The verbose NBA analyst is witnessing veterans become a vanished product, even citing his old Oklahoma City Thunder teammate as an example in Sacramento.
Russell Westbrook shot the basketball just 10 times in his last Sacramento Kings game Thursday -- a far cry from his NBA All-Star days.
The one-time league Most Valuable Player with the Oklahoma City Thunder has a former teammate of his believing he's hit a "vanish" state.
Kendrick Perkins blurted the current Kings guard as his example in discussing the state of NBA veterans across the league.
"Let me say this. We are starting to see a trend of the old heads completely vanish and be out of the league. And I say this respectfully because there is too much young talent that we have right now that teams are not willing to take a gamble on older guys," Perkins said during an appearance on the Road Trippin' Podcast.
While Westbrook comes with decorated credentials, Perkins noticed the timing it took for the Kings to finally bring him on board.
"Like it took forever for Russell Westbrook to be on a basketball team," Perkins said, as Westbrook officially signed on Oct. 16. "We were wondering if someone was going to sign him. You had the one option which was the Sacramento Kings."
He plays for a Kings team that added DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine -- fellow veterans dumped by their last team the Chicago Bulls.
"The Bulls are having success, Sacramento is not," Perkins said. "This has no reflection on what DeMar DeRozan has done in the past; he’s an all-time bucket getter. I’m not talking about who he was, I’m talking about where the league is trending right now. We’ve seen it with Russ, you went from signing for 60 million to signing for three million and all of a sudden you are on the vet minimum."
Sacramento under head coach Doug Christie and general manager Scott Perry have created a roster led by older players no longer in their prime. DeRozan is another battling father time and scored just seven points in 15 minutes of play. They endured a season-worst 41-point thrashing at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies.
LaVine managed to lead the way with 26 points in 26 minutes of play. It's now the second time in the past week he's reached past 20 points. But he's another in the twilight of his career at 30 years of age.
Sacramento trusted players on a lesser veteran deal. Now at 3-13, the Kings look like they're in need of a roster makeover -- which could mean dumping Westbrook or DeRozan.