Shoals: Pierce A Beautiful Mess

Sounds like the ramblings of Pierce hater. Pierce is a pretty diversified player – rebounds and passes well. He also plays surpisingly good defense. He is not a ‘flawed’ player by any stretch.

can’t say I fully agree with the author… but that picture headlining the article is worth the click alone.

Shoals never uses the word “beautiful” in the piece, and I don’t think that was really his point. The thrust of his article is about the difficulty of assembling winning teams around high-level swingman scorers. Players like Pierce, Iverson and Kobe create an instability in the team concept by virtue of their need to dominate the ball to be effective. He’s simply saying, in his typically convoluted way, that Pierce fits in well with Garnett and Allen, who are more oriented to a team concept, and thus, cover up his shortcomings.

What’s missing from Shoals’ typically poor assessment of actual basketball matters, is a sentence or two explaining how Kevin Garnett could play for three consecutive non-playoff teams if his game is actually as fluid and compelling as his meta-narrative. Ditto Ray Allen, albeit to a lesser degree.

I would offer to both Mr. Shoals a more likely explanation for the Big Three’s success – the Celtics are winning because they’re playing better defense than any of the teams these three men played for prior to them being put together. Make of that what you will, but my guess is that the real answer has something to do with a very un-Free Darko-ian aesthetic: “effort.”

Pierce sometimes becomes stagnant off the ball and stops the ball moving – I thought that was what the author was getting at … while the other two do a great job of that helping Paul and the rest of the team stay very effective and fluid.

Just that Paul is a great fit for KG and Ray, and that Ray and KG are a great fit for Paul.

He’s right in the sense that Pierce, to be effective, dominates the ball. The other two can pretty much get theirs in the flow of the offense. I don’t think anyone would deny that. Still, that’s not a bad thing on this team. Their skills seem very complimentary. To be fair, Pierce is making an effort to be less of a ball stopper this year, as he should. I really don’t think he’ll get too carried away with that this year. There are just too many other good options on the team, and if it truly got out of hand, there’s no way Garnett and Ray would remain silent about it.

I would offer to both Mr. Shoals a more likely explanation for the Big Three’s success – the Celtics are winning because they’re playing better defense than any of the teams these three men played for prior to them being put together. Make of that what you will, but my guess is that the real answer has something to do with a very un-Free Darko-ian aesthetic: “effort.”

I would agree that none have played on a better defensive team prior. But, I disagree that the reason is effort. Last year’s team tried as hard as any Celtics team I’ve seen. But with no experience and with few players with individual defensive skill (yes, defense certain shills and physical attributes) that effort was unproductive. The Jim O’Brien Celtics likewise tried hard on defense, and had the experience to go along with it. The difference defensively between those teams and this one? KG versus ’Twoine.

The old adage that defense is 90% want-to doesn’t apply in the NBA. It’s a combination of effort, physical ability, mastery of individual skill, mastery of team defensive principles, and most importantly, the ability to improvisationally adapt all of those according to the personnel on the other side of the ball – and to do that together. This is what is different in the NBA. These guys are playing defense against the best offensive players in the country and from around the world. It’s not as simple as wanting to. This is why experience is so important, because it takes time to know all the intricacies and tendencies of other teams and individual players. And then, skill to physically do what your mind is telling your body to do. Twoine had knowledge, experience, and desire, but he just couldn’t physically do what KG does.

The point of this diatribe is that past Celtics teams were either lacking in defensive experience or skill – not effort.

Watching Pierce play it is kind of a mess, very effective, but very semi-out of control. Pierce is going to want to shoot and score, but as Cousy pointed out during the Atlanta game, with the spacing that comes from the other two, Pierce’s attacks are against a defense that can’t focus solely on him. And additionally his passes are more often than not going to players who hit their shots.

The team really is put together to surround Pierce. Allen’s offense is basically the perfect compliment at the “non-pierce” wing position, a sniper who moves well, moves the ball well, and doesn’t need a lot of touches to be effective. KG a defensive monster, plus a big threat to play the top of the key. Rondo and Perk then compliment Ray Allen and KG in similar fashion.

Raef has been upgraded to KG. Wally has been upgraded to Ray Allen.

pp is a warrior who has made several adaptations to the celtic team concept over the years. he deserves credit for his versatility. can he be annoying or ball hogging at times? sure but that comes with what he’s had to face- carry the team.

I think the tone of the piece was actually quite positive. He’s basically saying that Paul is a special scorer who can do things that the other two can’t do. The problem is, as with the other great scorers he cites – Kobe, AI – this requires that other players diminish some of their versatility to make room for the special scorer. The difference here is that when you have great players doing to diminishing, as opposed to role players, the result is that they are still able to be quite impressive themselves without having to dominate the ball. I don’t think it was an attack on Paul so much as a complement to KG and Allen for agreeing to be semi-role players.

nazzbo said:
  pp is a warrior who has made several adaptations to the celtic team concept over the years. he deserves credit for his versatility. can he be annoying or ball hogging at times? sure but that comes with what he’s had to face- carry the team.

I basically agree with this statement. PP played the way he did because of who he was playing with. He tried to and finally did buy into Doc’s offense, he tried to be a playmaker, he did rebound and he didn’t play defense all the time. That was all because of the guys he was playing with. He did what he did and took a beating because he was trying to win. If that’s a fault it’s a nice one to have. On the present team PP is making his game fit in with the team he is playing on now. He may still hold the ball a little too much and dribble into a crowd, but it’s tough to change old habits. Despite that he’s done little of the above and is always looking to make the extra pass. He is playing defense more intensely because he is able to now, not having to score 30 to 40 points a nite for a chance at a win. Ray Allen also seems to be pounding the ball alot, but with a purpose. He’s moving the defense and setting up the offense for a better shot for himself or someone else. No different from PP and I’m sure due to his past experiences. Doc’s drill of running plays without allowing dribbling is to improve the ball movement. The article seems to say PP is a problem, but his faults are overcome because of the talents of KG and RA. I don’t agree with that at all. PP is playing the game that Doc wants played, ball movement, remaining aggressive, defense. He’s taking about 15 shots a game which isn’t alot. All three take about the same number of shots, maybe more for KG. But all are playing team basketball on both ends and that is what is important and it will get better as all players get more used to each other.

Migit, Pierce himself has made something of a mantra of claiming how now he can “focus on defense” because he doesn’t have to carry the offensive load. Personally, I think that’s a bunch of crap, there’s plenty of great two-way players in the NBA (including Kobe and AI), but it’s an admission that in the past the effort wasn’t there.

As for Jeff’s inability to find genuine a flaw in KG’s game, I think the same holds true. When KG is committed and putting in the effort, he’s the player we’re seeing this season. When he’s toiling away unhappily in Minnesota with Mark Blount and Ricky Davis, he’s not even good enough to get his team into the playoffs. Great players make all the players around them better, not just the great players around them. Thankfully for the Celtics, the NBA is diluted enough at the moment that these guys can learn to play together and dominate the opposition at the same time, ensuring that everyone stays happy and focused.

And Jeff, as for the “beautiful” thing, I wasn’t busting you, I just think that title helps gloss over Shoals’ idiotic anti-Celtics bent. This piece was his lame attempt at putting a degree of FD ownership on the C’s, and taking a big crap on Pierce in the guise of shrewd basketball analysis (something which the next time he provides will be the first). To me, again, the reality is much simpler. The Celtics are fantastic this season because these guys are committed to a team game and playing their hearts out. It might not be a “sexy” insight, but it’s good enough for me.