meatball sub wrote:Paul George is an elite two way player in his prime. Pierce wasn't really a great defender until the Big 3 were formed, and I wouldn't have ever really considered him elite. Very good, but not great on defense in his best years during our contending years.
George isn't the scorer Pierce was, but he's close enough given how much better of a defender he is. If you add Hayward & George to this team that already has an elite scoring option in IT, that will extend all of their primes. Not to mention Horford as a 4th option is absurd.
You can't really defend that team very well. I'd give up the LA pick for that in a heartbeat, which hopefully allows us to keep Tatum & Jaylen. We still have the Nets pick next year to add to the future, but if you have a team that deep & then develop guys as talented Jaylen & Tatum behind them we're set up really nice for the next decade.
That's an unbelievable team. I wouldn't feel completely hopeless about going up against GS with that core. We'd at least have a shot with those guys, especially with Stevens as coach.
If all we're giving up is Bradley, Crowder, LA/Sac pick & a lesser pick and/or Rozier, I think we should roll the dice on that & hope George falls in love with the culture Brad has created here. Maybe he decides to stay longterm.
Pierce was a SIGNIFICANTLY more efficient scorer than George is, due to his ability to get to the stripe. Despite George having the advantage of the modern era taking more 3's, Pierce's career TS%, PER, FT rate, and offensive win shares are materially better than PG. Even with Pierce's decline phase, here's their stat lines:
PP - 20.7 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.4 SPG, 45%/37%/81%, 6.7 FTs/gm, 19.7 PER, 57% TS%, .157 WS/48
PG - 18.1 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 3.2 APG, 1.6 SPG, 43%/37%/85%, 4.3 FTs/gm, 18.5 PER, 56% TS%, .145 WS/48
Also, while I agree George is a better defender/rebounder, Pierce was quite strong himself. Part of why the Obie Celtics made the ECF was Pierce's defensive abilities.
The overall parallels are similar. They were both good enough to drag really flawed teams to the ECF. Then both struggled to adjust when the talent around them waned and got antsy. Pierce was ready to leave in 2007 if we hadn't gotten Allen & KG, just like George wants out of Indiana.
Anyone calling George clearly better than Pierce is splitting some serious hairs. They are about as similar as you could in terms of on-court impact. The good news is, that means adding George means you're adding a likely HOFer, and we need 2+ more of those guys to compete.
