Sunday, February 27, 2011

A Trade Worth Making?

Trades have a funny way of effecting sports fans. Players that fans have watched, learned about, and cheered for can be ripped from our lives without warning. Sometimes trades can spark nostalgia, sometimes they create hope, and sometimes they are a sign of bad times ahead.

This week the NBA tradeline was met with more activity than I can ever imagine. The Celtics made a deal that literally came out of nowhere. The C's seemed pretty secure with their roster. They had injuries to deal with (Delonte West, Shaq, and Jermaine O'Neal), and they did not really have the depth or picks to try and make a move. Then Danny Ainge made a splash, a splash that a lot of people did not like. He dealt Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson for Nened Krstic and Jeff Green.

People did not like this trade for a number of reasons.

1) Fans genuinely liked "Perk." He was a guy who worked hard and seemingly made the most out of the talent he had. He was a big lumbering center who did the little things in order to help the Celtics become the success they are.

2) Game 7 last year made Perkins a massive commodity. Celtics fans believe that with Perk the C's would have closed out the Lakers in game 7. This conjecture is a big reason people did not like seeing Perkins shipped out. What I believe is that if the Celtics lost game 7 with a healthy Perk people would be less upset. Perkins' value went UP when his team lost without him.

3) Celtics fans know how close this team is. They seem to really like each other. The Association on ESPN has given fans a backstage look at the Celtics, and Perkins is a big reason the team is so close.

4) Fans reacted to the Celtics player's reaction to the trade. KG, Doc, and others were vocal about the loss of Perk to the Thunder. I guess nostalgia effects the players too.




Jeff Green in 2007. Danny saw something in him then too.

There were players in the Thunder locker room who were sad to see Jeff Green go. That team is renowned for its chemistry and college-like atmosphere. No one in Boston seems to really care, they want Perk back.

I was honestly happy about this trade. The first thought that went through my head was, wow, we get Jeff Green. He is good! Jeff Green is a really solid addition to this team. Nenad Krstic is a guy I know nothing about, I knew he was a center who could both rebound and play better offense than Perk.

Let's be honest about Perk for a moment...he was a big center without much offensive ability outside of 5 feet. Are you thinking, but he can play defense, really good defense! That is something we have to wait and see about. Frankly, I wonder how much Perk's defensive prowess is tied to the great defense that the Celtics play. People used to KILL Paul Pierce for his defense. He was a below-average defender, then in 2007 he is all of a sudden a guy who can guard Kobe in the Finals. Huh? Does that make sense? KG is the guy on defense who changes everything. Perk won't have KG anymore.

Will Perk be the defensive stopper that all the Celtics fans loved in Oklahoma City? Only time will tell. 

In the case of the Celtics, this trade and the other ones they made, were made with the belief that the NBA is changing a little bit. The Celtics lost to a "big and tall" Lakers team last year. They went and got Shaq and Jermaine to get bigger in the middle. Now as they look at the NBA landscape they see some different teams rising to the top. The Heat, Bulls, and Thunder are all a little smaller and a little quicker. Making trades to play against one team is foolish, making trades to compete with an entire league is smarter. 

This trade the Celtics made comes with improvements for both big teams and quick teams. The Celtics still have size Krstic, The O'Neals, KG, and Glenn Davis while they also added a piece that gives them some quickness to battle those teams that could "go small" against them in the playoffs.


Hopefully the C's have others who will mix it up with Noah and others.

That leaves the question. Will the O'Neals be healthy? That will be the key I think to this entire trade. Another thing to think about is if Perk is healthy. He is already sitting out 3 weeks with a sprained MCL. This is not the knee that was not injured last June. Perk's knees may have been a bigger issue than the Celtics had let on.

Watch Kendrick Perkins run up and down the floor, his knees are bound to give way at some point. He is 26 with knee problems. Krstic is a year older than Perk, and may offset the "big and tall" opponents by stretching the defense out.

Overall, I think this trade is something that is going to add to the Celtics for the right now and for the future. In my mind they added more talent, and in time both guys will fit into the Celtics. The C's cannot afford to bitch and moan too long, they have a Championship window that is closing quickly. Maybe this trade opened a new window, the post-Pierce, Allen, KG window.

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