Jax Raging Bile Duct
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I see you creepin'
@Lost Ones Maybe you missed the "some people" part of point #1. If you want further details, you're welcome to peruse the 400+ comments yourself.
In case you just popped in and want to catch up on today's discussions, they boil down to this:
- No one thinks Perk is actually a good player. Some people think he's serviceable at best given the right matchups and player pairs.
- However, where we differ is that some people are unwilling or unable to separate that fact from the amnesty option.
@PostBeardStressDisorder I think there is an option outside of the coaching, and that is to draft a guy who plays his way into the job. Perkins wouldn't play as many minutes if Nick could stay on the floor and Hash was any better.
And Brooks use Perk as a specialist more than you may be giving him credit for. He played 4 minutes in a game against Houston and he was perfectly healthy and not in a bit of foul trouble.
@Tronchaser Well you OBVIOUSLY missed MY comment then. ;)
@TMoneyNY There's not a lot of difference in our opinion. I'm not trying to argue that Perk is a good player. I'm saying that the best version of Perk is when he's paired with a slightly smarter Ibaka. Perk looks the worst when Ibaka can't participate in the offense, and Perk helps Ibaka figure out what's going on with defensive rotations.
One day, we may see Ibaka at the 5 and KD at the 4 for the majority of the season. The sooner that day arrives, the better, imo.
The reason I brought up point 3 is because in the first comment you made responding to me, you said "Perkin's defensive abilities simply do not make up for the glaring lack of offensive contribution." and then later mentioned going small. I see people say this all the time and wanted to point out that you can't have it both ways. You can dabble in one or the other, but you can't do both.
Historically speaking, no franchise has ever been successful when their GM tells the coach who to play. The GM has to trade that player away (ie Jeff Green) if he doesn't want him to play. No coach will agree to coach if they know all their moves come with that level of scrutiny.
@TMoneyNY 3 things.
1. A bit too much hyperbole there when you mentioned Perks passing. But lol anyway. Nick is better, but Perk can find a cutter too. Serge and Hash though? Can you even imagine that? They can't either. Perk knows half court offense, even if he can't score in it.
2. Perk had a poor playoffs, as I mentioned, but we have to take more than this playoffs into account when evaluating him as a player.
3. I'm all for small ball. But one logical fallacy that I see people make all the time on this subject is that you can't be an advocate for small ball AND want a center to be a part of the offense. You either play small without a center, or you play big with a center who can score. You just can't do both by definition! Now, you could go even further from small ball and play the way Howard did in Orlando, or how Asik plays in Houston, with a center and no PF. But we really don't have the personnel to do much of that.
I got a like and an "Excellent" from Royce.
You can commence with that whole "eat your heart out" thing now.
@Ibaka's Jumpshot Ideally we would have an effective two way player that didn't have to be paired with anyone. But that player isn't available, and for the few that exist, they all make max money. Presti could perform some magic and wizardry and turn our assets into one of those players to pair with Russ and KD, and if he does then I'll be ecstatic. But that just isn't realistic.
I'm not a fan of Perk in the least. Like I said, I loved that Perk has the record for playoff PER futility, because he deserved it. And it serves as justification for how much I dislike him as a player. But I realize how few options there are for us. What I'm saying is that given the set of centers available for Perk's contract value or below, the strengths/weaknesses that Perk has can be maximized/minimized with a front-court partner that we already have, where as any other guy we could get from that same set doesn't immediately give you that same ability.
Royce, I appreciated this article.
I loved that Perk has the record for playoff PER futility, because he deserved it. However, Perk's shortcomings are the best kind of shortcomings to have - those that are easily planned for. You maximize Perk's abilities two ways, 1) you don't run your offense through him and 2) you pair him with a guy who is versatile enough to cover the perimeter and the paint, making up for his below the rim play. We are almost there with Serge. And KG was the perfect match for Perk. If Serge can grow in just a couple of more areas, then he can get in the same ballpark as Boston KG (as opposed to Minny KG).
If anyone follows me on twitter, you know full well by now how low I think Serge's overall basketball IQ is. He's got great instincts for help defense and shot blocking, has great timing on his jumps, has a beautiful jumpshot. He also suffers from the same thing many overseas players suffer from when transitioning to the NBA, and this is a concept of offensive and defensive rotations. Now, Serge has picked up pretty well on the defensive rotations, and credit goes to the coaching staff for that. It helps that he's paired with Perk and Nick who are really smart defensive players. It helps that Thabo could communicate with him in a language he could understand more easily in the beginning of his career here. But Serge still has a long way to go. You can tell when he's fluid and instinctual, and when he has to think.
But if Serge can fully adapt and play with instinct, you'll see a Perk/Ibaka pair that maximizes each other's strengths and minimizes each other's weaknesses. There was a time when Serge nearly set the all time futility mark for assists, which means that he doesn't understand the offense. Even now, whenever he gets the ball and can't take a shot, he doesn't know what to do other than just pass the ball back to the guard and start a new play. He can't improvise, and if he tries, it doesn't work out.
So a player like Perk isn't the best option you could have playing center, not by any stretch. But he does have some positives that make him valuable IF you can pair him with the right front-court partner. He develops good chemistry, he's a good communicator, he doesn't complain if he doesn't get offensive touches, he's a good and willing passer (provided it's in a half court set and he catches the damn ball in the first place) and he's a high character guy.
So, long story short, you'll see Perk's +/- look better the more Serge matures as an instinctual player. You can hide Perk's shortcomings with that player pairing given the right matchup.
Now whether or not coach Brooks can figure that out is another story, but there is a precedent for it on film in Boston.
@f5alcon But realistically, 5 years was always available because he knew the Thunder weren't going to let him walk for free. He'd get max at 4 years even with a sign and trade to a team without a 5 year option, which doesn't cost him anything and puts the risk on the Thunder. And if they weren't going to pay him max, then they weren't going to trade for max, because it wasn't the player that was the issue, it was the money. So the most realistic scenario for James was to sign for a 4 year max or watch the Thunder have to trade him to a team that could offer the 5 year max.
@Fezzy @f5alcon Right, Beal and Klay. Although, if Houston said yes to Lamb but no to Parsons, I can't say that I'd blame them.
@MichaelMacGTo me, if the Thunder could pay max for 4 years, and another team could pay max for 5, then taking the 4 years instead of the 5 is more than enough sacrifice.
I only bring it up because I have a gut feeling that Lamb was Presti's 3rd choice during the Harden trade. Harden was a 3rd pick, and if you had to trade him, getting a 3rd pick in return would be a reasonable consolation prize.
Anyone have odds that Presti packages Lamb + 12th to move up?
@beelieve035 r kelly bump n grind.youtube
Hey kids, spilling boiling water on yourself is a good way to go MIA for a couple of days. Those pain meds are nice, but totally not even worth it at all. I do NOT recommend it. At all.
@ EatSleepThunder gizoogle is much more correct about balut than regular google when it comes to describing balut. First two definitions together nails it:
A balut be a funky-ass boiled ghettofab thugged-out pimpin duck embryo dat is boiled n' smoked up in tha shell, sold as streetfood up in partz of Asia biatch.