Re:

[opi@unesco.org]

Peter Delevett wrote:

> I just read SportsGuy's colum from last week and was really struck by
> Antoine's home/road splits:
>
> *Home -- 68-for-141 from the field; 41-48 from the line; 7-for-23 from
> 3-pt land; 9.3 rpg; 4.9 apg; 23.0 ppg.
>
> * Road -- 61-for-165 from the field; 41-for-58 from the line; 10-for-46
> from 3-pt land; 6.2 rpg, 1.7 apg; 19.3ppg.
>
> Pretty compelling.
>
> However, I also have been thinking a lot about Pierce. Check this out:
>
> 98-99 13. fga/g, 43.9 fg %, 41.2 3 pt %
> 99-00 15.5 fg/g, 42.8 fg%, 39.4 3 pt %
>
> Now, a lot of Paul's other numbers have declined from last season --
> he's getting fewer blocks, commiting slightly more turnovers & more
> fouls, and pulling down .2 fewer rpg (and, notable, 1.1 fewer orbs). The
> only areas where he's improved are FT%, steals and assists (as well as
> scoring, but IMO if you're taking more shots and shooting a lower
> percentage, it's not necessarily a good thing for your scoring to rise).
> But I specifically want to focus on hit shots/game and FG% and compare
> them to:
>
> Ron Mercer
>
> 97-98 14.3 fga/g, 45 fg %
> 98-99 17.2 fga/g, 43.1 fg %
>
> I feel like it's déja vu all over again. Is there something in Rick's
> system that encourages his off guard to jack up more shots?
>
> Obviously I am looking at just one part of the picture here, and I may
> be underestimating the extent to which Paul's injury may still be
> affecting his shot. But I find it discouraging that the very thing for
> which we most maligned Ron last year -- shooting more and at a lower
> percentage -- is exactly what Pierce is doing now.

Big Celts win on MLK Jr day!!! A watershed result. Nice earlier post Pete,
I'm still hanging around in my office basically monitoring the game.  I did
honest work too, but Cheryl will no doubt be thrilled about all this. It's 6
hours ahead of Boston time over here, so it's getting late for dinner (past
10 p.m). I have a UNESCO internal management reforms taskforce now booked
from 9 am through 10 freaking pm on Thursday and Friday including a
mandatory group lunch for all 40 invitees....hopefully we won't have another
yakety yak session even if this occasion really requires some rudeness. Ever
since I started wearing a tie to work, I've fallen well below acceptable
dignity, competence or grasp of situations. I want to put a gun to my head
to stop myself from evolving into quite the competent little Froggie
bureaucrat.:-)

Anyway I take it you've noticed that even Bill Cooper has been unusually
hard on "St Paulie Girl" for the majority of the past 15 or so game reports.
I guess BCoop's been waiting to provoke an intelligent reaction for the sake
of argument, but there have been no takers on this list so far.

One thing Bill Cooper does note is how much better-rounded Paul Pierce is
than Ron Mercer, and this remains totaly valid in my opinion. Pierce may be
getting lit up by certain shooting guards (most have played the position all
their lives), but he is also second in the NBA is steals. That's not a typo.
He's "El Secondo Swipo Maestro" in Espanol parlance.  This is clearly not a
trivial stat for a recently converted small forward. He is very precocious.

I think part of the letdown comes from the fact that Pierce has lately been
far below average as any sort of potential Boston savior. Due to the awful
shooting slump, he is another player that hasn't improved much overall from
the last horrible season to this one. A drop in FG% is generally a fact of
life when a solid players shoots considerably above the natural flow. Pierce
is down from .440 as a rookie to .425 this year. Neither figure is anything
to get excited about if you are still waiting for the next Larry Bird or MJ
and have been praying that this relatively loveable, huggable kid (compared
to "you know who"!) could develop into a meaningful answer....preferably one
who is even good enough to dump our other designated scorer for a more
humble-seeming role player.

But let's give Paul Pierce a break. Despite this stat-killing rough patch,
he's still averaging 9.64 assists+steals+rebounds(-)turnovers, which is way
to far a cry from Ron Mercer's 5.1 average this "breakthrough" season and
5.73 in his best year in Boston to make the two players comparable. It's
even a far cry from Antoine's still humiliating 8.15 this season.

Cheers.  Go Celts!

Joe

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