And as Russell demonstrated, it's individual talent that wins
championships. Pierce's dribble is better than you portray it.
Well no it's not. You're offering the same old standard defense that it's
just because of the double and triple teams he commands, which would be a
problem for anyone. Yada, yada.
When my problems with his ballhandling start with the unforced error sorts
of things were he loses the ball or his dribble without anyone close around
him. You can't really go by his turnover count, because with no one around
him he may hold on to the ball or get it back alright, but he's still lost
the dribble, leading to a forced shot or pass or leaving himself an easy
target for trapping or otherwise disrupting any attempt at offensive flow.
He just doesn't have the instinctive ball attached to his hand with an
invisible string sort of command of his dribble that he should, given his
game, and loses control of the ball too easily when there's no one
slapping at him, much less when there is. The fact that he has so many
problems with no one around him point pretty clearly to where the problem
is IMO.