The truth about The Truth- The end is nigh.

[jangles86]

Out of sheer respect for a champion and future hall of famer it is with great sadness to start a thread like this. Paul Pierce has been such a fighter and amazing player for so long. Big game player and clutch as all hell.

...But the time is up for this war horse. He can no longer impact a game a way a starter should. He has become a siv on the defensive end and inefficient on the offensive end. He also slows the game down to his pace as he cannOT keep up anymore. The last 5 games he has fallen completely off the cliff averaging 8.4ppg on 34% fg, 2.4rpg, 1.4apg on 25mpg.

This isn't a knee jerk thread either. Apart from the obvious knowledge he has passed on to Wall and Beal he has really underwhelmed on the court. It looks like we're stuck with him as a starter as Wittmam doesn't have the testicular fortitude to bench him.

I would love to see him come off the bench for the rest of the year and Porter start. But we all know this won't happen.

[wizfactor94]

Too bad Porter is worse.

[dckingsfan]

And Webster worse than Porter...

[cdouglas]

Perhaps for the Wiz but Pierce can thrive on a team that knows how to use him. Porter is young and is a good player but again, he's not utilize to the advantage of his strength. Webster, Temple, Blair, Seraphin and Gooden, we have 5 guys on our roster that aren't really contributing anything to this team. Ok, this franchise doesn't show ANY interest of winning anything, not even the Eastern Conference championship! You can't win any all star to any team that shows no desire of winning a championship.

[Dat2U]

Truth isn't done... I'm amazed at what he's done as a 3 this year... but in all honesty he should be playing PF as I said during the summer... he can certainly still matchup with 3s in a pinch but Pierce and the Wizards would be best served with him spacing the floor at the 4 where he would have room to operate against slower bigs.

[dckingsfan]

I agree Dat... but then you have Gortat, Nene, Humphries, Seraphin, Gooden, Blair in the front court. In essence, that would leave you with Porter starting (I don't think he was ready at the beginning of the season but he is now) and Butler backing up Beal (but he is out). Basically, this team wasn't put together well and has boxed Wittman in (and that didn't take much).

[FAH1223]

I agree Dat... but then you have Gortat, Nene, Humphries, Seraphin, Gooden, Blair in the front court. In essence, that would leave you with Porter starting (I don't think he was ready at the beginning of the season but he is now) and Butler backing up Beal (but he is out). Basically, this team wasn't put together well and has boxed Wittman in (and that didn't take much).

Should be boxed out... since, you know, we have a gazillion bigs... half of whom are awful.

[FAH1223]

Truth isn't done... I'm amazed at what he's done as a 3 this year... but in all honesty he should be playing PF as I said during the summer... he can certainly still matchup with 3s in a pinch but Pierce and the Wizards would be best served with him spacing the floor at the 4 where he would have room to operate against slower bigs.

Exactly.

Jason Kidd knows how to coach.

We even saw it earlier this year in some games when Truth was at the PF spot with Butler or Porter on the wings. Wall went crazy.

But Wittless will only pull this off when the team is down like yesterday vs. DET.

Unimaginative front office with an unimaginative coach and you get bad offensive basketball.

[Dat2U]

I agree Dat... but then you have Gortat, Nene, Humphries, Seraphin, Gooden, Blair in the front court. In essence, that would leave you with Porter starting (I don't think he was ready at the beginning of the season but he is now) and Butler backing up Beal (but he is out). Basically, this team wasn't put together well and has boxed Wittman in (and that didn't take much).

Nene should be playing 24 minutes off the bench in tandem with Pierce at PF. Gooden doesn't see any minutes unless there are injuries or extended garbage time.

Humphries should get all the backup minutes behind Gortat. Seraphin should rot on the bench or have been traded. At this point Blair doesn't play anyway so I don't think it matters that he doesn't.

Where were hurting is on the wing. Porter can certainly start but Rasual is back to being the Rasual of old & Webster is every shade of terrible right now. Temple is the only shooting (Ha!) guard we have.

It would be nice to have Glen Rice to throw in there now. Or heck, even another NBDL all-star. I think two guys off the street could out perform Webster/R. Butler by a good deal at this stage.

[hands11]

I agree Dat... but then you have Gortat, Nene, Humphries, Seraphin, Gooden, Blair in the front court. In essence, that would leave you with Porter starting (I don't think he was ready at the beginning of the season but he is now) and Butler backing up Beal (but he is out). Basically, this team wasn't put together well and has boxed Wittman in (and that didn't take much).

