Report: Cavs look to Kendrick Perkins to bolster playoff hopes

Jason Owens
·Staff writer

The Cleveland Cavaliers are facing arguably their toughest path to a championship since the return of LeBron James.

With two games left in the regular season, Cleveland is sitting as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, which would mean likely matchups without home-court advantage in every round of the playoffs after the first.

If they do make it through the East, they’d presumably face one of the Western Conference behemoths that are the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors, two of the most potent offenses in the history of basketball.

The Cavaliers reportedly signed Kendrick Perkins, who hasn’t played an NBA game in two years, to their playoff roster Monday. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
The Cavaliers reportedly signed Kendrick Perkins, who hasn’t played an NBA game in two years, to their playoff roster Monday. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Their latest answer to boosting their hopes of winning is signing an aging basketball relic who hasn’t played an NBA game since 2016.

The Cavs reportedly agreed to sign Kendrick Perkins to the final spot on their playoff roster on Monday.

Perkins, 33, hasn’t played in the NBA since 2016 with the New Orleans Pelicans, where he averaged 2.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in 37 games.

He was released by the Cavs in the preseason and spent part of this year in the G League.

Perkins was similarly a late-season addition in 2015, where he played sparingly for the Cavs in eight playoff games during their run to the NBA Finals and eventual loss to the Warriors.

We wouldn’t expect much more of a role for Perkins this postseason. A 6-10, 270-pound center who has hit exactly zero three-pointers since joining the league in 2003, Perkins is the type of bruising, plodding player who has fallen out of favor in the modern NBA.

He has a 2008 NBA championship with the Boston Celtics and apparently showed some off-court value to James and the Cavaliers during their 2015 run and in the preseason.

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