Paul Pierce is not clutch (from the free throw line)

[jackson_34]

Geez aside from the odd free throw miss I think he's pretty darn clutch. He grabbed a crucial rebound and tip-in plus foul, and then goes ahead and hits a three off a rayray miss to bring us back to one.

It's easy to pick on the free-throw because obviously they are supposed to be the easiest way to score, but I think if you look at the other superstars (Kobe, Lebron, Dwade, KG, etc...) you'd find cases of them missing crucial free throws too.

[biggs]

Easily one of the worst threads I have seen in many years as a Celtic Blogger.  Paul Pierce is clutch, end of sentence.  He has only this year improved his free throw shooting,from (I believe) a bit under 80%, to a strong 85%, so I would argue that that part of his game has never really been a strength. This is reactionary and ridiculous.

It was a good game.  Paul could have played better, but to blame the loss on his one miss and compare some old stats to say he's not "clutch" is just ridiculous.  Let's see you hit those shots. Maybe we could use you on this team, and then someone could hit a free throw when we need it.

[CoachBo]

Well, we had "Pierce is disinterested" after Game 1 and "Pierce is not clutch" after Game 4.

I suspect if we drop another game in the series, we can look forward to "Pierce devised several dubious mortgage instruments" next.

Amazing.

 

[Redz]

Perhaps re-title the thread "Paul Pierce Is Not Clutch 100% of the Time"

[rondohondo]

I wasn't saying that paul is not clutch ever , I am just talking about from the free throw line. I fixed the title of the post.

[johnnyrondo]

Funny thing is Pierce needed a short series more than anyone and with just two free throws he could be resting now for a week.

[BballTim]

  Check out Paul's clutch stats on 82games:

06/07 season, 79.6% ft, 90.7% in clutch situations.
07/08 season, 84.3% ft, 83.3% in clutch situations.
07/08 playoffs, 80.2% ft, 88% in clutch situations.
08/09 season, 83% ft, 85.1% in clutch situations.

  Seems pretty clutch to me.

[johnnyrondo]

  Check out Paul's clutch stats on 82games:

06/07 season, 79.6% ft, 90.7% in clutch situations.
07/08 season, 84.3% ft, 83.3% in clutch situations.
07/08 playoffs, 80.2% ft, 88% in clutch situations.
08/09 season, 83% ft, 85.1% in clutch situations.

  Seems pretty clutch to me.

TP

[KungPoweChicken]

  Check out Paul's clutch stats on 82games:

06/07 season, 79.6% ft, 90.7% in clutch situations.
07/08 season, 84.3% ft, 83.3% in clutch situations.
07/08 playoffs, 80.2% ft, 88% in clutch situations.
08/09 season, 83% ft, 85.1% in clutch situations.

  Seems pretty clutch to me.

TP

Stats are ridiculously silly when assessing how "clutch" a player is. With that being said, Pierce is not as "clutch" as people make him out to be on this board. This is just another case of delusional homerism. Pierce often chokes when the pressure is on. Anyone who has followed the Celtics since his career has started should know this.

[Reddo]

Second biggest disappointment about today's game is that the C's totally got away from their game at the end.  They ran the Pierce iso on the shoulder play  times in a row.  He came through twice and didn't 2 times.  That's a fine percentage of 50% but my problem with it was that, that was not what got us to that point. 

Allen and Rondo were far better options throughout the game and late so i just don't understand why we had to rely so heavily on Pierce at the end.  Rondo basically stopped penetrating at the end of the game and each overtimes and everyone knows that Rondo's penetration is critical to every single thing the Celtics do.

[guava_wrench]

  Check out Paul's clutch stats on 82games:

06/07 season, 79.6% ft, 90.7% in clutch situations.
07/08 season, 84.3% ft, 83.3% in clutch situations.
07/08 playoffs, 80.2% ft, 88% in clutch situations.
08/09 season, 83% ft, 85.1% in clutch situations.

  Seems pretty clutch to me.

TP

Stats are ridiculously silly when assessing how "clutch" a player is. With that being said, Pierce is not as "clutch" as people make him out to be on this board. This is just another case of delusional homerism. Pierce often chokes when the pressure is on. Anyone who has followed the Celtics since his career has started should know this.

Stats are much better than remembering a few games that stick in someone's mind while they forget all the games that disprove their point. If we pick out 2 games, we can "prove" anything.

