GARNETT: GREEN, KRSTIC 'ARE NOT PERK'

GARNETT: GREEN, KRSTIC 'ARE NOT PERK'
By: Ben Rohrbach
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In a blog entry on the Anta shoe company's website, Celtics All-Star forward Kevin Garnett opened up about the trades that sent Kendrick Perkins and three other teammates packing last Thursday.

"It's been a touch couple of days. ... This was a hard trip for me," wrote Garnett. "We found out the day of our game [against the Nuggets] that we traded my defensive partner and teammates Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson, Semih Erden and Luke Harangody. It was crazy. I found out just minutes before I left for the arena. It was crazy that we only had eight for our game in Denver, so Chris Johnson, [who] was with us during training camp, got called up, and we tried to fit him in."

While Garnett was clearly shaken up about the departure of his teammates -- Perkins, in particular -- he claimed the Celtics will welcome Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic with open arms.

"We also met our two new teammates in Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic," added Garnett. "It will be interesting to see if they can mesh with us, and I'm sure they can help us. It gives us depth and some space, but they are not Perk. I know that they won't be Perk, but they are my new teammates, so I welcome them with open arms and look forward to playing with them."

DOES NOT SOUND ENCOURAGING ! 112288

I think it sounds good and honest.

As long as they can live with the high demands that KG will put on them and TRY I think it will be all good.

KG is a competitor and I think he will go to war with whatever team he has surrounding him (just look at Minnesota). I do not think he is the kind of player that will have unreasonable demands on players to perform beyond their capabilities but he will not let people get away with "non-effort".

Good luck to either of those players if they think they can step on the court and halfass their way on defense. KG will rip their ears off.

bob
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112288

What did you expect him to say?

swish

112288,

One of the challenges of being particularly intense at anything is that one focuses so hard that it's not an easy thing to disengage and start focusing in another direction. It's almost the same principle as gaining a lot of momentum and then trying to stop short and change direction.

It's very understandable that KG would be inordinately upset about the loss of his "defensive partner" (a very appropriate term. I'm glad Kevin's contract is not up for renewal any time soon. I have a feeling that, even though he may not be so vocal about it, Rondo's dejection over the whole thing may comeclose to matching that of KG.

It could well be that KG will get back emotionally before Rondo, because Rondo does have a history of being less flexible than most of his teammates about things in which he believes.

I do think they'll both come around, but there's no question that this is another aspect of the risk assumed by Danny. And it's also an indictment against the way the trading deadline is administered and viewed.

For the most part, it's almost as though general managers deliberately try to make the deadline more exciting by waiting until the last 10 minutes or so to strike deals. They have weeks to cook these things. During those weeks, the press would typically gotten wind of the possibilities and publicizes them. So the fact of the trade is not such a sudden shock as when even the players don't hear about it until they're on their way to play a game.

I also agree with Doc that some time during of just prior to the All-Star break would be a much better time for the deadline. The break would offer some buffering for everyone involved to get used to the idea of the trade.

It's perfectly understandable that KG, Rondo, and fans (including board members) would be very emotional about this trade. Here's hoping that the rationality that gradually will replace the emotion wlll take a very positive form.

Sam

It's not exactly sticking with the company line, but as Swede points out, it's honest. Perk earned his way. Green and Krstic will have to do the same.

Outside, well put. I might augment it just a tad by suggesting that the team, with Perk as an important element, had to earn its way. And the team, presumably with Kristic and Green as increasingly important elements, will also have to earn its way now.

I think there can be a general tendency to under-emphasize the fact that it's not simply up to new Celtics players to be productive. It's up to a team full of professionals and the coaching staff to put the newcomers in the best possible positions to succeed. If that includes tweaking the system to accommodate the altered capabilities of the team, so be it.

I'm sorry if I appear to make too a big deal of this factor. But I put adaptability right up there with chemistry as pivotal in the credentials of a championship contender.

Sam

I'm not sure this is the best place for this, but I didn't want to start its own thread for it.

From Hoopsworld: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=18923


As the smoke continues to clear from this season's action packed trade deadline, the Oklahoma City Thunder have been widely anointed as the biggest winners of the past week.

