Sports geek

A friend encouraged me to opine about the Celtics' recent roster moves, and I need little encouragement to opine about sports. My favorite sportswriter, Bill Simmons, has written about these moves, so I'll try not to repeat what he says too much.

The Celtics made number of moves at the trade deadline, of which the most significant was dealing center Kendrick Perkins and guard Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle Supersonics) for forward Jeff Green, center Nenad Krstic, and a first round draft pick. Everyone was sad to see Perkins go. He injured his knee in Game 6 of the Finals last year, which I believe cost them Game 7 and the title against the Lakers. He worked really hard to return to the court about a month ago, only to be traded away. Apparently he and his Celtic ex-teammates were unhappy about the trade, although it worked out well for Perk money-wise, as the Thunder signed him to a contract extension for a lot more money than Boston could offer, being over the salary cap ($36 million vs. $22 million for four years).

Neither Perkins nor Robinson are playing for the Thunder right now, as both are out with knee injuries, so the deal hasn't helped the Thunder much yet. Robinson is no loss for the Celtics. He was not a good backup for Rajon Rondo (Delonte West, now that's he's healthy, is a much better option), because he's not really a point guard. He's not a great ballhandler or passer and he makes poor decisions. He is a streaky and sometimes exciting scorer, but he takes some terrible shots. I recall watching a game earlier this season where he stole an outlet pass and immediately jacked up a long three-pointer, even though the Celtics had nobody back to get a rebound. Sure enough, he missed, the other team got the rebound, and the steal was wasted. Jon Barry, the TV commentator, was incredulous. He said something like: "That's a bad-team shot. That's a shot you take when you're on a bad team and you don't care about the team; you just want your shots. That's not a Celtics shot."

The trade suggests to me that the Celtics are more concerned about the Miami Heat than the Orlando Magic in the playoffs (although they might want to re-think that after Miami's collapse against Orlando last night - blowing a 24-point third-quarter lead), because they traded a guy (Perkins) who defends Dwight Howard of the Magic really well for a guy (Green) who can defend LeBron James of the Heat (well, nobody can really defend LeBron, but on the Celtics roster previously only Paul Pierce could even pretend to).

As my friend Eric pointed out, losing Perk will hurt them if they face the Lakers in the Finals, because Perk was good at defending the Lakers' big guys (Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum) - I'm sure the Thunder were thinking about that, as they may have to face the Lakers in the Western Conference playoffs. Maybe the Celtics figured that they have to get out of the East before they can worry about the Lakers, who may not make it out of the West, although they are favored.

Dealing Perk puts a lot of the eggs in the Shaquille O'Neal basket, which is risky at his age (he turns 39 on March 6). Krstic is a serviceable backup center, and maybe Jermaine O'Neal will return from injury and give them something, but I wouldn't count on it, based on his horrible performance for Miami in last year's playoffs. The Celtics appear to counting on a center-by-committee approach.

After the trade deadline, the Celtics and other contenders scrambled to sign free-agent veterans looking for a chance to win a ring. I think the Celtics did well in signing Troy Murphy, a big guy who is a good rebounder and shooter, and Sasha Pavlovic, a versatile swingman with three-point range.