Pierce's role on the Celtics in comparison to .....

[JordansBulls]

Pierce's role on the Celtics in comparison to Pippen's role on the 90's Bulls, Mchale's role on the 80's Celtics, Dr J role on the 80's Sixers, and Kobe's role on the 3 peat Lakers.

How would you rank the importance of each of those players as far as 2nd fiddles are concerned?

[Kaykoose]

Pierce might not be the best player on his team, but he is most definitely the go-to guy for them....

[a-rod]

Pierce's role on the Celtics in comparison to Pippen's role on the 90's Bulls, Mchale's role on the 80's Celtics, Dr J role on the 80's Sixers, and Kobe's role on the 3 peat Lakers.

How would you rank the importance of each of those players as far as 2nd fiddles are concerned?

Mchale's role on the 80's Celtics....

[tsherkin]

Hmm...

McHale was the go-to low post scorer whenever Bird wasn't on the floor and often even when he was but he was far from the first option on the team.

The Celtics goto Garnett, Allen and Pierce with similar frequency in terms of shot attempts but goto Garnett and Pierce with similar frequency in terms of total possessions, as well.

Garnett's clearly the first option on the squad though, he plays 3 or 4 fewer minutes per game than Pierce and still gets about as many touches in a given game.

And on the Celtics of old, Parish was more of an afterthought even though he was a fairly high-volume scorer for a 3rd banana. He got a lot of offensive boards, got a lot of short-kick mid-range Js and was an important outlet passer but he wasn't a huge focus.

That said, McHale began his career as a bench player, getting a little more than half as many shots as Parish, then up to about 2/3ds. By '84, he was drawing near to the number of touches Parish was receiving but still coming off the bench and then in '85 and onward as Parish began to diminish as McHale rose, he took over a steadily increasing role. He didn't become the starter at the 4 until the 85-86 season, though.

So it's a tougher call.

But I guess if you look at the late 80s or look at the TYPE of touches McHale received, then you could say Pierce equates, but I think he's a lot more prominent than was McHale for the bulk of Kevin's Boston career.

[JordansBulls]

Hmm...

McHale was the go-to low post scorer whenever Bird wasn't on the floor and often even when he was but he was far from the first option on the team.

The Celtics goto Garnett, Allen and Pierce with similar frequency in terms of shot attempts but goto Garnett and Pierce with similar frequency in terms of total possessions, as well.

Garnett's clearly the first option on the squad though, he plays 3 or 4 fewer minutes per game than Pierce and still gets about as many touches in a given game.

And on the Celtics of old, Parish was more of an afterthought even though he was a fairly high-volume scorer for a 3rd banana. He got a lot of offensive boards, got a lot of short-kick mid-range Js and was an important outlet passer but he wasn't a huge focus.

That said, McHale began his career as a bench player, getting a little more than half as many shots as Parish, then up to about 2/3ds. By '84, he was drawing near to the number of touches Parish was receiving but still coming off the bench and then in '85 and onward as Parish began to diminish as McHale rose, he took over a steadily increasing role. He didn't become the starter at the 4 until the 85-86 season, though.

So it's a tougher call.

But I guess if you look at the late 80s or look at the TYPE of touches McHale received, then you could say Pierce equates, but I think he's a lot more prominent than was McHale for the bulk of Kevin's Boston career.

How would you consider the roles of Pippen on the Bulls, Dr J on the Sixers and Kobe on the Lakers as well.

[tsherkin]

-= original quote snipped =-



How would you consider the roles of Pippen on the Bulls, Dr J on the Sixers and Kobe on the Lakers as well.

Pippen was a facilitator and the second scorer on the team.

Pierce is similar, I guess; he guards a lot of the significant wing scorers, he scores a lot (though he's actually leading the team in PPG and FGA/g by small margins over Garnett)... but yeah, Pierce is approaching 5 apg and only Rondo (at 5.0 on the money) is ahead of him.

I suppose he's similar to Pippen but really, Pippen was The Other Scorer on the Bulls, alongside MJ and that's really not the case. Pippen was the guy who had to aggressively look for his shot because no one else that wasn't named Jordan could really do it on a regular basis and that's not true. He's closer to Jordan's role, with Garnett as the Pippen, frankly.

Dr. J is a much closer comparison.

He was an aggressive wing scorer playing alongside a significant big, splitting shots with a similar level of parity with Moses as the Pierce/KG dynamic and similarly being a more prolific passer. And he had Toney being a slightly more prolific passer just as is Rondo for the Celtics.

I think the Dr. J comparison is a lot closer to Pierce's role on Boston now.

[conleyorbust]

I think there are more sets in the half court that are started off by whatever mismatches Garnett can create. He's probably the most gifted passer on the team. Pierce is definitely the most inventive and accomplished one on one scorer on the team, a great option to go to when a play breaks down because he is such an effective iso scorer.

Paul has really adapted to Garnett more than vise versa. The offense looks a lot like you'd expect an offense built around KG to look, a lot of passing and movement. Pierce gives it that extra dimension though.

[Datruth345]

Pippen to me, as i am not familiar with dr. j's role on the sixers

playing all-nba defense, he is a proven premier scorer on any given night it could be 30, and has proven this season that with worthy teammates, he is a play maker that influences the outcome of the game. he had no one in years past he could trust to make plays, so in order to win, he had to force some things and was not looked at as a playmaker, but that hasnt been the case this season

[Doctor MJ]

Pierce's role on the Celtics in comparison to Pippen's role on the 90's Bulls, Mchale's role on the 80's Celtics, Dr J role on the 80's Sixers, and Kobe's role on the 3 peat Lakers.

How would you rank the importance of each of those players as far as 2nd fiddles are concerned?

Well ranking the other 4:

1. Erving
2. Kobe
3. Pippen
4. McHale

Pierce I'm still considering. I had always considered him solidly pegged as "All-Star" which is a notch below "Hall of Famer" in my book. I then felt for the first half of the year that he was clearly not only the #2 guy on the Celtics, but further from #1 than #3. However, the way they played without KG, I'm not sure. I actually have Pierce ahead of KG in my MVP ranking at this piont.

What I really am looking forward to seeing is how Pierce and KG do in the playoffs.