we,ve talked about the good-paul,bad-paul dichotomy, however there has been a diminishing bad-paul.when you win everything looks rosy. i hope paul stays healthy because he’s been the rock. he also as team captain does not let his ego get in the way of kg and rondo who needed to take control on the floor. the defense and the improved free throw , as well as the 3 shot, shows the willingness to work on his game.

I couldn’t be happier for Paul Pierce. His whole career, all he wanted was to play on an elite team. He has been around long enough to know how special this year could be. Here’s hoping the ultimate prize is achieved this year.

PP for MVP!

Come on Boston Garden! Give Paul the MVP chant he really does deserve. A truely underappreciated superstar in this league, I don’t think anyone (celtic fan or otherwise) would disagree with*.

(*Kobe fanboys aside ;) )

mcpu40,

Amen!! Couldn’t say it any better.

Best Player On The Celtics

He is their rock, their leader and their MVP.

He’s being grossly overshadowed by the attention KG recieves from the media.

One of the top 10-12 Celtics of all time and the 2nd best player on the team. Good job, PP.

I’ve been rough on him at times, and, thinking back, I was right. Why didn’t he play like this before? Was defense somehow less valuable on last year’s team?

Pierce has been great this year. His defense & passing have been the highlights. I don’t think I had ever seen PP take a charge before this season. He’s not a lockdown defender, but he does make a consistant effort every night.

As far as the scoring goes, it’s been great that he has been able to keep pace. For comparison, I think Ray’s dedication to defense has definitely impacted his scoring. Ray doesn’t seem to mind though.

Incredible that 2 vet scorers were able to remake their games in such a short span of time.

LuckyNumber07:
I don’t think I had ever seen PP take a charge before this season.

I take it this is the first season you started watching the Celtics? ;)

I just wrote this in another thread, but I find it funny how PP was the one people questioned coming into the season, whether or not he could play with other allstars. PP was the one begging to play with these allstars so why would he be a problem? :-\ Makes no sense.

PP is showing that he knows how to play with other allstars and seems willing to do whatever he has to to make it work, even sit out a whole 4th quarter so Ray can get his touches. :D

brick…Paul was not asked to focus on his defense in the past. Last year, and years prior, Paul was asked to expend 100% of his energy carrying the team on offense, which did not allow him to focus as much on his defense. Now that he has a supporting cast on offense, he can more evenly distribute his energy on O and D. Like he said, he always wanted to play this way, he just wasn’t able to with the teams that have been assembled around him in the past.

Brick may have been wrong on a couple of occasions but he’s absolutely right about the maturation of Paul Pierce. He did play foolishly and IMHO for a longer period than last year. His being injured wasn’t an excuse in years prior to last year.

True, he may once have been the most talented player on a young team but he wasn’t always a smart player. You don’t repeatedly and foolishly drive into triple coverage in a futile attempt to score. You don’t accumulate TOs as fast as you gain ball possessions. Whether you’re the most talented player or not, you need to fit into a TEAM concept and Paul seemed above that for many years.

His intial confrontation with Doc Rivers was the beginning of his emergence as a great player. While Doc “may” be guilty of many things as a coach, he did help make Paul Pierce into the COMPLETE player we now love to watch. The rival coach that spoke glowingly to Doc about today’s version of Paul Pierce was like many of us wondering if Paul could EVER become a truly great player. Many argued that Paul should have been traded to land us a better player, one with a greater UPSIDE.

Sometimes the best trades are those that were never made!

Paul Pierce has finally become a COMPLETE player, one to justify his elevation as one of the Celtic greats when he retires.

If, in past years, he’d sacrificed some of his scoring to expend energy at the defensive end, the team would have won more games. I don’t believe for a second that coaches told him to concentrate on offense and don’t worry about defense. O’Brien (just to name one) certainly didn’t coach that way.

It seems to me that in past years PP thought about PP, not winning. This year he wants to win.

Now don’t get all over me for saying this because I absolutely love KG and have had the opportunity to follow him throughout his career to some extent; however, the last part of his quote above bugs me, because from what I read into the whole situation the past summer, KG didn’t want to come here when it was just paul but when ray came then he was all gung-ho about it. Now obviously it was the both of them that really made him think about it and eventually want to come and I am sure that if it were just ray he would have had the same perception but that to me makes it sound like it wasn’t good enough with just Paul in the beginning. To reiterate I absolutely love KG and flipped out when I heard he was coming but I just find this somewhat interesting

I don’t want to jinx anything but does anybody know the record for the greatest single season turnaround for an NBA team? I know that the Cs had a huge turnaround during Larry’s rookie year.

Pierce has taken a ton of charges since it has become a trend it the league. In the O’brien years noone really took them and thats why Pierce could get to the line so much more. But yeah, it you didn’t see Pierce taking charges the last few years, you weren’t watching the Celtics. Paul, proved that if he was put with a moretalented cast he would be happy taking less shots and do whatever it takes to win games. He even gave up shots when he was playing at the end of the year last year to help Al’s development.

