APRIL 11: The Cavaliers have officially signed Perkins, the team announced today in a press release. As cap expert Albert Nahmad tweets, Perkins will earn $13K+ for his one day of NBA service during the regular season, but the move will cost the team over $43K due to tax penalties.
APRIL 9: The Cavaliers will be signing veteran center Kendrick Perkins to the final spot on their playoff roster, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Perkins was released by the club during the preseason, then played 27 games for their G League affiliate, the Canton Charge.
Perkins, 33, averaged 8.7 PPG, 7.1 RPG in 21.3 MPG in G League play. He appeared to be on the verge of an agreement with Cleveland in February, so the imminent signing is not a major surprise.
It’s likely that Perkins will see little, if any, action in the playoffs. But he does give coach Tyronn Lue another big body as insurance. Perkins has not appeared in an NBA game since the 2015/16 season.
He spent his first 7 1/2 seasons with the Celtics before getting traded to the Thunder. He played four-plus seasons with Oklahoma City, then saw action in 17 games with Cleveland in 2014/15 season.
In his most recent NBA season, he played 37 games for the Pelicans.
Probably a stupid question, but how is he eligible for the playoffs when he signs this late?
Because he isn’t cut this late, he can sign and be eligible for playoffs.
Playoff eligibility is only impacted when a player is waived post-March 1. Because Perkins was never on a roster, he was never waived, so he didn’t lose his eligibility.
This seems strange. The NBA needs to establish a cut off date for playoff rosters like MLB with September 1st. Perhaps with an increase from 15 to 18 for just the final month of the season. In baseball you can still use September to view young players, but you still have to be on the roster by Sept 1st to be eligible for the playoffs barring injury. This seems unfair to the other players that have toiled for 82 games that Perkins has a chance for a ring without playing a single regular season game.
good idea
Let’s be real though . The Cavs are not winning a ring