At this point, the collective of players who’ve passed up on signing with the Clippers could probably give the actual Clippers team a run for their money in a seven-game series.
After Yahoo Sports reported Kendrick Perkins earlier today the Cleveland Cavaliers were the frontrunner to acquire center Kendrick Perkins following a buyout from the Utah Jazz (traded from OKC at deadline), Royce Young of ESPN reports officially clears waivers (Y! reports the buyout is complete).
Kendrick Perkins will sign with the Cavaliers once he finalizes a buyout with the Jazz, according to a source: http://t.co/AAVW462kFG
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) February 21, 2015
Per Woj’s write-up on Perkins decision, the center strongly considered joining the Clippers, but per Young, the chance to compete for a championship led the former Thunder big to Cleveland.
"Perkins was recruited directly by LeBron James to pick the Cavs, according to a source. He also drew heavy interest from the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs. The combination of a chance to win a championship along with an opportunity for playing time pushed Perkins to choose Cleveland."
In no way, shape or form is Kendrick Perkins a talent you lose sleep over when he decides against joining your franchise, but looking at what the Clippers have and what the available alternatives are, this one — along with other denials — stings a bit.
Beale Street Bears
As seen on the 2011-12 iteration of the Clippers, there’s little need for high usage players off the bench. Instead of a Spencer Hawes type, Vinny Del Negro made great usage of the Kenyon Martin–Reggie Evans duo. The next season Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf led the reserve frontcourt, excelling in the ‘little things’ like rebounding, defense and playmaking. This mentioning of past frontcourts isn’t an instant write-off of the Glen Davis-Spencer Hawes duo, but if the front office had paid attention to the small successes of the recent past, they’d be better to build a more effective frontcourt behind DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin.
That’s the mold of player Perkins would’ve played for this team and he’ll do the same in Cleveland in limited minutes behind Timofey Mozgov at center. In the Eastern Conference, Perkins may come to be useful: like Oklahoma City when they traded for him, he’s a solid big body to throw at a rejuvenated Pau Gasol if they pair up with Chicago in the playoffs; the same applies to Jonas Valunciunas in Toronto, Marcin Gortat in Washington, Al Horford in Atlanta and other notable low-post bigs in the Eastern Conference.
In regards to what’s next for Los Angeles, it’s back to the drawing board. The pickings are slim, but Rivers has options to either stick with what he has in Blake Griffin’s absence or to add to this group — the choice is his.
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