A shade over two years ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Jeff Green to the Boston Celtics in a package that landed them Kendrick Perkins. Other players were involved, as well, with Nenad Krstic going to Boston and Nate Robinson heading to Oklahoma City, but let's be honest: This was about Green and Perkins.
When the deal first went down, Celtics fans were irate. How could general manager Danny Ainge essentially trade away the C's' shot at a title by letting go of Perkins? How could he rely on Shaquille O'Neal to remain healthy? It wasn't just the fans, either. Boston players, specifically Kevin Garnett, were devastated.
Of course, O'Neal didn't remain healthy, Green was never really able to get integrated into Boston's system, and the Celtics were ousted by the Miami Heat in the second round of the 2011 playoffs.
Would the C's have beaten the Heat had they never traded Perkins? We'll never know for sure, but what we do know is that Boston never lost a playoff series with that starting five (Perkins, Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo) healthy, so it's certainly debatable.
For the Thunde ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Matthew Schmidt
What If the OKC Thunder Had Never Traded Away Jeff Green to the Boston Celtics?
June 4th, 2013 by Matthew Schmidt Leave a reply »
Advertisement