Spears on Big Show: Powe wants to return

Marc Spears from Yahoo! Sports joined The Big Show to add his perspective on the Celtics trade of Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic and also offer insight into what direction the team may be looking on the veteran free agent market. Spears said that he talked to former Celtic Leon Powe who was waived by Cleveland and that Powe wants to return to the team. "The Celtics are the front-runners for him. New York and the Lakers are also interested in him. Leon says his knees are fine and he can really help the team right now and he knows the system."

Adding Powe might also soothe some of the frustration from the Celtics players who are upset over losing Perkins. Spears said that's a real concern right now. "That's going to be hard to deal with. Maybe it gets easier with each passing day. They loved that guy," Spears said. He's certainly one of my players on that team. When they had a bad loss I knew I could always go to Perk and get the real quote, the real deal. Just a good guy. He's going to be missed incredibly by those guys. He and [Rajon] Rondo were like brothers. [Kevin Garnett] was like his big brother. They understand it's a business. It's not like they shipped him to Cleveland."

As for Green, Spears said that he is a quiet guy who won't stir up the locker room off the court. On the court, he's an explosive scorer who can be the bench piece that has eluded them the last few years. "They've constantly looked for this guy to come off the bench and really spark them," Spears said. "Now they have that guy that can be a big-time scorer off the bench, stretch the defense and also when Paul [Pierce] or Ray [Allen] goes away could be there to play with Rondo for a long time. You've got a Sixth Man of the Year candidate instantly in him." 

As for why the Celtics would make such a drastic move, Spears offered his perspective. "Obviously I understand why a lot of people in Boston were initially upset and probably still are upset and have reason to be upset," Spears said. "When Perk was gone for the first third of the season they still won without him. Maybe that convinced Danny [Ainge] and Doc [Rivers] that, you know what, while Perk is a great player and a great defender maybe we can get somebody like Shaq or Krstic that can still fill that void. They're the fifth option offensively. It's not like they need great offense from them. And by adding Green you're getting a big-time 20-plus scorer off the bench that can come in and be a major factor, play with the starters and take a lot of heat off of Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. This guy has been considered for All-Star games in the past." 

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