Jermaine O’Neal a great match for Boston
The Boston Celtics almost won last year’s National Basketball Association championship, but fell just short in their seven-game Finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. They have primed themselves to make another run at the title by retaining almost their entire roster, aside from the now retired Rasheed Wallace.
The only real off-season move has been the acquisition of veteran forward-centre Jermaine O’Neal to fill in for the injured Kendrick Perkins. Many Celtics fans have been griping the move, but in reality there is no reason to. O’Neal may actually give the Celtics a much needed offensive boost than Perkins and thus be a more valuable asset in Boston’s quest for another championship before the unavoidable dissolution of the veteran roster in 2012.
To begin with, it’s important to note that the loss of Perkins is huge for the Celtics regardless of O’Neal’s play. Had Perkins not gotten injured in Game 6 of the Finals, Game 7 could have gone in Boston’s favour. He’s a strong defensive complement to the production of Boston’s stars, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Rajon Rondo.
14-year veteran O’Neal has had trouble in recent years battling injuries and general lacklustre play. However, last season for the Miami Heat, O’Neal had a clear return to form. He had the highest shooting percentage of his career, and managed 13.6 points, 1.4 blocks, and 6.9 rebounds per game. These numbers were actually close to his career averages of 14.2 ppg, 1.9 bpg, and 7.5 rpg. If the six-time All-Star can continue playing at his 2009-10 level he is a valuable asset to the Celtics.
O’Neal and Perkins play very different styles of basketball and O’Neal will provide Boston with a much better offence than Perkins could. Last season Boston was a mediocre 15th when it came to offensive efficiency. Perkins was a good down-low bump-and-grind scorer, but O’Neal gives the Celtics another big-man mid-range shooter.
O’Neal is perhaps at his most fine-tuned shot-wise. Last year when he shot his career high 53% from the field, almost two-thirds of the shots were from 16-23 feet. This means that Boston can run some very interesting pick-and -rolls involving Garnett and O’Neal. Also, even when Perkins does return, O’Neal will be able to fill in for Garnett seamlessly so the veteran can rest his aching knees as much as possible.
O’Neal is also an improvement for the Celtics in terms of free-throw shooting and turnover reduction. Perkins’s inability to score from the charity stripe has haunted the Celtics on numerous occasions. Perkins’s devastating free-throw average of .582% makes him a huge liability late in close games. O’Neal on the other hand is a solid free throw shooter who has worked hard to maintain .711% career average, despite a few first seasons as a 50% shooter for the Portland Trailblazers.
Perkins was also one of the league’s most turnover prone centres and with O’Neal’s safe hands Boston should be able to develop their possessions a lot more often. Whereas Perkins turned the ball over on over 20% of his possessions, O’Neal did so at a much more efficient rate of 12%. Though Perkins is not alone to blame, turnovers were essentially Boston’s Achilles heel last season and any improvement in that department will help.
So while it is impossible to truly say one is better for Boston than the other, it is clear that the Celtics are in quite good hands with O’Neal as their starting 5 for the first 50 games of the season. They should fare well in the season and their frontcourt depth will be a huge asset for their quest for an 18th championship banner upon Perkins’s return.
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