People say this - as if it is in defense of the Perkins trade.
People do realize that our bench would've included Jermaine O'Neal had the trade not gone down, right?
The Celtics - by my count - were a +19 with Jermaine O'Neal on the court this series.
As I said earlier, Big Baby was a -35 by my count.
If you have Perkins in there, playing at a higher level than JO can, and then you bring in JO off the bench - you have such an immense upgrade over playing Big Baby at the 5, it would have made the difference.
Our play at the backup 3/4 (Jeff Green) was not at all a factor in this series. Green couldn't guard James to save his life, he did not have a fraction of the impact we had hoped.
If I were stating it as a defense of the trade, I would have said that. I'm stating what I view as the biggest issue with the team, both this year and next.
Of course there's an upgrade with J. O'Neal off the bench (when healthy). maybe you missed it where I stated, "I think Big Baby was thrown out of his game by playing out of position so much, or maybe it was conditioning?; regardless of the reason, he went from being a huge asset in the first half of the year to a liability at the end of the season and playoffs."
As for guarding james, I guess you missed were I stated, "...they had nobody to come off the bench to be ...a defensive stopper, ...Think about the championship year: Posey provided energy, defense and some offense; ...But even with the existing team's age, if they're able to add some combination of a legit center, 3-point shooter, defender / energy guy..."
and re Green in particular, "...showed potential but was very inconsistent..."
I agree that the Perkins trade hurt the team. As I posted last night, the pieces acquired didn't fit in. I don't know whether they could with more time.
btw, the one thing you do seem to overlook is that Perkins was no sure thing in coming back from injury -- so there was some risk at relying on him as well. The bottom line is that we had 3 injury risks at center from the start of the year. Given the #s, pesonally, I was fine with that bet. When he pulled the trigger on the trade, he made a gamble on health (Perkins's as well as the O'Neals') among other things and lost.