I must have said it a dozen times at the game Friday night: "Perk is our most effective player on the floor." In 20 minutes, he put up 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting and 7 rebounds. He took advantage of smaller defenders, he powered past weaker ones, and didn't do it at the expense of the rest of the offense… which is what Doc wants.
throwing it to him, that means we think he’s in a good spot. Where he’s
improved on is he would score a couple of times and then forget to set
the picks, forget to do all the other things and went straight down to
the post and was begging for the ball. He doesn’t do that anymore. He’s
been very good. He’s not going to get a lot of help (from extra
defenders), and we tell him that. ‘If we get it down there to you, it’s
not like anybody’s coming.’ Now, if he keeps scoring like this,
eventually they will come, and that opens it up for someone else. That,
to me, is where Perk has gotten so much better. Before when he caught
it, it was like, I got this ball and I’m shooting it. (Friday) night he
made a couple of great passes from out of there, too
Perk has obviously worked hard to get better every year. His first two games so far have given me no reason to change my mind about the possibility of him becoming an All Star this year. With Rondo getting better, the Big 3 being who they are, and the added help of playing along side Rasheed Wallace for some stretches… Perk is going to have a lot space on the offensive end. We know he can board and defend… so some added offensive numbers this year when he's got a good matchup will get him some national attention.
And let me just say that while all this talk about Perk being slimmer is accurate… it doesn't make him small. Seeing him in person makes you realize that. He's still a Beast.
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