Perkins’ Playing Time

[thunderdan]

We rarely see Perkins in the second half of games.

Is this because defense is more important toward the ends of games? Is it because he isn’t recovered enough to handle the physicality of certain teams? Can he only play 15-20 minutes a game, while he is still getting back to full strength?

Or, is he just not one of your best 6 players, who are the ones that regularly close-out games?

[slu72]

I’d rest him for at least the rest of the OOC schedule. There have been times I’ve seen him walk to the bench and it appears there’s a hitch in his gate as if he’s favoring either his knee or his ankle. At this point, it would seem our only path to the dance is to win the A10 Tournament  Why not aim for that with a healthy Perkins, which improves our chances of winning a bid in Brooklyn? 

[Westy03]

There is no way anyone can convince me that he’s healthy. It’s obvious to everyone in the arena, not sure why he’s even playing at this point. Sit him out until he’s fully recovered. 

[HoosierPal]

I had a good view of Perkins last night on the bench.  He was totally not engaged with what was happening on the floor.  When the team got up to cheer a good play, typically he remained sitting.

[GOSLU68]

Sounds like a hurt player; my recollection of Perkins first year after he played at SWIC was he was better as a sixth man when you needed some key baskets- with this team not playing well together, not stealing the ball; it would seem to me we use him in the best possible instances and limit him. He has never been strong. 

[HoosierPal]

 

[CBFan]

What concerns me a lot about Perkins is that his 3 point shot is gone.

In warm ups before the Boise State game he was hitting about a third of his shots he looked bad and it was no surprise he only played 6 minutes.

Another observation before the game was Cisse hitting half of his 3 point shots in practice.  I would like to see what he could do when he is in a game to get a 3 point shot instead of passing the ball inside and turning it over or missing the bunny.

[billiken_roy]

1 hour ago, CBFan said:

What concerns me a lot about Perkins is that his 3 point shot is gone.

In warm ups before the Boise State game he was hitting about a third of his shots he looked bad and it was no surprise he only played 6 minutes.

Another observation before the game was Cisse hitting half of his 3 point shots in practice.  I would like to see what he could do when he is in a game to get a 3 point shot instead of passing the ball inside and turning it over or missing the bunny.

likely more proof he has leg issues.   shooting is a lot of legs and conditioning.   when the legs go so does the shot.   i've been saying for a month he needed to be shut down, and i got put down that it was nothing playing wouldnt fix.   just needed to shake the rust off his game.   well whatever the problem is, the path taken wasnt right to get him back to the perkins we wanted on the floor. 

[AnkielBreakers]

5 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

likely more proof he has leg issues.   shooting is a lot of legs and conditioning.   when the legs go so does the shot.   i've been saying for a month he needed to be shut down, and i got put down that it was nothing playing wouldnt fix.   just needed to shake the rust off his game.   well whatever the problem is, the path taken wasnt right to get him back to the perkins we wanted on the floor. 

I don’t blame anyone for being angry. It obviously stinks. But the medical staff does its best, and that is that. Either it is taking longer, or it won’t ever get better. OG wouldn’t shut up last year about how these things are sometimes permanent. If I were his coach, I would do everything to get him back into playing form. That said, no one pays me to win basketball games.

[Aquinas]

This has to be a tough time for Perkins. What he does this season, establishes his opportunities and value as a post college player. Im sure he has NBA aspirations. 

The difference between an amazing play and turnover is a small fraction of a second. In the instant a player thinks about making a move, the opportunity closes. The moves have to by instinctive. It takes a 100% healthy player time to reclaim those skills. 

If he is less than 100%, everything is harder and less certain. Sitting weeks to heal, may not leave enough time to recover his game skills. Its a dilemma for Perkins and Ford. 

 

[Matty Light]

The confounding thing about Perk's performance on the floor is he clearly doesn't believe he can create the necessary space to get his shot off without bumping his defender back before pulling up. This has caused numerous offensive foul calls and, thus, turnovers. If he is going to help this team he needs to find other ways to create space.

[wgstl]

Just shut him down awhile.  Being honest here, we don't need him till Jan 4 @umass, that's over 3 weeks from now. With at large being almost impossible, we need everyone ready to go for conference and conference Tourney.  He's not helping us at all right now. And if we struggle with SIUe and St Joes, then we have way bigger problems.

[Old guy]

2 hours ago, AnkielBreakers said:

I don’t blame anyone for being angry. It obviously stinks. But the medical staff does its best, and that is that. Either it is taking longer, or it won’t ever get better. OG wouldn’t shut up last year about how these things are sometimes permanent. If I were his coach, I would do everything to get him back into playing form. That said, no one pays me to win basketball games.

I never said these limitaions are permanent, there is always a recovery process. He did improve to reach a level of 100% in clinical function. This means 100% of the function level needed to walk, go up and down stairs, even run a bit. That means the level of function a normal person (not an athlete) requires in the course of daily living. He did reach a higher level of recovery than that, one which allows him to play basketball. This DOES NOT mean his recovery level will continue to improve to the level of function he had before the injury. He can and does play basketball now, but not anywhere close to the level he had before the injury.

I checked his numbers for all the games played so far (not including the UMSL exhibition game). The games played by Perkins can be divided into two groups, the initial group of 8 games (Murray St. to Tennessee St.). During this 8 game period (which included some pretty tough games) he played an average of 22.375 mpg. Av shooting stats for these games:  FG/FGA of 0.407. 3pt/3ptA of 0.341, and FT/FTA of 0.833. These numbers are not bad.

