I agree with JMark's points and Presti's reputation was certainly overrated until people began questioning him last year, but regarding the Perkins-Green swap, it made sense in a vacuum at the time..
They desperately needed a C at the time after the trade for Chandler fell through, the West was heavy with bigs, and Perkins was a much better player than he is today..
Perkins, prior to injury, was arguably the best individual post defender in the league, a good rebounder, and was serviceable on offense..his game went downhill following surgery, he never recovered, exacerbated by the new style of the NBA with mobile bigs/small ball..
Chandler for less, even with injury issues, was always better than Perkins for more, considering he wasn't the epitome of health, himself. Only a half season removed from knee injury.
Even in a vaccuum it was questionable.
Reasonable, yes.
But Green plus an LAC 1st for a contract Celtics wanted out of is robbery.
I don't know who told Presti what regarding Chandler, but it was apparently a recurring "turf toe" injury that some outside medical consultants advised OKC on that they felt could be a continually recurring problem. I guess sometimes it's just a crap shoot with those types of things. I understand Perkins wasnt exactly healthy himself, as it was stated he was just coming off knee surgery. My only thought is maybe there's some statistical medical evidence suggesting maybe this particular recurring injury Chandler had was something they felt had a good likelihood of continually recurring, I don't know. OBviously Presti is not a doctor and has to rely on other people. Yeah it's his call in the end, but it's not just completely mind boggling that Presti would think twice given the medical evaluation. Obviously it turned out to be a non issue for Chandler, but again, I guess it's a risk Presti didn't want to take.
In a vacuum, the Perkins trade made perfect sense. OKC's starting frontcourt was Green and Krstic - the worst defensive frontcourt in the NBA, and it wasn't even close. Green was going to get a pretty big offer as a free agent and OKC didn't have the money to match such an offer to a guy who was going to come off the bench, not when they have other bigger glaring holes on their roster. I can't recall what other big would have been available for OKC at the time they traded for Perkins, but the fact is post defense was pretty much OKC's biggest glaring hole and Perk was a guy who could and did fill that hole extremely well at the time. Obviously, Chandler would've been the way to go, but again - it was a crap shoot on his injury and had that injury turned out to be significant, we'd all be sitting here saying what a great move Presti made by turning down Chandler.
the thunder are easily 1 Beverly kick to the knee away from back to back WC championships.
I'd say Presti is pretty damn smart imo
Supposedly the doctor who operated on Chandlers toe failed it in the report.
Oddly, I don't recall it ever being an issue since.
So the doc first sucked at surgery (or so he thought) and then sucked at evaluative diagnosis. Sounds like a real good doc.
presti
Now - ask yourself how many top 5 picks over the years have turned out to be complete duds. Answer : a of a lot. So..picking a good player, even with a top 5 pick, isn't always easy.Also rejected a trade for Tyson Chandler. lol they'd have curbstomped Miami 3 years straight now with Tyson, Green, and Harden.
One of the best gifs of all time
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