doclinkin wrote:I dunno. Paul Pierce benefits by playing next to KG a ton. Up 'til now he always put up numbers but went nowhere on a team where he was the primary option. In a weak East his teams always drafted in the Lottery. Truth is his success this year doesn't change my opinion of him as much as it does cement my opinion that Garnett is as good as I always figured he was.
Are you kidding me? Pierce took the Celtics to four consecutive playoff appearances with shyt for teammates. Here is a list of each of the past 6 seasons, his top 4 teammates by minutes played, and the result
2001/02 - Walker, K.Anderson, T.Battie, E.Williams - Lost EC Finals 4-2

2002/03 - Walker, Williams, W.McCarty, T.Delk - Lost in 2nd round 4-0
2003/04 - Blount, Jiri Welsh, W.McCarty, M.James - Lost in 1st round 4-0 (Jiri freaking Welsch?)
2004/05 - Blount, R.Davis, R.LaFrentz, G.Payton - Lost in 1st round 4-3
2005/06 - D.West, R.Davis, R.LaFrentz, R.Gomez - missed playoffs (37 wins)
2006-07 - doesn't matter. He missed 35 games early in the season and then they went into tank mode
Look at those teams! Not only is there not a single all-star among them (except Walker, and he didn't deserve it), but there is no continuity either. The guy hasn't had a single player rank among the top 5 in team minutes played for more than 2 consecutive years. It's a freakin' miracle that Pierce managed to drag those woeful teams to the playoffs. They even made it to the EC Finals once.
Hell, after looking this up, I may have to re-rank Pierce into the top 8-10. The guy is seriously underrated. All he does is fill up the box score with exceptional efficiency and carry a woeful bunch of NBA castoffs to the playoffs every year. When he finally got help, he dialed back his offensive game a bit and became one of the better perimeter defenders in the league.