So now that the Thunder are out of the playoffs is it time that we finally realize the Kendrick Perkins deal didn't make a lick of difference? In fact there was an article last week that said, "To put a finer point on things, let's replace the word "starters" with "Kendrick Perkins." In his 82 minutes on the court, the Thunder have been outscored by a whopping 32 points. In his 62 minutes on the bench, the advantage has titled nearly as strongly the other way: The Thunder are plus-23.
And those slow starts? They've magically ended at the exact second Perkins departed. Oklahoma City trailed by five in Game 1 before he went out, by nine in Game 2, and by 15 in this one -- 29 points worth of deficits to make up the rest of the night. The Thunder overcame it in Game 2 by scoring on nine straight possessions right after Perk went to the bench; in the other two games, the hill was too big to climb.
Of course, this could just be noise. Sometimes plus-minus fluctuates randomly for reasons that have little to do with a player's performance. After watching the three games, however, this isn't one of those cases. For starters, Perkins has made a limited statistical contribution, with only 11 points and 14 rebounds in the three games. His main function seemed to be going out of his way to run into Tyson Chandler off the ball."
So it happened to the Thunder too. They realized that Perk is just what everyone says he is, "a big body with a mean snarl" he is not a good offensive player and hurts the offense more than helps it and much like when he was with the Celtics, he finds himself on the bench at the end of games because Nick Collison is a better option.
I'm not trying to bad mouth Perkins, but the absolute bashing of the trade needs to finally be put to the end. The Celtics wouldn't have got passed the Heat with Perk, and Perk obviously isn't the guy that puts a contending team over the top. Everyone shut up and stop bad mouthing Ainge.
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