They don’t call Paul Pierce The Truth for no reason.
Not necessarily known as a harsh off-court personality, Pierce has no qualms telling it like it is. And nothing has changed since he was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Brooklyn Nets.
Pushing 36, Pierce creates no delusions about the part he’ll play in Brooklyn. Next to so many other big names, a few of which are still in their prime, Pierce knows the Nets expect him to be more of a complementary piece. In fact, Pierce went as far as to refer to himself as a “glorified role player,” according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe:
“There will definitely be less pressure on me on this ball club than there was in Boston,” Pierce said. “In Boston, I was the No. 1 primary option. Here we have so many options. We have young All-Stars on this team. My job is to be more of a glorified role player, as Doc [Rivers] used to always say, with the guys we have.
“With my abilities to do so many things, there’s going to be nights where I’m not going to score a bunch of points. I can do other things to help this club win. With the combination of these guys, we’re going to take pressure off each other.”
No use ignoring the obvious, right? This isn’t 10 years ago, and this most certainly isn’t the Celtics. Pierce isn’t in Beantown anymore. The pressure isn’t going to be what it was.
For starters, the Nets are deeper than the Celtics have been over these last couple years. On any given night, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, Andrei Kirilenko, Andray Blatche and Kevin Garnett could have it going. Pierce will have his games too, the ones that remind us he’s a 10-time All-Star, but never again will it be like it was. It’s doesn’t have to be.
Even if, say, Williams or Lopez gets injured, the onus doesn’t fall on Pierce alone. When Rajon Rondo went down last season, Pierce was forced to become the Celtics’ primary playmaker, assuming more of a point forward role. The LeBron James role, if you will.
Brooklyn isn’t that kind of situation. If and when someone goes down, Pierce will need to step up. But so will Garnett. And Deron. And Brolo. And so on and so forth.
The days of seeing Pierce average 20 points and five assists are gone. The days of seeing him log 35-plus minutes a night on a consistent basis are history. He’s beginning a new chapter of his career with the Nets—the last chapter of his career.
Pierce may or may not retire as a member of the Nets. He probably won’t. Something tells me he’ll inevitably sign a 10-day contract or something with the Celtics, and retire in green. This may not even be the last team he actually plays for, as he’s a free agent this upcoming summer. But this is the start of something new, no matter what happens beyond this season.
Any team Pierce plays for from now until he retires isn’t going to rely on him the way the Celtics did. Hell, if by some chance he wound up playing in Boston again, even the Celtics wouldn’t depend on him the way they used to. Once again, those days are gone and they’re never coming back.
And it seems Pierce is quite alright with that, content with making the transition from franchise-defining pillar, to an auxiliary veteran.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
