Paul Pierce: Kobe has nothing on me!

[air gordon]

Well I mean Kobe has Odom and Kwame who are better shotblockers than Blount. But I agree Pierce DOES need to stfu. But the only thing is, WTF is everyone talking about? This is Pierce saying he should be on the All Defensive First Team, why is everyone bringing up Kobe?

He's not talking about Odom & Kwame...lol.

Pierce is talking about when Kobe made all defensive teams, which is when Shaq was on the Lakers. Now that Shaq is gone, Kobe doesn't even make the 2nd team.

I first read this when Pippen made a statement about who should be DPOY and it's popped up again a few times. The theory is that you can ride your man hard if you have an monster paint defenders like SAS or Detroit.

They've done some research and it seems to be true for some players. For instance Tayshaun Prince has very good defensive ratings until Wallace & Sheed take their break (and he's usually in still), then his defensive ratings go down dramatically...although it's not very good proof because Wallace & Sheed barely took any time off last year so there's not a lot of data to work with. It could have been coincidence.

Delambert and Camby might have good stats, but the reality is, for whatever reason, the Sixers and Nuggets do not protect the paint all that well. The best teams at protecting the paint last year were SAS, Detroit, and the Bulls.

And in case you're wondering, a lot of people are suspicious why Chris Duhon is the #1 rated defensive Point Guard last year and Ben Gordon one of the highest rated SGs. And the Bulls do use that strategy of putting a hand in their guy's face and forcing him to drive to the basket...where he meets with Curry-Chandler-Davis. And while Curry might not be the best guy to defend other big men, he has no problem getting his hand up in front of some 6'1" point guard trying to drive into his area.

great post

Cant all you bandwagon/real Kobe fans put all KB8 related talk in one thread for once?

There's a damn thread everyday on Kobe vs someone or Kobe did that, Kobe is having a child, Kobe got a new car, Kobe prefers crab over lobsters.
You could have at least had some common sense to post it in the Kobe vs Pierce thread, air gordon where are you? Laughing

hard to keep track of when there are so many of these type of threads being made. that being said...c'mon, kids.

[putodelagoa]

Well... Pierce is definitely backing up his cocky claims with the best play of his career . Welcome back to relevance, and to the "who's the best SG" talks .
Great play in a loosing effort tonight...

[air gordon]

26.9ppg
49.6fg%
79.4ft%
9.1rpg
4.3apg
1.4spg

i agree. very impressive

[putodelagoa]

The most impressive stat is the field goal %, as well as his three point accuracy. Thank God Nenê went down, preventing the Celtics from getting 2 underachievers in trade for Pierce... I hope he keeps it up, and that Dickau wakes up one morning only to realize he's been possessed by John Stockton's spirit (wishfull thinking...)

[1CenT]

its funny, 27/9/4 with 50% fg 79% ft reminds me of like a offensive center's stats

[Andrew]

Strangely enough, they're kind of like Amare's numbers last year, though he had fewer assists and averaged 1.6 blocks while Pierce is averaging 1.4 steals per game. Amare also connected on 56% of his shots. That said, I anticipate when Amare returns he'll get double digits in rebounding while Pierce's numbers on the boards will most likely drop back a bit as the season progresses.

[John WB]

That is if he's unaffected by the surgery. For his and the Suns' sake I hope he is.

[Matt]

They've done some research and it seems to be true for some players. For instance Tayshaun Prince has very good defensive ratings until Wallace & Sheed take their break (and he's usually in still), then his defensive ratings go down dramatically...although it's not very good proof because Wallace & Sheed barely took any time off last year so there's not a lot of data to work with. It could have been coincidence.

Delambert and Camby might have good stats, but the reality is, for whatever reason, the Sixers and Nuggets do not protect the paint all that well. The best teams at protecting the paint last year were SAS, Detroit, and the Bulls.

