Rajon Rondo admits losing Kendrick Perkins hurt the Boston Celtics – NBA Update
Rajon Rondo has come on record regarding the trade that saw Kendrick Perkins leave the Boston Celtics during the season and admitted that it did not go down well for the team.
Kendrick Perkins, who played centre for the Celtics, was traded at the deadline to the Oklahoma City Thunder by Boston in return for small forward Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.
Krstic turned out to be pretty much a bust for the Celtics and has since left the franchise and the NBA, to go and play in Europe. Jeff Green too wasn’t overly impressive either, although he has shown potential to develop into
a quality player in time.
The Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge, said the Celtics had to make the trade in order to strengthen their wing positions and also to bring in a little youth to the side. He argued that as a franchise,
Boston was only looking out for their long term interests, citing a free agent move for Perkins could have been disastrous for them.
However, in the short term the deal has proved to be a poor one for the Celtics. The team was 41 – 14 before the trade and 15 – 12 after it. They also seemed to lack some steel in the paint during the playoffs because of Kendrick’s
trade and Shaquille O’Neal injury forced absence.
There were rumours right away that the Celtics locker room was not happy with the trade and now, months later, Rondo has decided to break the silence over the issue. He said in an interview that it wasn’t the end of the world,
but Perkins departure did hurt the team,
“It wasn’t like the man passed away or something,” Rondo said. “I think we put too much emphasis on it. It’s a business. He got traded. He’s very happy where he’s at. We still talk and I’m always going to have his back. It shouldn’t
have affected us the way it affected us.”
On the other hand, Oklahoma City Thunder seemed to benefit a lot from the move. Perkins brought in some much needed experience to the young roster, not to mention toughness in the paint. His presence also allowed Serge Ibaka to
move to his favoured power forward position and the duo combined to form one of the most defensively sound frontcourt pairing in the league.
That platform allowed the Thunder to make a run into the Western Conference Finals. They bowed out to the Dallas Mavericks, who went on to win the NBA World Championship. However with Perkins providing a solid base, Oklahoma City
will be confident of another strong showing next season.
Tags: