RealGM

To me, as big a part as any in the Celtics slump has been Perk's health. It all started in the first quarter against The Lakers and since then neither Kendrick nor the Celtics have been the same. Missed defensive assignments, weak interior defense leading to either paint scoring, offensive rebounding or easy kickouts.

I'm concerned about this more than any other issue with the Celtics. There's no one behind him in the rotation we can depend on and he seems extra fragile right now. Dislocated shoulder problems are usually life-long ones. What are the real choices for a security blanket? Is Joe Smith the only one at this point? I have a feeling our problems are not going away until this is resolved.

I could not agree more. I see Perk as almost invaluable. Not only when he's missing does it weaken our interior defense and shot blocking ability, but it forces KG to play our of position on the defensive end which in turn causes our perimeter defense to tail off a bit and KG can't be as active as he would like to be. There is no other player on the Celtics like Perk; his backups of baby and powe are not known for their defense and they certainly don't have the same size and intimidation factor that Perk brings to the table.

I couldn't agree more. The funny thing with this team is that the big 3 are the well known players but it seems to hurt us more when Perk or Rondo have an off night. If either one goes down, we are just as screwed as if one of the big 3 goes down. I have faith that if an opportunity to improve the back-ups at these positions comes up, Danny will pull the trigger, but there doesn't seem to be a lot out there that we can realistically obtain. Time will tell.

I think the team sat down and saw the schedule and decided to rest Perk's shoulder as precausion of it getting worse. With Oneal out for the Raps and the Nets not having a great big man they decided this would be a good time to let it get better. With Scal playing well in the lineup it has made this decision even easier.