Randy has boxed himself in.

This was never a title team this year.

PP not starting at PF was fine during the year to save him for the end of the year. Has he start the year there he would be even more warn down then he is now. And.. he didn't want to do it for exactly that reason. He as much as said so in an interview early in the year.

But there are tons of line ups they could have done thoughout to grow the talent and the team to get them to the end of the year.

Having PP off the bench throughout the year would have been fine. Same with Nene. The roster isn't perfect and I never expected it to be this year. That are still putting it together but Randy miss managed the line ups. And still is.

This is a better roster then last year ( short of TA being a near perfect fit at SF ) and its better then the year before. I expect next years roster to be either better or near the same but younger. We all know this was a transition year when TA left and Otto wasn't ready yet to step in that void. PP was a temp band-aid while that happens. But in add PP, they haven't seems to get the peaking order ... in order regarding PP, Nene and Gortat and I fell Wall is stuck in the cross fire.

That's why you see what looks like a mess. But a good coach would have worked it out.

Not sure if PP will return next year but if he does, he will be off the bench. And either way, having him here one year was good for Wall, Beal and Otto.

From here. They fight for 50 wins. Another playoff appearance that might be CHI again. And they keep building. They either use that #1 and land the next right piece to replace Nene or they draft a young player and build that way.

But they do it under a top flight coach. Thats the next step they need.

[dckingsfan]

I don't see it as a better roster than last year - I think Wall has improved and that is the difference.

[FAH1223]

I don't see it as a better roster than last year - I think Wall has improved and that is the difference.

I guess Wall's improvement buys us... about 4-6 more wins?

We were 27-28 last year at this time after Nene's game winning dunk vs. the Pelicans.

33-23 now.

[hands11]

I don't see it as a better roster than last year - I think Wall has improved and that is the difference.

Well I would agree to some extent if you factor in how Randy used it.

PP and Otto where support to replace TAs three ball attempts.

I expected more of that. And more chances for Otto during the year with the starter and more with him taking corner 3s.

And I expected a some point they would get Webster going. He hasn't committed much to that either. No way Webby has fallen off so much that he can stop up catch and shoot corner 3s anymore.

And Beal not doing enough catch and shoot 3s is a sure sign that Randy hasn't worked it out by design.

No doubt losing TA hurt. They had that design well oiled with him taking 3s. But Randy should have been able to adjust give the players they have.

So sure. Remove TA and get nothing from Otto, Webster and less from Beal and there is a huge problem and the roster looks worse.
But then again, Rasual was one of the best 3 pt shooters this year and even Temple was lighting it up.

Regression to the mean? Change in design of the offense ? A combination ?

This team has issues but they start with Randy much more then the roster.

[wizfactor94]

I don't see it as a better roster than last year - I think Wall has improved and that is the difference.

Well I would agree to some extent if you factor in how Randy used it.

PP and Otto where support to replace TAs three ball attempts.

I expected more of that. And more chances for Otto during the year with the starter and more with him taking corner 3s.

And I expected a some point they would get Webster going. He hasn't committed much to that either. No way Webby has fallen off so much that he can stop up catch and shoot corner 3s anymore.

And Beal not doing enough catch and shoot 3s is a sure sign that Randy hasn't worked it out by design.

No doubt losing TA hurt. They had that design well oiled with him taking 3s. But Randy should have been able to adjust give the players they have.

So sure. Remove TA and get nothing from Otto, Webster and less from Beal and there is a huge problem and the roster looks worse.
But then again, Rasual was one of the best 3 pt shooters this year and even Temple was lighting it up.

Regression to the mean? Change in design of the offense ? A combination ?

This team has issues but they start with Randy much more then the roster.

Webster is shooting like 25% from the field and 17% from 3 point land when he gets more than 15 minutes a game

ITs over dude. Forget it.

Temple lighitng it up was all luck, so was Rasual........Wittman didnt do anything wrong in those guys cases or webster's, popovich would have probably already gotten rid of temple rasual and or webster...when you want to crap on a coach look at the bigger picture , their's bigger problems with this team.

Beal cant stay healthy, and sadly its killing the team, just like Durant being injured has its issues record wise.

This team just does not trust eachother, I don't think Nene and Gortat should both be on this team, and if they do, one shouldnt get many minutes,...has to be nene obviously because of the contract with Gortat...

