Former Wizard Gets Credit From Kendrick Perkins

Tyrone Montgomery | Jun 10, 2024

Jun 6, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) shoots against Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) in the third quarter during game one of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

In the game of basketball today, scoring is at an all-time high. Any player on any given team can erupt for a 50-piece at any given time. Even the bad teams are scoring a lot of points. With that in mind, the players on the bottom of the depth chart tend to take advantage of their opporunities to score when given the chance as well. We saw this happen as the NBA regular season nearly reached it's conclusion with Malachi Flynn of the Detroit Pistons. Flynn was playing against the Atlanta Hawks on a Thursday evening and he scored a career-high 50 as he came off the bench. Despite the 50 point explosion, the Pistons still managed to lose to the Hawks.

There isn't a lot of defense being played nowadays. However, someone still has to win the Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. While many felt that rookie Center Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs should have taken the award, the award ended up going to Minnesota Timberwolves Center Rudy Gobert. Rudy has now won the Defensive Player of the Year Award four times now. However, Kendricks Perkins spoke with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson as he joined him on the Scoop B Radio Podcast. He has always been hard on Rudy Gobert. Here is what Perk had to say on the show regarding Gobert:

[laughing] Why not? I mean, look bro… You CANNOT be going back to France with 4 Defensive Player of the Year Awards and not showing up in the postseason. And when I’m saying show up, like… you don’t need Rudy to be average. He’s not supposed to be good -- Rudy has yet to have a game to where we came out and said, Rudy won them that game! He was everywhere! Do you realize this? People thought I was cappin’. I had a better postseason defensively than Rudy. I’m talking about career wise -- I mean, three times he had 7 blocks or more? I had 4 games. Four times I had 7 blocks!
Like, even when you go to 5 blocks: He had 3. I had 3. So I mean at this point, what are we really talking about? And if you go back and watch film, I showed up in big moments -- and I was the roleplayer. I didn’t have the Defensive Player of the Year Award. I showed up in big moments. He didn’t and it’s unacceptable. The reason why people are so hard on him… now Draymond? That’s another story -- Whatever they got goin’ on that’s on them. My thing is when I’m watching this Dallas series, I’m watching Daniel Gafford block shots and Dereck Lively II block shots and them mugs is like, Oh shit!... Like, they’re so impactful that they got you looking over your shoulder! Kyrie and
them is like, Lefty. Oh we in the paint. We lobbin’... You ain’t breaking up none of them lobs? Like, you see the lob coming and you can’t jump high enough just to block it? C’mon man. Stop me when I’m lyin’!

What a block from Daniel Gafford pic.twitter.com/SH7xSPyjqd

— Zeebs (@killerzeebs) June 10, 2024

While Kendrick Perkins may give Rudy Gobert some tough love, he shows love and gives credit to former Wizard Daniel Gafford. Gafford was good in Washington with the Wizards. Now, he has become great in Dallas with the Mavericks playing next to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. While they may be down 0-2 in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, we all know the Mavs wouldn't had even made it this far if they didn't trade for Danny G.