Kendrick Perkins is back in the good books in The Valley

When it comes to retired NBA players who routinely gets roasted online for their dreadful takes, former center Kendrick Perkins ranks pretty highly. There's something about his often baseless proclamations that fly in the face of what other media personalties such as JJ Redick tried so hard to combat.

Then again, that's probably why one is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and the other is firing off hot takes on national television. Much like Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal, there's also a time and a place for a guy like Perkins. Shawshank Redemption is the better movie, but sometimes you just wanna watch The Avengers, you know?

The beauty of Perkins though is when he randomly backs an opinion you have.

All of a sudden he's then a guy who knows what he is talking about - although if we were to pick and choose when to agree with Perkins - the world would likely be a very divided place. Phoenix Suns fans are sure to be happy about his latest on their team, as he can see a deep playoff run from a group that didn't even manage a postseason win last time out.

To be fair to Perkins, he didn't go his usual route and make a statement that everybody else laughed at. As he says in the above video, he does not think the Suns right now should be picked to come out of the Western Conference. Rather, he said he would not be surprised if they managed to come out of an extremely loaded West.

The addition of point guard Tyus Jones was revealed to a major reason why, although it remains to be seen just how much an undersized floor general signed to a minimum contract can raise the floor of a team that won 49 games last season. Jones was the steal of the summer, but let's not pretend he's a superstar in the league.

Perkins then went on to claim that happy Kevin Durant is actually one of the driving factors in the Suns looking a lot better than they did at this stage last season. He could well be right, but Bradley Beal has been looking back to his old ways in preseason action so far. Not that we're reading too much into these nothing games or anything, promise...

If anything it is the sudden surge in 3-pointers being taken - which we discussed in more detail here - which should have fans excited about what this season might hold. Not that they are getting too ahead of themselves, last year's massacre at the hands the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves still fresh in the minds of many.

But with so many other teams worth talking about and hyping up, it is nice to see Perkins have a measured opinion on what the Suns might be able to achieve this coming season. The introductions of head coach Mike Budenholzer and a pair of rookies who have brought great energy and enthusiasm in Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro already having a notable impact.