First, I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately. We have been extremely busy on some other projects and just have not had the time to work on posting our thoughts on what is going on in the basketball world. If you have a chance, check out our Lahaina.com website. It is a travel resource for all things Maui and will be a great site to check out for all you college basketball fans coming over for the Maui invitational.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to catch the last three quarters of game two of the Boston Celtics vs. the Chicago Bulls. I have to say that the game was filled with plenty of excitement, which is pretty typical for an NBA playoff game. For those of you NBA haters out there, I highly recommend watching the NBA playoffs. This might be one of the more ridiculous comments for me to make, but I believe the NBA playoffs are just as exciting as March Madness. I mean for a basketball purist what is better than 40 games in 40 nights?
Back to the game, it was action packed and back and forth between the two teams. Both teams couldn’t stop one another on defense and there were some great individual feats, such as Ben Gordon dropping 40+ and Ray Allen hitting the go ahead three-pointer–yadda yadda. What I want to talk about is something that has been bugging me for sometime, but we have seen its true colors in these playoffs.
I want all the experts and casual fans to stop telling me how amazing Paul Pierce is. Since last year season and the NBA Finals, I have heard over and over how great Pierce is. How he lead his team to an NBA championship. How he deserves to be mentioned in the MVP voting. Even last night by Doug Collins, how he has the heart of a champion. Yes, Paul Pierce is a good player, but he has some great players along side of him and the true heart of a champion on this team is his injured mate Kevin Garnet.
If the Bulls get one rebound, the Celtics would be down right now 0-2 in this series and staring elimination dead in the face. The same Bulls who are playing without Luol Deng and have a rookie coach in Vinnie Del Negro. Without KG, the Celtics are obviously not very good. The heart and soul, the MVP of Celtics, is in street clothes with a bald head on the bench. Do you think the Celtics give up a 115 points with KG in the lineup?
Last night put the icing on the cake that Pierce is overrated. Down the stretch, in clutch-time, it was Rondo, and more importantly, Ray Allen who won last night’s game. In fact, the plays that were drawn up at the end of the game weren’t even for Pierce. Start giving credit where it is due. Ray Allen deserves a ton of credit. KG deserves a ton of credit. Paul Pierce needs a little less credit.
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Pierce is clutch,
I understand that athleticism doesn’t make you a good player but it helps. I was just responding to the point that you made about Paul Pierce having a 50 inch vert would make him a better player. The guy would be awesome. Maybe he wouldn’t have to rely on his “old man game” which I respect 100%. I never said he was bad, I just said he isn’t in the top tier of NBA players.
I mean you would have to agree that if he were more athletic that he would be a better player right?
As in..
If he was more athletic and could muster more than two inches on his jumper (this is where that 50″ vert you talked about might come into play), he wouldn’t get game winning shot attempts blocked by John Salmons.
or
If he was more athletic, he could maybe turn the corner on his defender and not have to take 10 dribbles in a semi-circle to get plucked by Joke-him Noah and then go get punched on at the other end. Now fouling out while getting punched on has nothing to do with athleticism but that 50″ vert might have gotten him to block that shot. Maybe he forgot he had five fouls…
but…
I agree with you that Paul Pierce can create his own shot (enter sarcastic golf clapping). His step back game is vicious! But that doesn’t put you into top tier class.
G,
Is it true? Is that really you? Michael? MJ? If you really would take Pierce over Kobe, Lebron (who by the way, out of everyone, is definitely going to see Ray Allen in your little scenario and will definitely get him the ball), or a healthy D Wade then you are the same person who drafts Kwame Brown first in the draft. Sorry.
Speaking of Ray Allen…why couldn’t that guy get a glimpse of the ball during those end game situations? What does it take to get a play drawn up for you? Did he have to score 100? He was literally in flames last game and the one time he gets a shot he hits a huge trey ball to tie the game. Not to mention, that he has been hitting huge shots all series! I don’t understand sometimes…
Mark,
Then we are arguing the same point. I also agree that Kobe and LeBron and perhaps Wade, are a slightly better, but not by very much, which basically means that those guys are tier 1 players, and Pierce would be in tier 1A.
