Kendrick Perkins Struggling (Danny should say "I told you so")

[Reyquila]

At the end of the day all I have to say: Thank God, thanks for taking Mr. Perkins away from my Celtics. Good riddance(sic). amen

[celtics2]

The big 3 made Perk look great. He had some good defensive quaities but never matched his billing. He spent more time perfecting his scowl. While we're at it same for Rondo. Not a total point guard at all. Can't shoot and free throws are a liability in crunch time. Less than fair defense, spends too much time ball hawking. His counterparts love to play against him.

[TripleOT]

While we're at it same for Rondo. Not a total point guard at all. Can't shoot and free throws are a liability in crunch time. Less than fair defense, spends too much time ball hawking. His counterparts love to play against him.

Less than fair defense from the guy who came in 5th the last two seasons for defensive player of the year?

Is Rondo not a total PG because he's not a good shooter?  He runs a team as well as anyone in the league not named Nash or Paul.  No kidding about the "bad shooter" point. How good of a PG do you have to be to make the all star game while being a horrible shooter?   

[CoachBo]

Have to say, though, that I'd miss the continued Perkins threads on this board. The relentless conflation of his very limited skillset here is rather like the comics in the daily paper - a dose of laughter amidst all the reality.

[Marcus13]

Just stop.  NOBODY outside of Celtic Nation thinks we won this trade...because we didn't.  We traded a top three defensive Center in the league for a late first round pick.

[BballTim]

.

edit - no personal attacks.  wdleehi

[Fafnir]

Just stop.  NOBODY outside of Celtic Nation thinks we won this trade...because we didn't.  We traded a top three defensive Center in the league for a late first round pick.

I don't think anyone outside of Celtics Nation thinks Perkins is a top 3 defensive center though. I just listed everyone I think people around the nba fanscape would argue are at last as good as Perkins defensively.

Howard
Gasol
The Other Gasol (when he plays C)
Bogut (when he's not broken)
Tyson Chandler
Noah
Okafor
Al Horford
Marcus Camby
Omar Asik
Bynum
Hibbert

That's a pretty long list, and I wouldn't be shocked if I missed a few players that people would pump up at Perkins level (or higher)

[kozlodoev]

I have a hard time taking seriously people who think Asik is as good defensively as Perkins.

[Fafnir]

I have a hard time taking seriously people who think Asik is as good defensively as Perkins.

I'm glad to hear you don't take Bulls fans seriously either. 

[wdleehi]

Warning - This is getting to chippy.  Posters need to stay respectful of each other.

[fairweatherfan]

Have to say, though, that I'd miss the continued Perkins threads on this board. The relentless conflation of his very limited skillset here is rather like the comics in the daily paper - a dose of laughter amidst all the reality.

Might want to Google that one next time, coach.


I do miss Perk, but I think his abilities sometimes get exaggerated here.  Perk can be a starting C on a championship-caliber team for sure - he could before getting hurt and he can after.  But he isn't a championship difference-maker.  His impact goes further than numbers, but not that much further.  He was an excellent fit in our system, and seems much less so in OKC, but they're still succeeding, so they can't be too unhappy with him.

Still wish him the best, and I'm glad he's on a non-Celtic team that I don't hate (Perk on the Heat would be too much to bear).  But I'm glad we aren't paying him $9 mill a year or whatever it wound up being.

[Fafnir]

I do miss Perk, but I think his abilities sometimes get exaggerated here.  Perk can be a starting C on a championship-caliber team for sure - he could before getting hurt and he can after.  But he isn't a championship difference-maker.  His impact goes further than numbers, but not that much further.  He was an excellent fit in our system, and seems much less so in OKC, but they're still succeeding, so they can't be too unhappy with him.

What I'm shocked by is that his awful rebounding numbers don't effect their team rebounding one bit. I figured his decline there would be where the damage done to OKC overall was, but instead its still just on the offensive side of the ball.

He's still got a big impact defensively for them, but offensively he's been an anchor around their team. Though I think some of that might be an artifact of him playing so many minutes with Thabo early on. Without a passer on the floor playing Thabo/Perkins just kills things. Still unless Westbrook morphs into more of a field general (I wouldn't hold your breath) I think he'll always hold them back offensively.

