I'll say it again, we need Pierce off the bench

[CelticsFanNC]

 With Rondo doing most of the ball handling it takes away much of what has made Paul Pierce so great.  These days he spends much of his time standing around at the 3pt line waiting for Rondo to create something rather then with the ball in his hands creating for himself and others.  He has been relegated to primarily being a spot up shooter when Rondo is running the offense and thats not Paul Pierce's strong suite although he is perfectly capable in that role.

  Making Pierce a super sixth man playing his 30+ minutes and still finishing games makes too much sense to me to not give it a good long look.

Why?


Pierce is getting better looks playing with Rondo.  He is allowing Pierce to score without spending as much energy creating his own shot. 

  Because NO ONE in the NBA that comes off the bench and would be facing Paul Pierce head to head has a prayer of guarding him.  That fact means he would expend less energy then he does now trying to guard guys like LBJ/Carmelo who are younger, faster, bigger and can jump over his head.  He would no longer be asked to guard the opposing teams best player for the entire game which would conserve his energy to guard them in the 4th quarter. 

So instead the Celtics put an inferior player out there to allow those players to get off to a hot start and not waste as much energy having to guard a player like Pierce.


Pierce comes in and has to face a Lebron or Melo on fire (because they are going to be playing close to 40 minutes a game)

  Asking Paul Pierce to continue to guard opposing teams best players for 30+ minutes AND be a factor on the offensive end is asking too much of him.  I think that has been proven to be pretty obvious.  He can do it one night but cannot do it over the course of a long season or long playoff run.  Thats the point.  Time marches on even if we are in denial about it.  KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are not the players they were three seasons ago.  They can be from time to time but they cannot sustain it.  One way of possibly helping them sustain it to a certain extent is to take some of the load off of their shoulders.  

Just adding what we can get from the bottom of the heap Free Agents or guys on their last legs wont get it done anymore and we just don't have a lot of other options this off season IMO.

[wdleehi]

 With Rondo doing most of the ball handling it takes away much of what has made Paul Pierce so great.  These days he spends much of his time standing around at the 3pt line waiting for Rondo to create something rather then with the ball in his hands creating for himself and others.  He has been relegated to primarily being a spot up shooter when Rondo is running the offense and thats not Paul Pierce's strong suite although he is perfectly capable in that role.

  Making Pierce a super sixth man playing his 30+ minutes and still finishing games makes too much sense to me to not give it a good long look.

Why?


Pierce is getting better looks playing with Rondo.  He is allowing Pierce to score without spending as much energy creating his own shot. 

  Because NO ONE in the NBA that comes off the bench and would be facing Paul Pierce head to head has a prayer of guarding him.  That fact means he would expend less energy then he does now trying to guard guys like LBJ/Carmelo who are younger, faster, bigger and can jump over his head.  He would no longer be asked to guard the opposing teams best player for the entire game which would conserve his energy to guard them in the 4th quarter. 

So instead the Celtics put an inferior player out there to allow those players to get off to a hot start and not waste as much energy having to guard a player like Pierce.


Pierce comes in and has to face a Lebron or Melo on fire (because they are going to be playing close to 40 minutes a game)

  Asking Paul Pierce to continue to guard opposing teams best players for 30+ minutes AND be a factor on the offensive end is asking too much of him.  I think that has been proven to be pretty obvious.  He can do it one night but cannot do it over the course of a long season or long playoff run.  Thats the point.  Time marches on even if we are in denial about it.  KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are not the players they were three seasons ago.  They can be from time to time but they cannot sustain it.  One way of possibly helping them sustain it to a certain extent is to take some of the load off of their shoulders.  

Just adding what we can get from the bottom of the heap Free Agents or guys on their last legs wont get it done anymore and we just don't have a lot of other options this off season IMO.

If it is to much for Pierce, then the team is done. 



He needs help.  He needs Green to step up and do something off the bench to earn SF minutes.  And if Green can't they need to trade him and get someone that can help. 


If he is not good enough to earn minutes off the bench, he is not good enough to start. 

[LooseCannon]

When Pierce signed his current contract, didn't he say he expected to be coming off the bench by the end of it?

[Chris]

When Pierce signed his current contract, didn't he say he expected to be coming off the bench by the end of it?

