Thursday, February 24, 2011

Celtics Deal Kendrick Perkins to Thunder

The Boston Celtics have traded Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.

The Breakdown

Oklahoma City Thunder: Perkins is expected to miss 1-2 weeks with a knee injury, but will slide into the team's starting center spot once he's healthy. We expect him to have the same role he had in Boston as a rebounder and defensive presence, so his value shouldn't be affected much. Nate Robinson should replace Eric Maynor as the team's back up point guard, though his value is strictly limited to deep leagues.

Serge Ibaka owners should be loving this trade as Ibaka will see increased minutes as he takes over starting power forward duties. Additionally, fantasy owners in deep leagues should give Nick Collison a strong look as he'll also benefit from increased playing time.

Boston Celtics: Jeff Green owners should be panicking as it's unclear where he fits into Boston's plans. Most likely, he emerges as the team's sixth man and the Celtics employ a lot of small ball with Kevin Garnett shifting over to center. But with the amount of talent in Boston, Green's value has to drop as there just aren't going to be enough minutes and shots for him. Team managers in standard leagues will have to monitor his minutes and production because his value could plummet to the point where he's not worth a roster spot.

As for Krstic, he'll most likely end up as the team's back up center. But with Shaq hurting all season, Krstic could see more run than he did with the Thunder. Nenad is a player we're watching in deeper leagues.

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