / organization's candid view on the trade, both at the time and in hindsight.

[CeltsAcumen]

I swear some of you guys never played organized sports.

Team chemistry matters, if you don't think so, then you probably never played a game past Rec ball.

Perk was a member of the team, a family member and his loss hurt the Celts and was the driving force in the team not getting to the finals.  His defensive presence and rebounding alone would of made a difference, but that's not flashy or sexy.  Jeff Green, his potential is sexy, but he does almost nothing on the boards and nobody fears him on D. Perk did the grunt work and let the Big 4 do their thing.  Doc knows how important that was as does Rondo, PP, Ray Ray and KG. IF Doc says it had an effect on the Celts and he is a NBA vet, a Championship coach and generally known for his BBall knowledge perhaps your sofa-ESPN pundit plagiarism analysis does not hold water?

[BballTim]

The Celtics integrate new players just about every year at the trading deadline, including our championship year.  

Not really true.. our starting five in the championship year was intact from start of season to end. Sam Cassell and PJ Brown were almost 'end of bench players' though with a greater impact.

  Gabe Pruitt was an end of the bench player. Brown and Cassell were a big part of the bench rotation for the playoffs.

[clover]

So competitive Danny isn't ready to cede the trade as an error, while Doc's coaching ego prefers to deflect attention from the way he handled integrating the new players.  (Throwing out half the playbook, but not until the start of the playoffs?)

The good news is that they've a healthy enough relationship that they can both speak their minds out of lockstep.  There can be some healthy disagreement within the organization--and still they're thrilled to sign up for another five years together.

[TheReaLPuba]

Just chill.

This isn't the same team that started the year.

We had less than half the season for this team to even gel or being to gel.

Didn't we knock off half our playbook just so it would be simpler for the new guys?

Come on...this is no way to make a Championship run.

Add on the injuries that kept piling up....we're lucky we didn't get swept by the Heat.

[angryguy77]

I swear some of you guys never played organized sports.

Team chemistry matters, if you don't think so, then you probably never played a game past Rec ball.

Perk was a member of the team, a family member and his loss hurt the Celts and was the driving force in the team not getting to the finals.  His defensive presence and rebounding alone would of made a difference, but that's not flashy or sexy.  Jeff Green, his potential is sexy, but he does almost nothing on the boards and nobody fears him on D. Perk did the grunt work and let the Big 4 do their thing.  Doc knows how important that was as does Rondo, PP, Ray Ray and KG. IF Doc says it had an effect on the Celts and he is a NBA vet, a Championship coach and generally known for his BBall knowledge perhaps your sofa-ESPN pundit plagiarism analysis does not hold water?

Explain our record for the first half of the season then.
Let me guess, perk was also a jedi who used the force to will our team to the best record.

[KCattheStripe]

Disagree and we still would have gotten schooled by Miami, by a wider margin if it had been a series later.

[csfansince60s]

No 1 seed, just like last year when we had Perkins, huh, Doc??


Oh wait a minute, we weren't the #1 seed in 2010 WITH perkins, huh?

What were we?....4th??

[Roy H.]

No 1 seed, just like last year when we had Perkins, huh, Doc??


Oh wait a minute, we weren't the #1 seed in 2010 WITH perkins, huh?

What were we?....4th??

The difference is, this year we actually were the #1 seed in late February.

[Marcus13]

lol at Doc waiting til he got his 35 million dollar extension to tell the truth

[paulcowens]

That’s not to say that Rivers and Ainge always agree. Rivers expressed regret over the timing of the Kendrick Perkins trade during his weekly spot on WEEI yesterday morning.

“Someone just asked if there was something we could have done differently, and I said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ ” Rivers said. “But we couldn’t have done that. Having Perk for the playoffs would have made a difference in some ways, but even if Rondo doesn’t get hurt, we were still going to struggle.


“The difference, if we kept Perk, was that we would have been a No. 1 seed, because we wouldn’t have had that interruption of trying to work in new players. But not having Perk isn’t the reason we lost.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1338499&format=&page=2&listingType=celt#articleFull


 

Whatever!  I am done with the excuses!  Especially from a head coach.  Grow up already. 

Interesting.  So, excuses are only acceptable from Danny?

[paulcowens]

lol at Doc waiting til he got his 35 million dollar extension to tell the truth

I love that too.  Gee, seemed like he LOVED The Trade till just yesterday...

[paulcowens]

I swear some of you guys never played organized sports.

Team chemistry matters, if you don't think so, then you probably never played a game past Rec ball.

Perk was a member of the team, a family member and his loss hurt the Celts and was the driving force in the team not getting to the finals.  His defensive presence and rebounding alone would of made a difference, but that's not flashy or sexy.  Jeff Green, his potential is sexy, but he does almost nothing on the boards and nobody fears him on D. Perk did the grunt work and let the Big 4 do their thing.  Doc knows how important that was as does Rondo, PP, Ray Ray and KG. IF Doc says it had an effect on the Celts and he is a NBA vet, a Championship coach and generally known for his BBall knowledge perhaps your sofa-ESPN pundit plagiarism analysis does not hold water?

I sometimes wonder if it's the influence  of fantasy sports, though I've never done them.  Everyone seems to want to reduce everything in sports to stats, and to additive thinking.  Gee, if I take this guy's stats and add them to that guy's stats, WHAT A TEAM!

But a team is a collection of PEOPLE.

[paulcowens]

  Shaq, JO, Perk, Quis and Delonte were all hurt at the same time, weren't they? Not to mention Semih, who they thought wouldn't hold up through the playoffs. I think Baby missed a few games near then as well. We'd have been in serious trouble without the 25 minutes a game we were getting from Green and Krstic.

Well said.  It would have been impossible to pick up any stopgaps from waivers.  Trading our starting center was the only option.  Creating a giant hole in our starting unit was the only way to fix a hole in our bench.

[csfansince60s]

No 1 seed, just like last year when we had Perkins, huh, Doc??


Oh wait a minute, we weren't the #1 seed in 2010 WITH perkins, huh?

What were we?....4th??

The difference is, this year we actually were the #1 seed in late February.

But the similarity is that we played poorly at the end of last season with Perkins and that we dropped two slots during the same time period both years. 1 to 3 this year and 2 to 4 last year.