Transaction Roundup: September 11th

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics sign Kendrick Perkins to an incentive-laden, four-year contract. Perkins is young and injury-prone but he's an impact rebounder and shot blocker when he's on the court.

Jeff Clark at CelticsBlog calls it "a no-lose situation" for the team. I'll go one step further and say that both sides have minimized their risk while still creating for themselves a potentially advantageous deal. Perkins should share minutes with Theo Ratliff at the 5 this season.

Charlotte Bobcats

Charlotte adds Argentinian forward Walter Herrmann for the 2006-07 season. Herrmann is 27 and shot the ball well from the international three-point line in the World Championships. hpanic7342 at APBRmetrics calculated Herrmann as having the 29th best PER in the World Championships, right behind his teammate Andres Nocioni.

Herrmann had 7 points, 4 rebounds, and one turnover in 18 minutes in an appearance for the Bobcats' Summer League team in Orlando. He will compete with Matt Carroll, Bernard Robinson Jr., and Alan Anderson for minutes backing up Gerald Wallace and Adam Morrison.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Cleveland officially takes the necessary step of re-signing Drew Gooden. At 3 years and $23 million, Gooden is a bargain assuming they don't give too many minutes to the Brazilian Ryan Bowen. I think Nikos Zisis and I are on the same page regarding what Varejao takes away from the game of basketball.

All credit to Cavs beat writer Brian Windhorst for honestly discussing in the blog entry linked above Varejao's tendencies for both flopping and taking cheap shots:

"I feel like I know Andy and his game. I know that sometimes it appears he plays absent minded, but actually I think he's fairly sharp. If you remember last season he took a shot at Rasheed Wallace and got ejected in Detroit and did it without looking like he was trying to. I've watched the Zisis video numerous times and I think that play in Detroit is comparable. I don't think Andy wanted to inflict such damage to Zisis' face and certainly he didn't mean to him (sic) him as hard as he did. But I there's a good chance he came in high with his elbow to send a message."

Danny Ferry was himself quite adept at landing some innocuous looking cheap shots in his day. I continue to presume that this is a root cause of the Cavaliers' unhealthy fascination with turning an adequate backup who can play both the 4 and the 5 into a co-equal of Gooden and Ilgausaks.