And in case you're wondering, a lot of people are suspicious why Chris Duhon is the #1 rated defensive Point Guard last year and Ben Gordon one of the highest rated SGs. And the Bulls do use that strategy of putting a hand in their guy's face and forcing him to drive to the basket...where he meets with Curry-Chandler-Davis. And while Curry might not be the best guy to defend other big men, he has no problem getting his hand up in front of some 6'1" point guard trying to drive into his area.

solid points, but i think that's the strategy of every team, force the guards into the big men, who are in better position to block a shot as they face the offensive guy head on (the size advantage doesn't hurt either). That being said, isn't a guy a good defender if he forces his man where he doesn't want to go i.e into the middle to await a shot blocker?

[air gordon]

The most impressive stat is the field goal %, as well as his three point accuracy. Thank God Nenê went down, preventing the Celtics from getting 2 underachievers in trade for Pierce... I hope he keeps it up, and that Dickau wakes up one morning only to realize he's been possessed by John Stockton's spirit (wishfull thinking...)

ive noticed pierce has cut down on those step back 3pters.

pierce arguably is playing like the best SG in the league right now. he has the highest FG% of all the top scorers
highest amongst guards in rebounds
scoring more points then wade
dishing out more assits then bryant
only A.I, james, wade go to the FT line more then him

[1CenT]

28 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals, 8/15 FG, another strong game,
right now average is 27 points, 9 boards, ~4.5assists, and 1.6 steals, shooting 50% from the field, 40% from 3's

watched him today against the knicks, he attacks slowly, gets into the lane, since hes so big and strong, he just gets right towards the basket and gets the calls, he didn't force any 3's like he used to (sumtimes it was spectacular back then) , had like ~4-5 midrange challenged jumpers, everything else were either semi open jumpshots or drives towards the basket... very patient and unselfish, reminds me of lebron james but not as explosive..

hes rebounding isn't as impressive as the numbers suggest, he is really just getting everyboard his big's don't get, not comparable to say the 9 rebounds yao ming grabs ( which usually are in traffic over other big guys )

[John WB]

hes rebounding isn't as impressive as the numbers suggest, he is really just getting everyboard his big's don't get, not comparable to say the 9 rebounds yao ming grabs ( which usually are in traffic over other big guys )

Well, it's not really fair to say that, because then you get into disecting how every player does everything.

[fgrep15]

Well so far this season Pierce has been better than Kobe, though Kobe is a better player, you can't argue against Pierce's production, though neither team is winning.

hes rebounding isn't as impressive as the numbers suggest, he is really just getting everyboard his big's don't get, not comparable to say the 9 rebounds yao ming grabs ( which usually are in traffic over other big guys )

The team isn't that good a rebounding team. The big's that play the most minutes, Raef and Blount are both weak rebounders. On a normal rebounding team, he'd grab 6-7 rebounds. It's kinda like how Jefferson is grabbing 9 RPG on the Nets, but their starting C grabs 5, Cliff is horrific on the glass, and Jackson and Collins are bad. On a normal team, Jefferson is in the 5-6 range.

solid points, but i think that's the strategy of every team, force the guards into the big men, who are in better position to block a shot as they face the offensive guy head on (the size advantage doesn't hurt either). That being said, isn't a guy a good defender if he forces his man where he doesn't want to go i.e into the middle to await a shot blocker?

If you have a big who doesn't rotate and isn't quick enough to get to the spot, it does nothing to force the guy to the shot blockers. Pierce would improve defensively with a shot blocker, everyone does, but he won't be better than Kobe. Kobe doesn't have a shot blocker either right now and is playing much better defense. Pierce is playing below average defense right now, with a shot blocker he becomes average, maybe above average. Kobe is playing very good defense right now, with a shot blocker, he becomes an All-Defensive defender.

[beau_boy04]

when does Boston plays LA? I wanna see them go one on one ill be fun

[MC Hao]

yeah i wanna see that too, paul would so kill the rapist.