The Spurs record turnaround for a season is in deep jeopardy, Id say the final record of the C’s would be something like 66-68 wins…I don’t think for a second we’d do 70 as we need to win all our remaining games to finish 70 but give or take a couple of losses and we definitely take the record for most turnaround in a season.

On PP, He has been outstanding this yr..Id say the addition of KG and RA changed Pierce’s outlook and gameplan…He is planning on extending his career by deferring to RA and KG on most times but if you look closely, If he is needed by doc, PP responds and does his usual 15 point/ quarter oustburst to help the team…PP is the reason we will win the Title as he is the man that perfectly compliments KG’s game, remember when KG is in Minnesota and the knack on him as to why the Wolves loss is because he defers to lesser players incrunch time, But look at KG’s game, He seems to be more confident now in the last 6 games he is a monster coz he knows that he still has PP and RA to defer to if he is not on.

The pundits and national media should be wary of this yr’s C’s…Yeah, Id say let us just fly under the radar and let those buggers keep saying the Spurs and Detriot are the elite…BUt look at the opposing coaches and what they say about the C’s such as Popovich and Flip and you’d be surprised that they found out for themselevs how difficult it is to beat the Celtics…a team that can go 12 players deep….WOW.

You get the feeling that the NBA is going to review the system of teams buying out players and then those players signing with other teams.

Kind of amazing that a person can continually be negative about something no matter what is going on. I am willing to bet that you think that your post above was a ‘’compliment ’’ to Paul. What a terrible way to look at life…

I just won 10 million in the lottery. Those sorry state officials. Why couldn’t they have given me 10 million 5 yrs ago?!?!

PP has been a star of this team for years. How anyone could question his effort is beyond me. Of course he is going to get better and better as the years go on. Of course he is going to play better with more talented teammates. Be serious on here…

By the way, How are your Wolves and Raptors doing?!

I sorta agree with Brick on this one, though I am very happy Paul has turned the corner. I think it’s largely a myth that younger/worse teams are improved by letting the vet take a ton of shots. That’s why I thought it was malarkey when people thought Kobe was the MVP two years ago (his 37ppg year on a mediocre team). I think if Pierce had a little more trust in the young guys, giving them the ball when they’re open and focusing on D like he has this year, they would have won more games. A lot more? Hell no. But more.

All that being said, I don’t entirely blame Paul for his offensive minded rationale, because it’s something you see all the time. I think it’s a myth that the basketball world perpetuates, with little data to support it works.

love love love Paul Pierce.

Still can’t say I agree with the people saying PP is the best player on the Celtics. I can definitely see it when I put myself in the shoes of Celtic’s fans, however. But being a Wolves and KG fan for so long, I think I’m of the same perspective for him as most of you are for Pierce.

Whatever the case, I respect Paul’s game even more than I did prior to this season (I always thought he was underrated to begin with) and am glad to see him getting this much deserved attention.

Birdbrain said:
  Statically speaking I would give the nod to Paul. But much of KG’s impact is not captured by statistics.

I still give a statistical edge to KG. He’s scoring much more efficiently (much better FG% and more pointer per minute), is still one of the better rebounders (although Paul is a great rebounding SF), and I consider them pretty even in assists when comparing how often they have the ball in their hands as playmakers.

They are about as close as you can come to statistical impact, but the reason I give the nod to KG is because, from what I’ve seen, he is still the first Celtic that teams will send a double team towards and is the opponent’s main concern on both sides of the ball. I think he is the single most dangerous player in terms of “to double or not to double”… I don’t think there is a better player in the league at identifying double or triple teams and knowing what to do (the two plays against the Hawks, with 4 guys around him, the tip pass to Perk for a dunk and the lefty-no look-behind the back to a cutting Baby are the best examples) and I think he could lead the league in scoring if he received constant single teams and approached the game with a scorers mentality. That said, Pierce is certainly no slouch as a play maker and getting teammates easy buckets – especially this season. I just see KG taking more of a load of his teammates that Pierce.

Anyways… don’t want to split hairs. I’d rather just take them as a duo that try to compare them against each other. Pierce may very well be their MVP this year, just as some people said Sam was the Wolves MVP in 03-04… although it still went without saying that KG was their best player.

Bankshot, I’ve been watching Pierce since his rookie season and I SWEAR I’ve never seen him take a charge.

It is truly a wonderful thing that people are finally saying great things about Paul Pierce.

Paul in my opinion has been the best Celtic player for the last ten years, including this year.

Yes, KG is awesome and I think he is within a hair’s breath of PP, but Paul just gets my nod.

The great thing is, their two games just complement each other perfectly.

I also agree 100% with Birdbrain, I don’t think Paul’s game has really changed. The world around him has changed.

As I said at the start, it is just very nice that Paul is getting some justified recognition.

Go the Green !!!!

Cheers

Aussie

I find it amusing that people attack Brickowski for stating the obvious. When Rivers came on board Paul dogged it defensively. That may be an understatement. Come up with any rationale you want. It doesn’t change reality.

Anyway, I’m glad Paul has the opportunity he has now. I’m sure glad he didn’t forget how to play defense post-Obie.

I don’t understand why some people are uncomfortable including Pierce as one of the all-time Celtics greats.