With Carmelo Anthony in the East, and Kendrick Perkins in the West, life just got tougher for the Celtics. (AP photo)
I’m one of the few people that immediately said I liked the Boston Celtics’ trade of Kendrick Perkins for essentially Jeff Green. (Let’s forget the other guy for a second.) It was, in my initial opinion, a good deal because of the skills and athleticism that Green brings to the table. What I wasn’t really aware of from the 10 or so games I’ve seen of the Thunder on National TV was the inconsistency in which he plays. First night in green, he looked like a deer in headlights. That was the first warning sign.
The second warning sign, which is really where all the belly-aching is coming from here, is about what the Celtics lost. Watching the Knicks and Heat go at it Sunday night, it was pretty evident that we were looking at two very athletic teams that could run up and down the court seamlessly. The Knicks, which just acquired Carmelo Anthony, were invigorated by their new star teammate. The Heat, still working out the kinks of their super squad, looked equally impressive and, at times, dominant. While the Knicks won — against the second best team in the East no less — I wondered how the Celtics would match up with these two going forward. The Celtics will travel to New York March 21 and visit Miami April 10 for us to really find out. But I’ll speculate that this trade will adversely affect how the Celtics hold onto their perch atop the East with the Heat contending and the Knicks surging (they’ve won 5 games in their last 10, and 2 out of 3 with Melo). Mainly, it’ll come down to paint traffic. Besides Kevin Garnett plugging the hole, and the O’Neals if they ever return in good health, there’s no dominating defensive presence to steer the LeBrons, Wades, and Melos of the world out of the paint. It’s not like it was easy before, but it just got harder.
The consensus is that there is enough faith in Shaquille O’Neal and Jermaine O’Neal to return in a timely fashion and for the Celtics to reap the benefits of the aging all-stars. Quick question: When are they returning? Honestly, they don’t even know. Shaq is not feeling any better, even though he’s been out for almost a month. Jermaine is … just disappointing. Even before the injury. So the new guy, Nenad Krstic, is in the mix. And no offense to Shaq and Jermaine, he’s been pretty decent so far. Eleven points and 5 boards yesterday night, another 9 and 6 in his Celtics debut against the Clippers. He’s crashed the boards (six offensive boards against the Clippers) and has a decent jump shot. He’s no KG, but he plays hard enough. However, and this is my point, he doesn’t bring the game-changing dynamic of Perkins or Shaq. When you had both, one could be out with an injury, or just a breather, and the team would be more than OK. But now that both of the remaining guys are out and Perkins is now a long-term Thunderhead, the Celtics are claiming everything is OK after beating up on the likes of the Clippers and Jazz. Excuse me, but if I were a Celtics fan that wouldn’t be good enough.
Even with speculation about bringing in Troy Murphy, I must admit I’m nonplussed. What kind of defensive presence does he bring? Ummmm, none. Take it from the guy who has watched more Warriors games than he’d like to admit.
So we’ll wait till the 21st to see how the Greens matchup with the Knicks. And on the 31st, we’ll see how they match up with the San Antonio Spurs — the NBA’s best team. My gut feeling is it won’t be the same in the middle. And ain’t no changing back now.
