Kendrick Perkins is just fine.

The Perk "Stare"

Kendrick Perkins gets a lot of grief. He gets knocked for his lack of scoring, his lack of rebounding and his lack of minutes. Perkins, starting center for the Oklahoma City Thunder, came over from the Boston Celtics in a trade that gave Boston the much loved forward,  Jeff Green. He gets grief for that as well. Perkins is so maligned by the local press and sports talk heads that rarely a day goes by that he is not blamed as the "problem" of the day for the Thunder. His name is mentioned after every loss as a contributor or the main reason. And, as the trade deadline approaches every year,  the consensus is that he should be traded. Why all the fuss? Because he doesn't have high enough scoring and rebounding averages.

So, who is Kendrick Perkins and why is he here. For starters,  he was a first round draft pick (27th) in 2003 out of high school. That's right, Perk never played a game in college. He was drafted by Memphis and traded on draft day to Boston. Perk's career stats include 23.0 minutes a game, 6.0 ppg and 6.1 rpg. In his best season (2010) he averaged 10.1 points and 7.3 rebounds. He has never been a scoring threat and has average rebound numbers. Yet, The Oklahoma City Thunder not only traded for him but immediately signed him to a long term deal. Thunder GM Scott Presti obviously knew that Perkins was a necessary part to the long term puzzle that is our team. And, for those of you out there thinking, yea but....you are right. Prior to the trade for Perkins, The Thunder did sign Knicks center Tyson Chandler. And yes, he did lead the Mavericks to an NBA Championship and win the defender of the year award with New York. But, those crazy team doctors told Presti and Clay Bennet that his foot problems were long term and the deal was nixed. Perkins may have not been the team's first choice, but I'm OK with that and I think you should be too.

Does Perkins need to score? We have the NBA's highest scoring duo in Durant and Westbrook and we are the highest scoring team in the NBA. Consider this, Kendrick Perkins is one of the best in the NBA at setting screens and picks. He allows our scorers to get free and do what they are actually paid to do - score. Perk is not a bad passer either. And what about rebounding? Russell Westbrook is among the best rebounding point guards in the league, Ibaka and Durant grab more than their quota and,  though we are 8th in the NBA in total rebounds (43.5) we are only 2 rebounds a game behind the league leader. The important thing to consider with rebounds and Perk is that he is normally boxing out the opponents top rebounder and allowing his team to get in the paint to grab it.

Then there is the question about his minutes per game. Perkins has one primary role. He is responsible for setting the defensive tone for the game. He does that as good as anyone. His secondary role is to plug the lane, control the paint and not let the opponents big man get loose.He does that better than most. The center he replaced, Nenad Kristic, has a better scoring average (10.2) and a similar rebounding average (5.3) but Kristic couldn't stop anyone from scoring. And besides, who among us wants Nenad back? Back to the minutes. Once the tone is set it simply needs to be reinforced and no one questions the effort by Nick Collison or the rejuvenated career of Hasheem Thabeet.

The bottom line is this; Kendrick Perkins is here to defend and enforce. He is really good at both. The proof is in the stats of his opposing big men. In just the last 8 or 9 games opposing centers have been held to 34% shooting averaging only 7 points and 8 rebounds. We're talking about the likes of Dwight Howard, Tyson Chandler and then last week, Kevin Garnett who was 3-19 shooting for 10 points and 11 rebounds.Was it all Perkins? No, but he set the tone. Perk is well respected by his peers in the league and few enjoy playing against him. He is a locker room leader, yet respects the talents and on court leadership of the teams two superstars. The most important stat is this, the team was getting better before Perkins arrived but, when he got there, they started winning a lot more than not. Perk's presence and championship pedigree took them to the next level. It's no surprise that, in addition to being the highest scoring team in the NBA, they also have the largest average margin of victory. Defense wins games and, as they say, championships.

The fact of the matter is high scoring/rebounding centers are few and far between. Those that do it and defend are even more rare. They are also expensive. Chandler makes 6.5 million more a year than Perkins. Kendrick Perkins is a specialist and he knows it. Perk also accepts his role and strives to be a better team mate. We can't ask for much more. As for the complainers and dissenters? Perk is level headed and cares far more what the guys in the paint think than what the guys that write and talk about the paint do.

Kendrick Perkins is just fine. Watch him play next game, watch him work, watch him sweat. Forget scoring and rebounding and I think you will see what I see.

For Buster.

Thunder Update 2

The Thunder took a loss today in their last game of this six game road trip against the LA Lakers in the Staples Center. The Thunder now have a record of 34-11, which is ties San Antonio for the best record in the league. The Thunder will play in Oklahoma City on Thursday against the Memphis Grizzlies. Oklahoma City will head into this game being well rested and prepared due to their three day break. As for Memphis, who has a record of 28-15, will head into the game with a two day break. Memphis lost in a big way today against New Orleans.

Kevin Durant still leads the league in scoring, averaging 29.5 points per game. KD's average puts him with a .5 lead over Carmelo Anthony who is in second place. Russel Westbrook is in 5th place in the league for assist, he is averaging 8.3 assist per game. His 8.3 assist per game is a career high for him. Russ is bound to move up in the standings due to the injury of Rajon Rondo. Serge Ibaka is in second place behind Larry Sanders for blocks. Serge averages 2.76 blocks per game, while Sanders averages 3.12 blocks per game.

Despite the Kendrick Perkins and Russel Westbrook struggling in the last few games, the Thunder still hold the first place spot in the Northwest division. Perk and Russ are due for a big game this Thursday, and will be very much needed in order to get a W in the Peake. After Thursday, the Thunder will play again on Saturday at Cleveland.

Make sure for live updates of the Oklahoma City Thunder you follow my Twitter account @OKC_Tweets

Thunder Update

The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Nuggets Sunday night to win game one of the series. The Thunder will play again Wednesday night for game two.

The keys for the Thunder wining this series is to keep Perkins out of foul trouble. If the Thunder move the ball around and use Perkins inside the Thunder will win this series in five games. Kevin Durant and Westbrook need to be the leaders of the team even though they have the least experience. This is a young team, and even if they do not win this year, there will be many more to come.