“They count us out,” Perkins said. “But at the end of the day we feel like each guy at the end of the season said we were going to come back better. So we feel like each guy just got to step their roles up a little bit more and step their games up and we feel like we can do that.”

Perkins will be the first to say that he's starting with the man in the mirror.

He's heard his critics this offseason, and while he isn't making any vows to shut them up Perkins is using their criticism as fuel.

“One thing I learned, and I learned this from Kevin Garnett, is don't only read the good things about you,” Perkins said. “Read the negative things about you, too, and use it as motivation. I think that's when it comes to the point when you can be considered a real man, when you can look at both. Because most people will hide from criticism. I take it and I just kind of use it as motivation to get better … I'm ready to get back on the court.”