[TripleOT]

I do miss Perk, but I think his abilities sometimes get exaggerated here.  Perk can be a starting C on a championship-caliber team for sure - he could before getting hurt and he can after.  But he isn't a championship difference-maker.  His impact goes further than numbers, but not that much further.  He was an excellent fit in our system, and seems much less so in OKC, but they're still succeeding, so they can't be too unhappy with him.

What I'm shocked by is that his awful rebounding numbers don't effect their team rebounding one bit. I figured his decline there would be where the damage done to OKC overall was, but instead its still just on the offensive side of the ball.

He's still got a big impact defensively for them, but offensively he's been an anchor around their team. Though I think some of that might be an artifact of him playing so many minutes with Thabo early on. Without a passer on the floor playing Thabo/Perkins just kills things. Still unless Westbrook morphs into more of a field general (I wouldn't hold your breath) I think he'll always hold them back offensively.

You do realize that OKC is a Top 3 offensive team in the league, right? And that they're shooting 47.2/35.2% this season, after shooting 46.4/34.7% last season.

[soap07]

They're at the top of the league offensively, even though their four bigs only average 20 ppg on 16 shots.  They grab 20 rpg combined too.  This is not your conventional team, but one metric is eye popping - the 20-5 record.  

I love the "fans" who say - "Hey, the guy's numbers are terrible but it's okay, they're winning and you don't watch enough of Thunder games." I have seen plenty of OKC games this year. Perkins hasn't been impressive and the numbers bear that out.

You understand that they're at the top of the league offensively in spite of Perkins right? They score 8 more points per 48 minutes when he's off the court.

Just to recap:

Perkins has been a terrible rebounder this year. That is empirical fact. He has a rebounding rate of 11.7 - which is definitely the worst of his career - and terrible for anybody. So he's been a bad rebounder. We've already established that his blocks have been below his career average. That's fact.

He has a PER of 6.4. Yes, 6.4, among the league's worst at his amount of minutes. That's okay, some of you don't like PER as a stat. So those of you that like Perkins can disregard.
 His WS/48 are at .21. Okay, some of you don't like these metrics - fine...

Offensively, he's shooting 45% from the field. For his career, 45%. At some point, you can't ignore how poorly he's played.

But before Perkins arrived with OKC, he was known as a good rebounder, shot clock and defender - and not a liability offensively.

Now, he can't rebound, block shots or play offense. I'm supposed to get excited because he sets good picks? So he's Brian Scalabrine?

The difference is - Perkins is getting a paid a whole lot of money to underperform and the Thunder are winning in spite of him.

------------

And many people have referenced how OKC fans "appreciate" him and all that...

http://newsok.com/thunder-notebook-kendrick-perkins-says-im-struggling/article/3646802

Even Perkins admits he's struggling. It's okay to accept that he's not playing well there and still appreciate his contributions here. It's okay to accept that resigning him would have been a terrible idea at the money that he was asking for. It's okay to accept that OKC made a huge mistake with that extension.

[Fafnir]

I do miss Perk, but I think his abilities sometimes get exaggerated here.  Perk can be a starting C on a championship-caliber team for sure - he could before getting hurt and he can after.  But he isn't a championship difference-maker.  His impact goes further than numbers, but not that much further.  He was an excellent fit in our system, and seems much less so in OKC, but they're still succeeding, so they can't be too unhappy with him.

What I'm shocked by is that his awful rebounding numbers don't effect their team rebounding one bit. I figured his decline there would be where the damage done to OKC overall was, but instead its still just on the offensive side of the ball.

He's still got a big impact defensively for them, but offensively he's been an anchor around their team. Though I think some of that might be an artifact of him playing so many minutes with Thabo early on. Without a passer on the floor playing Thabo/Perkins just kills things. Still unless Westbrook morphs into more of a field general (I wouldn't hold your breath) I think he'll always hold them back offensively.

You do realize that OKC is a Top 3 offensive team in the league, right? And that they're shooting 47.2/35.2% this season, after shooting 46.4/34.7% last season.

When Kendrick Perkins is off the court they score at about 114 per 100 possessions. When he's on the court its around 105 per 100 possessions.

Its the matter of how big an impact he makes on the team when he's on the floor. I think he's very good fit for the Thunder in that they have the big time perimeter scoring threats of Westbrook/Durant/Harden to carry their offense.