Sam Presti talks about the Kendrick Perkins trade
– Thunder general manager Sam Presti said acquiring Perkins is not a quick-fix move. “That’s not how I think,” Presti said. “It was more of, ‘We love Perkins. We want to get him in the program. We want to keep him in the program.’ He is so in our DNA.”
– “This is not a ‘win-now’ move,” Presti said. “This is not, ‘Let’s go for it.’ This is us methodically continuing to put pieces in place that we think can help us now and in the future. We traded for Perkins with the intent that he’ll be here for a while.”
– Presti said he is not concerned with Perkins’ health. “No, he’ll be fine,” Presti said. “We’ve reviewed all the medical records. He may miss a few games and we’ll be cautious with him. We’re looking both short-term and long-term here.”
– “Jeff Green is like my son. I love that kid,” Presti said. “This is by far the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make since I started this job.”
– “That was not an objective,” Presti explained. “There were only a couple of players I would consider, and Perkins happened to be one of them. If we could not have gotten Perkins, we would have been happy standing pat (with Green on the roster), but you can’t just get a guy like Kendrick Perkins. You can’t just get guys like that. It will cost you something. He’s a 26-year-old beast. He’s a championship-level, experienced guy, but he’s young. He fits our timeline tremendously.”