On the surface it's easy to understand why many around the league are applauding the move from an Oklahoma City perspective as the Thunder were able to solidify their interior depth sending Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic and a 2012 first round pick to the Celtics in exchange for Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson.

Perkins will ultimately provide the Thunder with the defensive intensity the club has been longing for since it started rising through the Western Conference ranks.

But the move wasn't a highway robbery by any stretch of the imagination. Not even close.

While Perkins is an extremely solid player that was an integral part of Boston's recent playoff success, the eighth year veteran recently turned down a four-year close to $30 million contract extension offered by the Celtics in order to let the market set his value in free agency.

Fearing the franchise could potentially lose their starting center for nothing in return this summer, team president Danny Ainge made a proactive, but very unpopular, decision to get value in return.

This strategy netted Boston a potential future All-Star in Green who is a player

More than twenty years ago the Celtics were in a similar position. Part of the Eastern Conference power players, Boston also possessed an aging big three (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish) and a fan base that didn't want to undergo a massive rebuilding job.

In the 1987 draft the team selected small forward Reggie Lewis out of Northeastern University. At the time, similar to the Green acquisition, most didn't understand the impact the selection could have on the squad's future fortunes.

By 1993 Lewis was an All-Star 20 plus point per game scorer who successfully led the Celtics to the postseason without a retired Bird, a further aging McHale and a nearly 40 year old Parish inside.

The key to any franchise's continuity at the top of the standings is the development of the next wave of roster talent. Boston's current Hall of Fame trio consisting of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are still playing at an extremely high level, but the signs of decline are evident to anyone who witnessed the stars perform in their prime.

Green has a lot to do before being compared to Lewis straight up admittedly, but the talent is undeniably there.

At 6'9 Green brings the versatility to play both forward positions and the ball handling ability to initiate sets on offense. The NBA is all about matchups and the ability to create mismatches in your favor. There aren't many teams around the association boasting a fifth option on their team with the skill set of Green.

According to Julian Benbow of the Boston Globe, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers has been seeking an option to make the roster more flexible since their 2008 championship season.

"We needed to get a '3' and a '4' as far as a swing guy," Rivers said. "This gives us the ability to do what I did the year we won it, which is at times we can go small with Green at '4' and Kevin at the '5' and Paul and Ray and it spread the floor. We've been trying to get that lineup since [James] Posey left. I think people forget how many times we did that in the playoffs which was every fourth quarter for the most part. We haven't been able to duplicate that. In some ways, that hurt Rondo. In this way, that should help."

Perkins served as a menacing brute in the paint that personified the Celtics' militant approach to defense in recent years. But the team almost defeated the Lakers in game seven of last June's NBA Finals without him in the lineup (knee injury), leading the majority of the contest before crumbling in the final period.

While Perkins was out of the lineup for the majority of the current campaign, the Celtics were busy achieving the number one position in the Eastern Conference. The offseason free agent signings of Jermaine and Shaquille O'Neal were made as insurance policies in the event Perkins was unavailable. The Green deal also brings in Krstic who has proven to be a solid producer in the league throughout his tenure.

But it's Green, provided the Celtics match any offer tendered to him this summer, who is the guy that can add another year or more to Boston's championship window most thought would close after this season.

Pairing Green with All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo will also likely ensure the franchise doesn't undergo a massive rebuilding process once the big three hang up their high tops down the road.

The Georgetown University product gives the team more firepower in a conference which has recently witnessed an unprecedented influx of skilled players and also a more formidable future one-two combo.

As solid as Perkins is you'd be hard pressed to find many who believe a future Rondo-Green duo isn't more potent than a Rondo-Perkins duo in a conference featuring multiple franchise players on the same squad.

If the team decides to not move forward with Green after the season concludes he's still projected to be a coveted free agent whose rights could be swapped for talent in a sign-and-trade in order to retool quickly. Throw in the first round pick also acquired in the deal and the Celtics have more flexibility to handle the day when Garnett, Pierce and Allen are no longer capable of taking the franchise deep into the playoffs.

The Celtics entered deadline week looking to add some minor small forward depth but ended up possibly extending their championship window in the process, even though popular opinion may think otherwise – for now at least.

bob


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