New Orleans Pelicans year in review: Kendrick Perkins

In what was quite a disappointing season, the player who ended up entertaining fans the most may have been the one and only Kendrick Perkins.

The New Orleans Pelicans lost many of their talented players to injury during this roller coaster of a season. It turned what was a promising campaign for the team into a great disappointment all around. It forced the depth of the Pelicans to show; 12 different players started at least 10 games for the team this year.

However, one of the players who didn’t suffer through major injury issues still did not start 10 games. That player? Kendrick Perkins.

Perkins had quite the interesting year for the Pelicans. He was signed to the team for his leadership qualities, including his experience winning an NBA title in 2008 with the Boston Celtics. His presence on the team was going to be one of the forces progressing the franchise from a fringe playoff team to a contender. The biggest thing was his relationship with Anthony Davis and how he would help him develop a “Star Presence” in the league.

Instead, Perkins became someone who saw big minutes due to the mass of Pelicans falling to the injury bug.

In 37 games, Perkins averaged 2.5 points per game, 3.5 rebounds per game and 1.1 turnovers a game. The numbers….are not great. The biggest of those numbers is his minutes per game. 14.6.

Why is it such a big number? Because, that means, for almost half of the games this season, Kendrick Perkins player over an entire quarter worth of basketball. He’s no longer that great at basketball. In any facet. Yeah, that number is huge.

What’s even worse was watching him try to play with other massive bigs without multi-dimensional skill sets such as Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca. It turned the offense and defense into a gigantic mess. He no longer has the mobility on the floor or the athleticism to get up and contest or shoot jumpers. It made life easy for opposing bigs.

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Now, is it Perkins’ fault the Pelicans season turned into this mess that caused him to play so much? No. And to give him kudos, he gave us some fun highlight reel adventures near the end of the season. From long shot attempts that made fans cringe and laugh to his awkward post-ups that usually ended in a turnover or an out-of-control shot, he made the most of his minutes by doing what Kendrick Perkins wants to do: take over the game, even if he can’t anymore. And with how the season went, can you blame him?

The biggest thing he brought to this team was chemistry. Even at the end of the season when all seemed lost, Perkins really helped the young guys on this team keep working and kept the spirits high in the locker room. There was no drama around the team like other lottery bound squads in the NBA. He kept the young players focused on the next game and gave the team some good laughs as well. It made an unbearable season…a little more bearable. It made all involved laugh and see a light in the mess of things. His humorous demeanor was a weird, yet bright, light on the season.

Next: New Orleans Pelicans year in review: Quincy Pondexter

Other than that, his presence on this team was a sad representation of how injury-prone this team became throughout the season. He was a guy who was expected to see extremely limited minutes on the floor. Instead, he played nearly half of the games during the campaign. Will he be back on the Pelicans next season to help keep the locker room in good spirits? Who knows. But if that was the sole purpose of giving him a contract this offseason, then by default he did his job. He just didn’t play basketball well. It’s been real, Perk.