LOY's PLACE a celtics green blog: The Key is in the Middle

Thinking over some of the elite teams in the NBA over the years, we can point to a dominant big man on most of them. The Lakers of the 80s had Kareem, the Celtics of the 80's had Parish, Pistons of the 80s had Laimbeer, the last Piston championship team had Ben Wallace, the Rockets had Hakeem and Sampson, the Lakers of the 90s had Shaq and now the Heat have Shaq, the Spurs had Robinson and now Duncan. There does seem to be a trend whereas even fast break teams like today's Heat and the Showtime Lakers had a big man to anchor them in the middle.

It is no secret that the center position is one of the hardest to fill with a dominant player. It is also one of the most crucial spots to fill. We had hoped to land the first pick and draft Oden, who promises to be a superstar in the middle. But once again, the ping pong balls betrayed us. While we can get a very good player with the 5th pick, we won't get that dominant center we had hoped for. Where do the Celtics stand as far as their big men? Do we have a center who has the ability to dominate in the middle? I believe we do.

Perk is entering his 5th year now. Coming directly from high school, it was expected that he would take longer to develop than if we had brought in a player with college experience. His first year can't be considered to be any experience at all. He played in only 10 games and averaged a paltry 3.5 minutes per game. But during that year, he worked very, very hard on getting his body into NBA shape and he has become a strong and muscular center that no one (not even Shaq) can push around.

After his lost first year, he didn't fare much better in the second year. He played in only 60 games and averaged a shade over 9 minutes per game. By this time, the fans had begun to see what Perk could really do and on just about every board and blog you could read posts asking why Perk wasn't getting more time because he was producing when he was in the game. He still had a propensity to foul more than he should have, but he was rebounding and playing hard and was capable of changing the game by shutting down the middle. But still, he sat way more than he played. In December, Raef was out with an ankle injury and Perk got a chance to finally play some real minutes. He played a career high 25 minutes and showed what he is capable of by controlling the rebounds on both ends of the court and finished with 13 total. When he got the playing time, he produced, but for some reason, he was still kept on the bench most of the time.

His third season started out with much of the same. He racked up several DNP's and played few minutes behind Raef and Blount. After the trade that sent Blount to Minnesota, Perk was moved into the starting lineup and he produced. He had 25 games in his third season where he got close to a starter's minutes of 24 mpg or more. In those games he averaged 9.1 ppg on 54% shooting, 8.5 rpg, 2.2 bpg and 1.2 apg. Keep in mind that he did this with very little playing time previous to this. Just as Perk and Al were starting to gel and fans were getting excited about them, Perk injured his shoulder.

In the offseason, he had shoulder surgery and spent the whole summer rehabbing and wasn't able to take advantage of the presence of Clifford Ray. He came into training camp still trying to get his conditioning back. Just as he was beginning to hit his stride, he was hampered with plantar fasciitis. To his credit, he didn't use it as an excuse and continued to play in pain, although it limited his mobility and his ability to get off the floor for rebounds. But there were games where his foot wasn't hurting as much and in those games he was a force in the middle and made a difference in the games.

Steve Bulpett had a good article yesterday in the Herald about Perk and his summer conditioning program. He calls out his teammates to get better saying that every position on the team is open except for Pierce.

“Every position is open to me except Paul. Despite what (Rajon) Rondo did this year and what Al did this year and what Gerald (Green) did, we still didn’t win games. And that’s what we’re here for. Despite all the numbers, we still didn’t win no games. So if you had 30 points and we lose and you had 12 defensive breakdowns, what good is it? We never really had a chance to have a healthy team and just play. We could never get on a roll. But guys have to play better.”

And Perk is willing to put in the work it takes to get better. He works 5-6 days a week and even comes in at 3 in the morning to work out at times. Even while adding lean muscle, Perk has lost 10 pounds and plans to lose about 15 more.

In Jefferson's second year, many fans felt that he was soft and that he would never be a star. Many feel the same way about Perk over his first 4 seasons. But both players have been plagued with injuries which hindered their advancement. Last season, Al was finally healthy last season and had the off season to work with Clifford Ray, and he had a break out season. I expect Perk to be healthy this season and he will have the off season to work with Clifford Ray, and we will see a similar break out season from him.

One of the knocks on Perk is that he fouls too much. He was much better in that area last season. He still picked up early fouls setting picks, but some of those came because the team defense wasn't doing its job, leaving the big man vulnerable. But Perk isn't the only Celtics' center who was prone to fouling. From Dave Cowens' bio:

One of the things Cowens did too much in his rookie year with the Celtics was foul other players; he committed a league-high 350 infractions. (He would foul out of 90 games by the end of his career, a total that ranks among the top 20 of all time.)

Cowens ended up doing ok and so will Perk.

Perk has also become a leader on the team. When asked after the season which player they most look up to, Perk was the pick of most on the team. Who can forget the game in Perk's second season when Pierce was having an off game and seemed to be slacking off and Perk got in his face during halftime and told him to pick it up and play? At first Pierce fumed a bit at the repremand, but then came out and had a monster second half. The fact that Pierce did pick it up during that game shows that even the veterans are willing to listen to this hard working kid because he has put in the effort and his work ethic has given him credibility with his teammates. Perk is not only going to be a force in the middle, he is also going to be a leader on the team.

Perk is a tough player in the mold of the centers of years ago. He is an intimidator. His motto is "No layups" and he does a good job of enforcing it. Even against Shaq, he has been able to hold his own under the basket when healthy. Danny had this to say about Perk after he signed his contract extension:

“He has proven that he is an NBA center," said Ainge. "We feel that he is just beginning. We think that he can really develop into a leader and he is well respected by his coaches and his teammates. We are very fortunate to have him under contract to the Celtics for the next five years.”

Pierce may be the veteran and all star player and may have gotten the big contract... Green may be an all star waiting to happen and won the Slam Dunk contest last year... Al may be the player whose potential everyone is talking about ... Rondo may lead the fast break and become the floor general this team has so badly needed ... but in my opinion, Perk is the key to our making the playoffs and to the Celtics becoming a contender once again.

[Discuss this topic on the Celtics Green Forums!]