That's fine.  This is the second year of it. 

When he is no longer an All-Star, and arguably the best player on the team, then he can come off the bench.

[CelticsFanNC]

 With Rondo doing most of the ball handling it takes away much of what has made Paul Pierce so great.  These days he spends much of his time standing around at the 3pt line waiting for Rondo to create something rather then with the ball in his hands creating for himself and others.  He has been relegated to primarily being a spot up shooter when Rondo is running the offense and thats not Paul Pierce's strong suite although he is perfectly capable in that role.

  Making Pierce a super sixth man playing his 30+ minutes and still finishing games makes too much sense to me to not give it a good long look.

Why?


Pierce is getting better looks playing with Rondo.  He is allowing Pierce to score without spending as much energy creating his own shot. 

  Because NO ONE in the NBA that comes off the bench and would be facing Paul Pierce head to head has a prayer of guarding him.  That fact means he would expend less energy then he does now trying to guard guys like LBJ/Carmelo who are younger, faster, bigger and can jump over his head.  He would no longer be asked to guard the opposing teams best player for the entire game which would conserve his energy to guard them in the 4th quarter. 

So instead the Celtics put an inferior player out there to allow those players to get off to a hot start and not waste as much energy having to guard a player like Pierce.


Pierce comes in and has to face a Lebron or Melo on fire (because they are going to be playing close to 40 minutes a game)

  Asking Paul Pierce to continue to guard opposing teams best players for 30+ minutes AND be a factor on the offensive end is asking too much of him.  I think that has been proven to be pretty obvious.  He can do it one night but cannot do it over the course of a long season or long playoff run.  Thats the point.  Time marches on even if we are in denial about it.  KG, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are not the players they were three seasons ago.  They can be from time to time but they cannot sustain it.  One way of possibly helping them sustain it to a certain extent is to take some of the load off of their shoulders.  

Just adding what we can get from the bottom of the heap Free Agents or guys on their last legs wont get it done anymore and we just don't have a lot of other options this off season IMO.

If it is to much for Pierce, then the team is done. 



He needs help.  He needs Green to step up and do something off the bench to earn SF minutes.  And if Green can't they need to trade him and get someone that can help. 


If he is not good enough to earn minutes off the bench, he is not good enough to start. 

  Thats kind of the issue going forward for this team.  Listen I don't like it anymore then you do.  This team needs to at very least switch gears.

  Barring an unforeseen major over haul we will come back with basically the same core next season.  If that ends up being the case then this teams focus needs to at least partially go away from the Big Three and their skill sets moving towards Rajon Rondo and his skill set.  I know that bothers the heck out of the Rondo detractors so I apologize but thats the way I see it. 

  They've got to play at a faster tempo to maximize Rondo's skill set.  They need to add some speed to the equation and it probably needs to be in the starting line up.  Unless Robert Parish circa 1983 is on the horizon beating opposing center up and down the court all game long the only option seems to be bringing one of the Big Three off the bench.

  Like I said I hope to be proven wrong but I don't think I will be.  The competition is just too fast, can jump too high and is too strong for our aging warriors to handle in the way they were able to handle them in the past. 

[ScoobyDoo]

Well, he wasn't toast offensively, he did do ok there. But he was pretty much toast defensively. Wade abused Ray this year.

I want us to get faster, bigger on the boards and more athletic. I would prefer to just move Ray to the bench, keep Pierce starting, at OG, and start Jeff Green at SF.

I think we need a new rotation that is a little bigger, faster and stronger than what we put on the floor last year.

KG, Green and Pierce sounds good to me.

But I also think that Green, with Rondo and on an uptempo team, will become a 15-20 point, and 6-8 rebound guy provided he plays starter minutes - his defensive aggression and effectiveness also improved as the Miami series wore on - give him a full camp and season.

But I also thought Kendrick Perkins would become a starting NBA center from day 1, eventually settling in at around 10 & 8 with a few blocks a game.

Look, get me even Rip Hamilton and I'll stop talking about trying to incorporate Green so much into the starting lineup. We need someone who is at least somewhat younger than Ray at his position moving forward.

KG / Landry
Pierce / Green
Rip / Ray
Rondo / DWest

I can live with that.