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Re: Pierce

At 11:30 AM 11/19/2003, Jim Shane wrote: 
The problem is that Pierce is having trouble not being a STAR, as defined by
today's NBA.  He seems to want to make every shot in the fourth quarter so
he can get credit from his peers for being a STAR.  If he would simply pass
the ball to the open man he would eventually get the ball back or get an
assist.  Unfortunately, assists are not for STAR's, only points.

I have my problems with Pierce but FWIW, I think that's pretty unfair. Yes, I agree that part of his problem is feeling like he should be The Man, but not strictly for those reasons.

Pierce should be playing point forward ala Larry Bird.

Er, no. Nothing even close to the court vision and actually isn't as good a ball handler, although he appears to have worked on both. This strikes me as an equivalent to saying Tony Delk should be a PG because he's short. Even though he too has significant problems with court vision.

Besides which, it's playing to his deficiencies vs his best asset on offense - scoring. He needs to get his head together better about what his role is so he can stop forcing the wrong things and standing around as a turnover waiting to happen, then get back to the things that have made him so good in the past, like driving to the hoop more.

  On the other end, he should worry about
rebounding first and let the point guard dribble the ball up the court.

Well no, he should worry about guarding his man first, rebounding second. And I actually think his defense has been more consistantly good this year as his offense has slid. While I've said before he's an underrated rebounder. Sounds like you're confusing him with Walker, since I don't see a continual battle for who gets to bring the ball upcourt with Pierce and I see no reason for a problem with his commitment to defensive rebounding

Kim