You need shooters, wether its your fetish with D League superstars or a stretch 4 , or free agent SG , that plays a big part in many of the Wizards losses.

Im curious to see when/if they break out of this funk and put a run together.

[dckingsfan]

I don't see it as a better roster than last year - I think Wall has improved and that is the difference.

I guess Wall's improvement buys us... about 4-6 more wins?

We were 27-28 last year at this time after Nene's game winning dunk vs. the Pelicans.

33-23 now.

yep, he has been truly amazing until the migraines and ding injuries that have slowed him down... but the rest of the roster - meh. Without Wall this is a 30 win team.

[Dat2U]

I agree Dat... but then you have Gortat, Nene, Humphries, Seraphin, Gooden, Blair in the front court. In essence, that would leave you with Porter starting (I don't think he was ready at the beginning of the season but he is now) and Butler backing up Beal (but he is out). Basically, this team wasn't put together well and has boxed Wittman in (and that didn't take much).

Randy has boxed himself in.

This was never a title team this year.

PP not starting at PF was fine during the year to save him for the end of the year. Has he start the year there he would be even more warn down then he is now. And.. he didn't want to do it for exactly that reason. He as much as said so in an interview early in the year.

But there are tons of line ups they could have done thoughout to grow the talent and the team to get them to the end of the year.

Having PP off the bench throughout the year would have been fine. Same with Nene. The roster isn't perfect and I never expected it to be this year. That are still putting it together but Randy miss managed the line ups. And still is.

This is a better roster then last year ( short of TA being a near perfect fit at SF ) and its better then the year before. I expect next years roster to be either better or near the same but younger. We all know this was a transition year when TA left and Otto wasn't ready yet to step in that void. PP was a temp band-aid while that happens. But in add PP, they haven't seems to get the peaking order ... in order regarding PP, Nene and Gortat and I fell Wall is stuck in the cross fire.

That's why you see what looks like a mess. But a good coach would have worked it out.

Not sure if PP will return next year but if he does, he will be off the bench. And either way, having him here one year was good for Wall, Beal and Otto.

From here. They fight for 50 wins. Another playoff appearance that might be CHI again. And they keep building. They either use that #1 and land the next right piece to replace Nene or they draft a young player and build that way.

But they do it under a top flight coach. Thats the next step they need.

I didn't know Pierce was coach of the team? That's another problem when we allow guys, even if they are vets, to determine how and when they should be played. That's a coach's choice... not the player's.

He played the majority of the season with the Nets at PF ... and did damn well there ... top 50ish player in the league at PF last season. If anything is wearing him down, it's him chasing quicker wings around on the perimeter. He has no business trying to guard a LeBron or Durant at this stage. It's much easier for him to bang with bigger slower bigs that he can out-quick & out-skill offensively. And irregardless he's not playing more than 24-26 minutes a night.

You wanna save him... start resting him when we play 3 games in 4 days or 4 games in 5 days. I thought there have been opportunities for rest that weren't taken advantage of.

[Kanyewest]

Not a good couple of games for Paul Pierce. He really can't use the rest as an excuse from a fatigue standpoint given that he's had about a week off since the all star break. Although going against LeBron James will make you look worse than you really are. Still over the past couple of games he's allowed his defender to blow past him and get to the paint or allow open 3 point jumpers. It might be easier to swallow if Pierce was knocking down open 3s himself- then again with Beal out, no else had filled the void including Butler, Temple, Porter, and even Wall.

[Higga]

I like Pierce at PF. He just isn't quick/agile enough to play the 3 anymore. But we have a coach and GM who can't think outside the box at all.

Pierce is still okay I think as a 3rd or 4th option. Just can't rely on him to be THE guy, which was to be expected.

[nate33]

If Pierce plays the 4, then he should start at the 4. The big reason to play a stretch 4 is to increase spacing for Wall. It doesn't make sense for Pierce to play 4 on the 2nd unit.

A 9-man rotation. Start Wall, Beal, Porter, Pierce and Gortat. Bring Sessions, Butler, Humphries and Nene off the bench. I can understand waiting until Beal gets back before executing the strategy though.

[gtn130]

Pierce not having a huge positive impact is about the 300th most important issue the Wizards are facing. Pierce has pretty much been as expected.

Playing him at the 4 is fine, but good luck convincing Wittman that spacing the court and takings 3s is good.