Celtics vs Timberwolves Gamethread - Friday, January 25th

[darrendaye]

Celticfan42487, it does appear we're on opposite ends of the spectrum on this point. Which is fine, of course. And I can see you're point about wear and tear, particularly at his age. Maybe I'm not appreciating that enough. But, to me, the slasher is who Paul has always been and where I believe, he seperates himself as a star rather than solid player.

I also believe that the personality of a player doesn't change dramatically. I can't expect KG or Ray to suddenly seek contact regularly. That's been Pierce's MO for his career. This was not one of the things, at the time of the trades, that I wanted "adjusted" as a part of Paul's game. If anything, I wanted him to start cutting without the ball more, with the idea he would be more able to do that as the defense had two other top priorities to contend with.

[darrendaye]

Sorry, but one more concept I wanted to articulate on this. IMO, I appreciate the energy expenditure it takes to take the punishment on offense as a slasher and the effort Paul's putting forth on defense. My strategy, if I were coach, would be to reduce his minutes a bit to compensate for this situation and to bring in TA to assume the primary slasher role (which, to me, also means primary scorer role) and give Pierce his on-court rest by having him play off of Tony and become the perimeter oriented player he has been lately during that interval of the game.

[Datruth345]

i have said this before, and will say it again

i think tony is the best pure slasher on th eteam

[EvadedHavoc]

Where theres a KG theres a way....

[celticfan42487]

Sorry, but one more concept I wanted to articulate on this. IMO, I appreciate the energy expenditure it takes to take the punishment on offense as a slasher and the effort Paul's putting forth on defense. My strategy, if I were coach, would be to reduce his minutes a bit to compensate for this situation and to bring in TA to assume the primary slasher role (which, to me, also means primary scorer role) and give Pierce his on-court rest by having him play off of Tony and become the perimeter oriented player he has been lately during that interval of the game.

Well we agree on this point, I'm still hoping that TA, now with 2 games healthy played, will make up for Pierce's ability to not take as much punishment during the regular season with TA beign agressive off the bench.

Technically we should be 100% fine with this, but we don't have 3 all-stars right now just 2. So till we get a Ray Allen instead of Wally Z Pierce might have to pick up the slack like it's the playoffs.

That's actually what upset me the most this game, Tony came to play and did play... yet we still didn't have enough against the worst team to reduce Pierce's minutes.

I fully see and understand you're point too. In the back of my mind with my thinking I'm also considering maybe I shouldn't want Pierce to take a diffrent route in the regular season because this is the only time he has to practice for the playoffs when I want him driving to the hoop like a madman...

[DEEP3CL]

You guys got any news on KG's abdominal strain? I saw it ,didn't look that bad but those things hurt like hell.

[Rocky5000]

Good move, or good luck for us having KG on Telfair at the end of the game. Rondo couldn't stop him, but KG did. It just shows you how damn good Kevin is. He has some experience with Telfair from practicing in the summer so I wonder if he knows he tendencies.(Although you'd expect Rondo to know them the best of anyone.) Pierce had a good game despite struggling from the field, he's really taken on the role of distributor the last few games. I'm not sure if that's a good thing since we've been playing so poorly, but his assist numbers have been sky-high for him. I also think Tony's about ready to be unleashed, just like Paul said, after the all-star break we'll have the old Tony back. Telfair may be in the midst of a breakout this year. His stats have been much better and he's been able to maintain his good play past 2 months into the season. Unfortunately for him, Foye will be back soon and his minutes are likely to take a big dive. If nothing else, he'll have earned himself a marcus banks sized contract for next year.

[DelMonte West]

Someone who can read lips: Any way to get a transcript of KG's "post game comments"? I caught only some it, like "that's what I'm ****ing talking about" and the last part, "**** that ****".

All I could think of was Chuck Swirsky suddenly teleporting near Garnett (ala Nightcrawler) during his pseudo-seizure, going on a rant about how "classless" he was acting, and then teleporting away.

I come up with random bits of stuff like that all the time.

[darrendaye]

Good move, or good luck for us having KG on Telfair at the end of the game. Rondo couldn't stop him, but KG did. It just shows you how damn good Kevin is. He has some experience with Telfair from practicing in the summer so I wonder if he knows he tendencies.(Although you'd expect Rondo to know them the best of anyone.) Pierce had a good game despite struggling from the field, he's really taken on the role of distributor the last few games. I'm not sure if that's a good thing since we've been playing so poorly, but his assist numbers have been sky-high for him. I also think Tony's about ready to be unleashed, just like Paul said, after the all-star break we'll have the old Tony back. Telfair may be in the midst of a breakout this year. His stats have been much better and he's been able to maintain his good play past 2 months into the season. Unfortunately for him, Foye will be back soon and his minutes are likely to take a big dive. If nothing else, he'll have earned himself a marcus banks sized contract for next year.

Excellent point to bring out about Pierce. Though, I will say, there is a line between unselfishness passes and selfish ballhandling, at times. I'm surely not saying Pierce has crossed that line during this stretch, but, in the past he has had a tendancy to assume too much of that responsibility when others on the floor with him have better ability to distribute.

[Celtics_Champs]

Anybody know when follio updates? Comcast didnt replay this game.