Posted by stinenavy on 7/10/2013 4:50:00 PM (view original):
Green for Perkins was made because OKC was miserable defensively. Green couldn't play a lick of defense at PF. Nate Robinson was only in the trade to make it work for the salary cap. He shouldn't have played for OKC, and luckily he was didn't. The trade didn't work out because Perkins had an extremely quick decline in what should be his prime years.
I don't like Brooks at all. His failure to try anything different, like sticking to Perkins and Fisher despite having more options on the team, was maddening. Almost any coach could have some success with Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, but I think sticking with Brooks is costing them playoff wins.
I guess my point was I think OKC was miserable defensively in a large part because Brooks didn't set up the rotations properly. Now I get Green and Durant needed to play a bunch together, but Ibaka was playing like 24 minutes a game before the trade. I think a bit better roster management and they wouldn't have been that bad defensively and wouldn't have felt they need to make the trade. Even just starting Ibaka at center and getting him up to the 33 minute range would have done wonders for that particular team.
C - Ibaka 20, Krstic 28
PF - Green 25, Ibaka 13, Collison 10
Something like that with Green backing up Durant for 10-13 minutes (to get him to 35-38) and I think that team would have been a lot better both overall and defensively, but Brooks was playing Ibaka only like 24 minutes and Krstic like 21 minutes, with Collison getting like 24 minutes a game. Collison should have been the odd man out with more time to both Ibaka and Krstic and Green getting more time at SF.
And Nate Robinson absolutely should have played for that team. He was exactly the type of player they needed backing up Westbrook (i.e. aggressive scorer with a good outside shot).