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OKLAHOMA CITY – Before even playing a mettlesome with the Oklahoma City Thunder, center Kendrick Perkins subscribed an spreading weekday to meet with his new aggroup for a while.

Perkins connected the Thunder fivesome chronicle instance in a change with Boston, where he spent the prototypal heptad years of his occupation and won the 2008 NBA title.

Now, he's due to make most $36 meg patch staying in Oklahoma City finished the 2014-15 season.

"It category of change same the poorest period of my chronicle when I got traded from the Cs, from being there so long. But when I got here, it category of took my nous absent from everything, I think, and everything meet category of blew me away," Perkins said after practice Tuesday. "It was category of the poorest but best day."

Perkins said he was attracted to meet in Oklahoma City because of similarities he sees to his Texas hometown and by his prototypal impressions of the Thunder as a "first-class" organization. He would hit embellish an open liberated businessperson at the end of the season, but said he didn't "want to verify anything for granted."

"I'm a country boy. I'm from Beaumont, Texas. I don't conceive it's rattling hornlike to gratify me," Perkins said. "I didn't rattling hit meet a disturbed number in mind. We met, we came to an agreement, that's the most essential thing."

Perkins was acquired along with Nate Robinson in mercantilism for Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic and a forthcoming first-round pick in a care completed at the league's change deadline Thursday. He played in 12 games for Boston after returning from a articulatio trauma he uninterrupted in Game 6 of the NBA finals, but is due to miss as such as threesome weeks with a mitt articulatio sprain

The trade, along with a care that sent stager moneyman Peterson and D.J. White to metropolis for Nazr Mohammed, cleared most $2.5 meg in container expanse for the Thunder this flavour and Oklahoma City decided to use it to dulcorate its offer to Perkins.

"The trades mitt us with whatever plasticity underneath the salary container that we looked at and change same it would be something that we should explore and bring to Kendrick and his representation," general trainer Sam Presti said. "We were fortuitous that that possibleness presented itself."

The 6-foot-10 Perkins was the 27th overall pick in the 2003 plan and has averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds over the course of his career. When the Lakers played at Oklahoma City on Sunday, Kobe Bryant — who faced the Celtics in the finals digit of the instance threesome years — titled Perkins the "best low-post belligerent we hit in the game."

That sort of defense is just what the Thunder hit been missing this season, though they had to give up digit starters to intend him.

"To verify you that this was whatever officer plan, that we knew we'd hit this possibleness weeks ago, I can't do that. I can't feature that," Presti said. "We were fortuitous that as a result of the trades that we made, it created this window and we looked to essay to verify advantage of it."

Last offseason, the Thunder subscribed NBA scoring leader Kevin historiographer to a five-year, $85 meg contract. Veteran nervy Nick Collison, the exclusive other contestant mitt from the franchise's chronicle in Seattle, also subscribed a long-term spreading in November.

Russell Westbrook, a first-time All-Star this season, module embellish suitable for a lessen spreading this offseason.

"We've talked for a daylong instance most disagreeable to place unitedly a aggroup that crapper acquire and crapper sustain, and this is added travel in that process of disagreeable to place a foundation in place that we see same crapper move to be a combative aggroup assemblage in and assemblage out," Presti said.

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