[MBz]

I don't want to say Pierce isn't clutch, but my feeling is, at the end of the game today, the ball should have been in Rondo and Ray Allen's hands.  They were feeling it and running the team and they needed the ball.

[BballTim]

  Check out Paul's clutch stats on 82games:

06/07 season, 79.6% ft, 90.7% in clutch situations.
07/08 season, 84.3% ft, 83.3% in clutch situations.
07/08 playoffs, 80.2% ft, 88% in clutch situations.
08/09 season, 83% ft, 85.1% in clutch situations.

  Seems pretty clutch to me.

TP

Stats are ridiculously silly when assessing how "clutch" a player is. With that being said, Pierce is not as "clutch" as people make him out to be on this board. This is just another case of delusional homerism. Pierce often chokes when the pressure is on. Anyone who has followed the Celtics since his career has started should know this.

  You're right. When trying to judge how well Pierce shoots his free throws in late-game close situations, it's practically insane to rely on his actual ft percentage in those situations. It makes much more sense to list a few misses that you can recall over the years. I'd also agree that claiming that someone who makes about 86% of his late game free throws is "clutch" is clearly blind homerism, as is any claims that someone who hits a higher percentage of his fts in the clutch than he normally does isn't a choker.

  More useless stats/perspective: If Pierce hit about 85% of his clutch stats (which would probably put him in the top 20% of the league in that category) he'd still be missing, on average, 1 ft for every 6 shots, so every 3rd time he goes to the line to shoot 2 he misses 1. Since he's among the league leaders in clutch free throw attempts, it's not really surprising that people can recall seeing Paul miss clutch shots.

[KungPoweChicken]

  Check out Paul's clutch stats on 82games:

06/07 season, 79.6% ft, 90.7% in clutch situations.
07/08 season, 84.3% ft, 83.3% in clutch situations.
07/08 playoffs, 80.2% ft, 88% in clutch situations.
08/09 season, 83% ft, 85.1% in clutch situations.

  Seems pretty clutch to me.

TP

Stats are ridiculously silly when assessing how "clutch" a player is. With that being said, Pierce is not as "clutch" as people make him out to be on this board. This is just another case of delusional homerism. Pierce often chokes when the pressure is on. Anyone who has followed the Celtics since his career has started should know this.

  You're right. When trying to judge how well Pierce shoots his free throws in late-game close situations, it's practically insane to rely on his actual ft percentage in those situations. It makes much more sense to list a few misses that you can recall over the years. I'd also agree that claiming that someone who makes about 86% of his late game free throws is "clutch" is clearly blind homerism, as is any claims that someone who hits a higher percentage of his fts in the clutch than he normally does isn't a choker.

  More useless stats/perspective: If Pierce hit about 85% of his clutch stats (which would probably put him in the top 20% of the league in that category) he'd still be missing, on average, 1 ft for every 6 shots, so every 3rd time he goes to the line to shoot 2 he misses 1. Since he's among the league leaders in clutch free throw attempts, it's not really surprising that people can recall seeing Paul miss clutch shots.

Okay, so the free throw percentages are some what reliable. But who dictates what "clutch" situation is? And I disagree that Pierce is "clutch" in general. Take a game like today. Pierce turned the ball over in crucial situations, he played poor defense when the game was on the line, and he stagnated the offense. So what if he would have actually hit that "clutch" free throw at the end of the game. He didn't deliver on all the plays that needed to be delivered on before that. If he hit that one free throw, does that make up for all of his sloppy play before that and make him a "clutch" performer? Now, slow down there, I already know what you're thinking. You're saying, yesterday's game was an aberration for Pierce. But the sad truth is that yesterday's game was not an aberration for Pierce. The thought that Pierce hustles and gives one hundred percent is a common misconception. Like another poster said in some other thread, when Pierce turns the ball over, ninety percent of the time he will fake an injury or argue with the official. When the chips are down, Pierce makes more mistakes than the other elite players in this league.

[Scottie]

at least not at the free throw line.

2002 ECF Game 4 against NJ under 1 minute left misses clutch free throws to lose the game and swing the momentum to NJ

2009 - Game 1 and 4 against Chi, Misses clutch free throws to give Chicago life


I have a feeling there are a few more that I am forgetting about , but I definitely don't want PP at the line with the game on the line....

Hmmm...two instances you can recall in what, eight seasons?

You make such a compelling argument