Scott Brooks refused to reveal his decision on Monday, though it seems to be trending toward second-year center Steven Adams getting the starting nod. Perkins missed the entire preseason with a quad injury, while Adams continued his eye-opening play.

“Ain’t gonna lie, I’m nervous,” Perkins admitted. “I don’t know what it’s gonna be, what the playing time gonna be, whether I’m starting or whether I’m coming off the bench.”

He doesn’t know if he’ll start. He doesn’t know how much he’ll play. Facing a contract year, he doesn’t even know where he’ll be next season.

“To me, it really don’t even matter,” Perkins said of the impending decision. “I just want an opportunity to play, that’s it. Since I’ve been here, the only thing I’ve been trying to embrace on the whole organization and the young guys is just how to win. Since I’ve been here, that’s all I’ve been doing.”

So if that means a season stuck on the second-unit — possibly as a low-post defensive specialist — Perkins says he’s alright with that.

“Like I told y’all at Media Day, I started all the games last year that I played in and didn’t play in nearly enough of the fourth quarters that I wanted to play in,” he said. “So that really was my goal coming into this year. I wanted to give Coach a reason he should have me in in the fourth. I started last year and a lot of games I was unhappy because I didn’t play in the fourth quarter, probably because I didn’t deserve it. So I want to give him a reason to have me out there in the fourth.”

And Perkins also wants to give Sam Presti, and all other general mangers, a reason to believe he can still be a valuable rotation player in this league. Perkins is on the last year of his four-year, $34.8 million contract.