And while his personality has absolutely been an issue in the past, so has Kobe Bryant’s. You could even argue that Kobe’s is still an issue (ask Spike Lee), but nobody seems to hold it against him, yet you (and lots of people like you) are holding it against Pierce for a reason that really appears to be a pre-determined bias.
Shuttlesworth,
You still fail to grasp the fact that his ahtleticism isn’t the reason why he’s getting his shot blocked these days, it’s because he’s completely gassed and/or possibly injured but not admitting it. He looks slow and old in the postseason so far, but ask anyone who’s watched him longer than one year, and they will tell you he doesn’t usually look this bad athletically, and really hasn’t looked this bad until the last three months or so of the season.
I’ll submit to you that if he was at 100% he would a) not have gotten his shot blocked by Salmons and b) be able to go to the rim at will like he has his entire career up until the last three months of this year. His athleticism, while not nearly as good as Kobe, Lebron, and Wade, has been more than adequate to be a perennial all-star throughout the last decade and his usual game is hardly “old man” at all.
If he had a 50 inch vertical he MAY be a better player overall, or he might just provide more highlight reels on ESPN. Maybe he wouldn’t have developed the footwork he currently has and just rely on his 50 inch jumper and become less of a player…someone like Vince Carter, or Josh Smith, or even one of the countless atheltic phenoms who’ve come into the league and not worked on their game at all like Gerald Green, Harold Miner, etc. Who really knows?
The point is that given his lack of all-universe athleticism, he’s managed to put up hall of fame numbers anyway and has remained one of the most clutch players in the game. Just because he doesn’t produce highlight reels like those other guys, doesn’t mean he isn’t in their class. Production is production, whether it’s flashy or not, it’s still worth the same value.
Regarding Ray Allen in last night’s game, IMHO you can blame that one on Doc Rivers, who had a less than stellar end of game coaching-wise. I don’t think we’ve seen anything special out of the coaches for this series at all, which is probably why it’s been so competitive…so many mistakes by each team are being turned into opportunistic points from the other.
f,
you seem to have serious issues – you should really attend an anger management session. Before that, I suggest you watch the last Boston game again, you might learn a few things about basketball so that you can avoid idiotic comments in the future.
Hello Shuttlesworth, you just made a fool out of you.
G, you need to get your life out from underneath a rock.
“F” was quoting a classic scene from the movie Billy Madison. Watch it sometime.
And you are making a fool out of yourself to think that Pierce is the reason this team is where it is at in these playoffs. Give some credit to Rondo the guy has been FANTASTIC. Not pierce.
Pierce is a great player that too often makes some bad decisions. All of you saying that Pierce can’t carry a bad team to the playoffs clearly weren’t paying attention from about 2001-2004 when he essentially carried some extremely bad Celtic teams into the playoffs. That being said KG is far and away the most consistent/most integral aspect to the Celts championship run last year.
Pierce over the last couple years has settled too often for fallaway jumpshots and other lower percentage shots and thus has seen his efficiency #’s slip not to mention his per game #’s due to the additions of KG/Allen and emergence of Rondo.
I disagree with you, Pierce deserve the credit he was taking right now. Because as you know, I watch Pierce played during his rookie season. He doesn’t have the athleticism that Carter has, but he’s an all around player and he can dunk if he wants to. Just like Magic Johnson said, Pierce plays like an old school. I respect Pierce game, he can break your ankle with his crossover moves, he had an IQ. He carry the bad Celtics team to ECF way back 2002. And Pierce was in the playoffs year after year but they had been blown out by their opponent just because of lack of help. Imagine if Pierce would have KG and Allen in the first place, they would win many championship and Pierce would be in a MVP ballot in the past year. Right now Pierce earn the respect he deserve in the league.
Top SF
1.James (even James said it to himself Pierce is one of the greatest)
2.Pierce (now & his prime years)
3.Anthony
4.Durant
I agree with you 200%…Pierce is an AVERAGE player, and nothing more. I’m tired of people trying to put him in the conversation for MVP and trying to say he’s a Hall of Famer. The fact of the matter is he’s not even the best player on his own team, and he’s not the leader of the team either. I’ve never seen a more glorified average player than Paul Pierce
Paul Pierce is “average”? Yeah, you score 20,000+ points in the NBA as an “average” player.
Bunch of CLOWNS on this site.
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