From reading some of these posts, Perk is having a horrible season. I wonder if some of these posters who say that Perk is vastly overpaid and that OKC is stuck with his contract realize that every single peep uttered out of OKC by anyone associated with the team is that they're thrilled with Perkins and what he brings to that team.
If you can't appreciate and understand how important is was to have a wide-bodied bruiser that was willing to lay his big body on an opponent every time a shot went up, thereby allowing someone like KG to go for a rebound without having to do so, there's nothing I can post here that's going to help you understand.
The team's 31-8 with Perk since he got there, and have the best record in basketball this season. Westbrook is actually having a poorer season than last year, down 2.5 apg. Durant's about the same stat-wise, with more accurate shooting. Ibaka's down in every category. The difference between this and last year's OKC team is toughness, led by Perk and Mohammed, improved defensive play, as well as improved play by Harden.
You put any able big man who plays a lick of defense into that OKC squad and you'd be seeing pretty much the results you're seeing now. The improved defense of OKC has more to do with not having Green playing the 4, particularly alongside Kristic.
It's disinginous to give this amount of credit to Perk particularly with the way he's been playing.
As for Durant being about the same, I'm not sure if shooting about 4% higher (50 FG%) and grabbing almost 2 more rebounds per game and a career high on assists is really playing about the same. Remember this is a young team, and year by year they've been improving both individually and collectively.
What they also have is more continuity, a more stable starting 5 while previously there were a lot of mix and matching.
The team is playing great, but the impact of the player named Perkins has been exaggerated, particularly when considering how he's been playing, how his defense has been really (solid at times, but not the great one we've seen previously), and poor offense and lack of rebounding. His contributions are not worth 7-9 millions so far.
The saving grace for OKC is that they won't be playing the salary cap game from quite some time so they can afford to overpay Perk.
Perks current contribution to OKC is very similar to what JO is doing. Comparable defense, Perk has been more effective with his shots, but a poorer rebounder. Perk has been healthier though. I say let's give JO a lot of credit for our current success.
Topic: Perk gets LA Times Shout-out. Mr Intangible is 31-8 with OKC (Read 10106 times)