Perkins Trade

2/18/11 - Boston trades Perkins:

Say what !

The Celtics traded away Kendrick Perkins today to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Perk went along with Nate Robinson in exchange for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.

Initially, I was completely demoralized and as shocked to hear about this trade as the entire NBA. How could they dump Perk ? Echoes of familiar arguments began flooding into my mind as soon as the trade was made. Wasn't Perk part of the "starting lineup that had never lost a playoff series" argument ? With Perk, we wouldn't have lost Game 7 ! Perk provides us with the size necessary

to contend with the Lakers' bigs. Once Perk comes back and he teams up with Shaq, the Celtics are guaranteed a title. Perk is the missing piece. And so on and so forth.

But I think this trade actually makes sense once one probes a bit deeper. The fact is that in the current environment of the NBA, a team can no longer afford to lose a player to free agency and not get anything in return. This is the

maximum lesson learned from the Le Bron Decision Moment of last off season. The Celtics had offered Perkins a contract extension and he had rejected it.

With the Celtics getting older, who know if Perkins would have signed with Boston next year ? He may have decided to test the free-agent market and

position himself on a younger team in order to prep himself for runs at a

championship in a longer window of time. Or maybe he would have out of sheer

loyalty to the franchise that accordingly treated him fairly well after taking him straight out of high school. Now we will never know.

I think the main reason that Perkins was dealt was his health. After coming back from full ACL reconstruction, I felt he was rushed back into the lineup a couple of weeks ago. The Celtics had no choice I guess. Even as careful as Doc is with managing player injuries (which is one reason I really like him as a coach), both O'Neals' injuries forced Doc into rushing Perkins back in and giving him more time than scheduled. The result ? Perkins sprained the MCL in the the non-surgically repaired knee. That looks and smells to me like a player

who is compensating because he doesn't fully trust that the repaired joint can take the stress of play in the NBA. Perkins is only 25 but already has 8 rough years behind him. I think the Celtics brass thought that Perkins was damaged good and better to ship him off while the getting was good.

And what the Celtics got was not bad. Jeff Green is a player that the Celtics most likely would have kept had they not sent him off in a trade for Ray Allen.

Not many looked at him as being a key player for the OKC Thunder but no doubt he was their third best player. He is young, athletic, and most importantly

he resembles James Posey, whose defense on LeBron James and Kobe was a critical element to Boston's last championship run. He'll provide key backup minutes to Paul Pierce and soak up the minutes that Marquise Daniels was providing. Green may not quite be Posey (that we don't know), but he certainly is a better player than Daniels was.

Nenad Krstic is a big European center, who so far has played adequately. To me, he's essentially a more refined version of Erden (who the Celtics also shipped away before the deadline to the Cavs), but he's certainly not a defensive presence, and certainly not one of Perkins' caliber.

That to me is the big unknown. The Celtics won a championship with defense. Their commitment to defense, their defensive intensity, their recognition that defense is a key to winning in NBA playoff basketball. They will have to rely on the O'Neal's shaky health now for that. And that is a big question mark.