Peak Carmelo >>> Peak Paul Pierce

[CTbasketball92]

Does anyone disagree with this?

[MintBerryCrunch]

As a scorer, but Pierce is more rounded, a better defender, a better leader, and a better teammate. For these reasons, give me Pierce.

[CTbasketball92]

As a scorer, but Pierce is more rounded, a better defender, a better leader, and a better teammate. For these reasons, give me Pierce.

The leader part was always interesting to me. I think it only began when Ray Allen and KG came and Rondo became an all star and the Celtics won the chip. How do people perceive Pierce if those guys don't show up?

Paul Pierce is more vocal though, which is something I've never noticed about melo.

[NBAGOAT]

I disagree with this. melo has the scoring skillset edge but there is no gap statswise at all. 28.7 56ts% vs 26.8 58.2ts%. pierce has the edge on defense and playmaking too as mint said.

[MintBerryCrunch]

The leader part was always interesting to me. I think it only began when Ray Allen and KG came and Rondo became an all star and the Celtics won the chip. How do people perceive Pierce if those guys don't show up?

Paul Pierce is more vocal though, which is something I've never noticed about melo.

Boston was trash immediately before Ray/KG, but Pierce was a solid leader for the team in the early to mid-2000s. He also showed strong leadership abilities after leaving Boston, particularly in his short time with the Wizards. I think Pierce grew into his leadership role as he aged (as many do). He was highly recruited even as an aging veteran with diminishing athleticism because of the leadership qualities. This is in contrast to Melo whose leadership has been questioned throughout most of his career. Melo was blamed for not sharing NY with Lin and as recent as last year people questioned how he would respond to Porzingis taking some spotlight. To Melo's credit, he seems to have embraced the emerging Porzingis without incident, but it shows something that people even had to question how he would respond.

[PP34Deuce]

Paul became a better leader when he didn't defer to Toine. The Celtics of the 2000-2004 were supposed to be Toines team. No one thought Paul would become the better player. He held back his game because of Toine.

Danny and Grousbeck did a bad job early on. The draft blunders piled up. Kedrick Brown, Gerald Green, etc....

They struggled at times with reliable PG's. KEnny Anderson was servicable but past his prime, Gary Payton experiment didn't work. Tony Delk was a shooter and chucker. The often injured Potapenko, Lafrentz, and Battie were his starting big men.

Pierce definitely optimized whatever was on that roster through the years. People will say the east sucked, but he still got them to the playoffs and more often than Melo, got out of the first round.

Melo is more talented...PP is talented with bigger hustle and I would pick PP in both their primes.

[StephHamann]

As a scorer, but Pierce is more rounded, a better defender, a better leader, and a better teammate. For these reasons, give me Pierce.

Pierce is also better in teammates

[PP34Deuce]

Boston was trash immediately before Ray/KG, but Pierce was a solid leader for the team in the early to mid-2000s. He also showed strong leadership abilities after leaving Boston, particularly in his short time with the Wizards. I think Pierce grew into his leadership role as he aged (as many do). He was highly recruited even as an aging veteran with diminishing athleticism because of the leadership qualities. This is in contrast to Melo whose leadership has been questioned throughout most of his career. Melo was blamed for not sharing NY with Lin and as recent as last year people questioned how he would respond to Porzingis taking some spotlight. To Melo's credit, he seems to have embraced the emerging Porzingis without incident, but it shows something that people even had to question how he would respond.

Melo is just a gamer. He's not going to want to control a team like Lebron, or be a loud mouth like Pierce and Garnett. He just wants to play ball and make a lot of money. Melo doesn't care about what his teammates do outside the court..He just wants to ball. I don't think people can fault Carmelo as a leader-It's just not his style.

[Smoke117]

Both are overrated in general...and no. Paul Pierce was also not a good leader before the big three either...in fact, he was considered a bit of a headache in those couple of years leading up to the big three. It's common knowledge that KG took over as leader almost immediately.

[PP34Deuce]

Pierce is also better in teammates

Pierce had some of the most talent deficient rosters back then. Before Ray and KG, he had..

PG- Tony Delk, Kenny Anderson(out his prime), Gary Payton, Marcus Banks
SG- Gerald Green (Very raw) Ricky Davis(Good player,better 6th man)
SF- Eric Williams (Scrappy tweener) Walter Mccarty (Athletic tweener) Wally Szerbiak (Out his prime) Kedrick Brown
PF- Lafrentz (Past his prime) Al Jefferson(Was not quite there yet) Toine(Only allstar caliber player at the time)
C- Vitaly Potapenko (Injury prone bruiser) Tony Battie (Athletic injury prone C)

Melo's had better potential players and overall players.

[FireDavidKahn]

Give me the guy who didn't fake a concussion because he thought the refs weren't giving him fouls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GidLEPzlRwE

[GimmeThat]

whoever started this thread, had too much of that hand checking rule Kool-aid.

[imdaman99]

Give me the guy who didn't fake a concussion because he thought the refs weren't giving him fouls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GidLEPzlRwE

As opposed to the guy who brought out his wheelchair act in the Finals?

[FireDavidKahn]

As opposed to the guy who brought out his wheelchair act in the Finals?

I'm not saying that Pierce is an angel, but what Melo did is like the GOAT pathetic event ever.

[Wally450]

Both are overrated in general...and no. Paul Pierce was also not a good leader before the big three either...in fact, he was considered a bit of a headache in those couple of years leading up to the big three. It's common knowledge that KG took over as leader almost immediately.

I'd say that KG was certainly the vocal leader of the team and defensive anchor, but I believe that Pierce was the real leader of the team. He just wasn't as vocal as KG, but showed his leadership skills through his play.