During the second period of 3 games (SIU to Boise) he played an average of 4.67 minutes. Av shooting stats for these games: FG/FGA of 0.167, 3pt/3ptA of 0.010, and FT/FTA of 1.000. These numbers are terrible. The only stat that remained unchanged and in good shape is the FT average (he only had one free throw and made it, not a very reliable stat).

If you look at these performance stats between the initial 8 games and the last 3 games, it should be clear that something went wrong with Perkins causing his functional ability to take a real downturn. This is shown in the last 3 games stats and mpgs.

Whatever you may want to believe, please go ahead and do so. However Perkins functional level in has diminished for the last 3 games for unspecified reasons. He has not been playing at the same level he had been in the initial 8 games of the season. These numbers are factual, as is the fact that he has gone from playing an average of 22.375 minutes per game to an average of 4.67 minutes per game.

There is no point in feeling angry or betrayed by this, reality is always what it is, not what we imagine or want it to be. I think Perkins is unlikely to be a significant contributor at least for some time, if not for the rest of the season. I honestly doubt he will be able to play professionally after his eligibility is over.

 

[billiken_roy]

imo perkins is only capable as a stand still open shot maker.    so opponents have watched the film and they know be up on him and disrupt his shot.   if he tries to drive, since he doesnt have that step and jumping ability any more (or yet) he becomes worthless now.   unfortunately basketball isnt a game of H-O-R-S-E.   so right now perkins isnt good enough to really give us useful minutes anymore.   shoot technicals maybe.  but jimerson is the better free throw shooter so that isnt going to happen either. 

[Slowry]

2 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

likely more proof he has leg issues.   shooting is a lot of legs and conditioning.   when the legs go so does the shot.   i've been saying for a month he needed to be shut down, and i got put down that it was nothing playing wouldnt fix.   just needed to shake the rust off his game.   well whatever the problem is, the path taken wasnt right to get him back to the perkins we wanted on the floor. 

I don’t think it’s fair to say the path taken wasn’t correct.  Everyone responds different to treatment.  Yes the results so far haven’t been what we hoped for.  But that doesn’t mean his medical path was wrong.  

[dlarry]

Don’t know what’s  wrong with him.

Assuming he is just knocking rust off I’d like to see some 15 foot jumpers coming off screens to help him find his stroke. 
 

He was deadly coming off curls around the free throw line. I’d like to get that going and hope it gets the rest of his shot going too.

[billiken_roy]

12 minutes ago, dlarry said:

Don’t know what’s  wrong with him.

Assuming he is just knocking rust off I’d like to see some 15 foot jumpers coming off screens to help him find his stroke. 
 

He was deadly coming off curls around the free throw line. I’d like to get that going and hope it gets the rest of his shot going too.

coming off screens successfully requires the ability to cut and have bursts of speed.   that's the problem.   from my seat it appears right now he cant do either.

[dlarry]

6 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

coming off screens successfully requires the ability to cut and have bursts of speed.   that's the problem.   from my seat it appears right now he cant do either.

You are probably right.

I was looking at his struggles with “best case scenario” problem. 

[HoosierPal]

Here is Perkin's rather strange game log summary

Murray State 30 min, 21 points

Evansville 25 min, 13 points

Memphis 17 min, 2 points

Maryland 19 min, 17 points

Providence 27 min, 14 points

PQ  22 min, 15 points

Auburn 19 min, 4 points

TN St 20 min, 15 points

SIUC 8 min, 3 points

Iona 16 min, 5 points

Boise St 6 min, 0 points

 

[Lord Elrond]

It sure looks like some injury happened between TN State and  SIUC

[billiken_roy]

naw.   coaches figured out he wasnt recovered but could make wide open shots but cant drive.   so they just guard him close. if there was a new injury surely ford wouldnt play him and jeopardize his future even more.  

[Billiken Rich]

4 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

naw.   coaches figured out he wasnt recovered but could make wide open shots but cant drive.   so they just guard him close. if there was a new injury surely ford wouldnt play him and jeopardize his future even more.  

There's definitely a trend of lack of performance against teams that play good defence.........

[willie]

2 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

imo perkins is only capable as a stand still open shot maker.    so opponents have watched the film and they know be up on him and disrupt his shot.   if he tries to drive, since he doesnt have that step and jumping ability any more (or yet) he becomes worthless now.   unfortunately basketball isnt a game of H-O-R-S-E.   so right now perkins isnt good enough to really give us useful minutes anymore.   shoot technicals maybe.  but jimerson is the better free throw shooter so that isnt going to happen either. 

I don't agree with this. I think he can still get his shot he just isn't making them. And Travis isn't going wait until he does.  

[billiken_roy]

willie makes will happen when wide open more than when guarded.  sure he can get his shot off but his percentage is going to be down if guarded closely.    there are a lot of good horse players that cant play basketball.  

[willie]

1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:

willie makes will happen when wide open more than when guarded.  sure he can get his shot off but his percentage is going to be down if guarded closely.    there are a lot of good horse players that cant play basketball.  

But he made those closely guarded shots 2 years ago. Give him another 30 shots. If he can't make some I will agree with you. Too early IMO to write him off.