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Pierce's statistics seem good early on in the season. Especially, with rebounding the ball more. Perhaps, he's motivated to be a MVP candidate assuming Boston's among the top teams in the standings by the mid point. While Rondo unsurprisingly is showing signs of improvements namely in his assists totals at the end of games. Perhaps, he's motivated to be an All-Star (reserve) candidate.

What more do you think each player, Pierce and Rondo, must do to make their pushes a reality? For Pierce, to seriously be mentioned in MVP talk and Rondo to have his name considered on a short list of names as eastern conference All-Star reserves.

Pierce needs to score more and fill the stat sheet better. There's no way he'll be a candidate averaging like 18pts 7reb 4assists 1stl. Even though he MAY be among the best, the "experts" that vote only care for statistical supremacy.

It's still very early to talk about who should be in the ALL-STAR. I think the big 3 will all go again that's why I don't see Rondo going in. You really have to be the SUPERSTAR to get in. Who is going to vote for Rondo when we have some decent guards on the east.

Paul Pierce has a trend of having high rebounding #'s in Nov then having them drop down throughout the season. btw Paul really needs to start shooting a better FG% he has been off since the Cleveland game.

p-dub is going to have to average at least 25 to get serious mvp consideration. its sad but true fat stats talk. he will just repeat as finals mvp as a consolation prize.

If Cleveland can finally win 55 games this year, it will be irrelevant. Lebron should already be a two-time MVP and working on his third.

I see the big 3 in the Allstar game, but I don't know about Rondo. I can't see us having 4 allstars, although I'd love to see that.

Just my quick rundown of potential allstars.

G - Iverson, Joe Johnson, Redd, Ray Allen, D-Wade, Iguodala, VC, Rondo

F - KG, PP, Lebron, Rasheed, Brand, Granger, Turkoglu

C - Bosh, Howard

As you can see, the East guards are stacked. Especially with Iverson coming over, it'll be very very hard for Rondo to crack that group.

vct33 wrote:If Cleveland can finally win 55 games this year, it will be irrelevant. Lebron should already be a two-time MVP and working on his third.

Yeah, Lebron should finally win his first MVP this year. If anyone else gets it, it's BS. Lebron's been the best player in the league for at least 2 years.

I think the addition of Iverson to the east probably ruined any little chance Rondo might have had prior to.

Triple M wrote:Paul Pierce has a trend of having high rebounding #'s in Nov then having them drop down throughout the season. btw Paul really needs to start shooting a better FG% he has been off since the Cleveland game.

Pierce sprained his hand in the Houston game.

I noticed Pierce struggled a lot in the preseason with his shooting as well. They're going to need his shooting against a team like Detroit, so I hope it's just a few bad games. His +- has been very good though. I don't think Rondo will make the all-star game this year, but he's still young so I could see it happening sometime soon. He hasn't been scoring a great deal when he has put up great assist numbers, so you need more than just assists to become an all-star.

I love this: In the pregame last night Tommy said Rondo was "a potential hall of famer."

Celtsfan1980 wrote:I noticed Pierce struggled a lot in the preseason with his shooting as well. They're going to need his shooting against a team like Detroit, so I hope it's just a few bad games. His +- has been very good though. I don't think Rondo will make the all-star game this year, but he's still young so I could see it happening sometime soon. He hasn't been scoring a great deal when he has put up great assist numbers, so you need more than just assists to become an all-star.

Pierce shot poorly in the last 2 preseason games, but other then that he was pretty good.

If Rondo wants to be an all-star he needs to stop passing up wide open buckets. The assists are as much on his teammates as they are on him.

I think it's safe to say that Wade and Iverson will likely be the top vote-getters among the east guards.

I'm uncertain of whether or not Arenas will return by mid season, so his absence could impact the decision of the head coaches naming the reserves in the east besides individual statistics.

I see Calderon, Andre Miller, TJ Ford and Maurice Williams as Rondo's prime competition with Rose as another possibility. Others such as Devin Harris, Felton, Bibby and Ridnour are long shots. It may vary depending on everyone's record in the standings.

Rondo CAN NOT shoot 49% from FT if he wants to be in games at the end, let alone and All-star...forget HoF....he's shown ZERO improvement in his two weakest areas thus far, he better get on it if he wants to be an elite PG...

Rondo has played that well yet..

Guys like T.J. Ford and Mo Williams statistically have outplayed him - just to name a few off the top of my head. He needs to step it up a few notches - but I think he can.

Pete

billfromBoston wrote:Rondo CAN NOT shoot 49% from FT if he wants to be in games at the end, let alone and All-star...forget HoF....he's shown ZERO improvement in his two weakest areas thus far, he better get on it if he wants to be an elite PG...

I agree 100%, in the last 3 games, he hasn't hit 1 FT.(0-5) His goal was to be among the league leaders in FTA, but maybe he's second guessing that after the soreness set in. Even if he does the lead the league, he should really get that average up.

tombattor wrote:

vct33 wrote:If Cleveland can finally win 55 games this year, it will be irrelevant. Lebron should already be a two-time MVP and working on his third.

Yeah, Lebron should finally win his first MVP this year. If anyone else gets it, it's BS. Lebron's been the best player in the league for at least 2 years.

A guy called Chris Paul may say hi this year..

GuyClinch wrote:Rondo has played that well yet..

Guys like T.J. Ford and Mo Williams statistically have outplayed him - just to name a few off the top of my head. He needs to step it up a few notches - but I think he can.

Pete

Actually he's really only had one bad game and he's looked good for the most part otherwise. I thought Williams was 4-for-10 but I don't remember his other stats. He's looked very good for the last 2 games, but he'll never satisfy some people.