The Apex of a CareerOne of my first entries on UFR was a recap of Paul Pierce’s NBA career. At the time, he was the biggest star of the defending champions. I don’t think anyone realistically considered him in the Bryant/James/Wade category, but he was certainly in the next group. Now that he has completed 11 seasons, I thought it would be appropriate to measure him by a variety of ways. Between MU, KSU and KU, there really aren’t any present players who can compete with Pierce based on what he has accomplished in the NBA. So, it’s primarily on that score (not KU) that I’m going through this exercise.
In my opinion, Pierce has been underrated most of his career. He was highly recruited out of high school, but was by no means considered to be among the top handful of players in his class. He scored 28 points in the McDonald’s high school game which was just two points short of Michael Jordan’s record. A lot of people score a lot of points in the McD event, but how many are second to MJ?
It wasn’t until the last couple months of his junior season at KU that he really started to get noticed. It became clear that he was improving dramatically. By the time the season ended, I wasn’t sure there was a better player in America and I fully expected him to be drafted in the top-5. When Boston took him at #10, I immediately knew they got the steal of the draft.
1998 DRAFT
Here is the list of players chosen ahead of him in the 1998 draft. Obviously, you can’t criticize Nowitzki and possibly not even Carter. Otherwise, there were some bad choices. Shown are their career scoring and efficiency averages.
| Pk | Tm | Player | PPG | EFF |
| 1 | LAC | M. Olowokandi | 8.3 | 10.41 |
| 2 | MEM | Mike Bibby | 16.4 | 16.45 |
| 3 | DEN | Raef LaFrentz | 10.1 | 13.39 |
| 4 | TOR | Antawn Jamison | 19.9 | 18.92 |
| 5 | GSW | Vince Carter | 23.5 | 21.00 |
| 6 | DAL | Robert Traylor | 4.8 | 6.85 |
| 7 | SAC | Jason Williams | 11.4 | 12.48 |
| 8 | PHI | Larry Hughes | 14.6 | 13.03 |
| 9 | MIL | Dirk Nowitzki | 22.7 | 24.33 |
| 10 | BOS | Paul Pierce | 22.9 | 21.22 |
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While I’m at it, I thought it might be interesting to look at all #10 picks since 1957 and compare them to Pierce. Shown are the 10th pick players with career scoring averages of over 10 ppg. It’s safe to say that Paul Pierce is the best #10 pick in NBA history. If you want to see the complete list, sorted by scoring as well as by year of draft, click here.
| Year | Player | Pts |
| 1998 | Paul Pierce | 22.9 |
| 1983 | Jeff Malone | 19.0 |
| 2001 | Joe Johnson | 17.2 |
| 1963 | Gus Johnson | 17.1 |
| 2002 | Caron Butler | 16.7 |
| 1965 | Dick VanArsdale | 16.4 |
| 1999 | Jason Terry | 16.2 |
| 1972 | Paul Westphal | 15.6 |
| 1959 | Rudy LaRusso | 15.6 |
| 1977 | Ray Williams | 15.5 |
| 1994 | Eddie Jones | 14.8 |
| 2008 | Brook Lopez | 13.0 |
| 1988 | Willie Anderson | 12.2 |
| 1981 | Albert King | 12.1 |
| 1987 | Horace Grant | 11.2 |
| 1989 | Pooh Richardson | 11.1 |
| 1986 | Johnny Dawkins | 11.1 |
| 1991 | Bison Dele | 11.0 |
| 1975 | Bill Robinzine | 10.5 |
| 1976 | Ron Lee | 10.1 |
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RECENTLY
Pierce was never seen as a player who made those around him better. That’s not to say he was selfish, just not good enough to make the transition from extremely productive to “winning leader”. Obviously, it goes without saying that the talent level he played with (on average) was less than all-star. When Garnett and Allen came aboard, along with the emergence of Rondo, he had the opportunity to excel on a team that didn’t need him to be “the man” for 48 minutes a game.
That worked very well in 2008 as Boston had the best record in the NBA and won the championship. Pierce was named the MVP. I didn’t believe they would repeat, but rather fall victim to age – injuries, etc. With Garnett’s injury they struggled to beat Chicago and ultimately fell to Orlando in the second round.
Pierce’s days of being a star in the NBA are almost over. Shown is his EFF for the 11 seasons.
| Year | EFF |
| 1999 | 17.0 |
| 2000 | 18.8 |
| 2001 | 21.7 |
| 2002 | 23.9 |
| 2003 | 22.9 |
| 2004 | 20.5 |
| 2005 | 22.1 |
| 2006 | 24.4 |
| 2007 | 21.1 |
| 2008 | 19.9 |
| 2009 | 19.2 |
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This is a typical pattern for an NBA player. Some players drop off fast at this point depending on injuries. Some gradually decline. He’s been relatively injury free since his rookie year (2007 being the exception). But, age can force mediocrity at any moment. And, after 11 seasons, it is unreasonable to expect him to maintain the level he has in the past. Whether or not he can significantly help Boston in the next 2-3 years is an open question. The Celtics are older than dirt – at least by “star” standards. Rondo, of course, is an exception. If not for the fact that Boston banked its future on the big-three and surely intend to squeeze another couple years out of them, this would be the time in Pierce’s career to expect to be traded.
CELTIC GREATS
When I presented these stats before, I think a few people failed to recognize that I am (in NO way) comparing Pierce to Bird. I’m just presenting facts. Facts are facts.
With only one championship, he simply cannot begin to compare with most of the former Celtics on that score - after all, Boston has won 17 NBA titles. However, purely based on stats, Pierce is among the very best.
He ranks #1 in three-pointers, #2 in free throws, #4 in NBA Efficiency and #5 in defensive rebounds. A more visible stat is scoring. His scoring average as a Celtic ranks second only to Larry Bird. Of course, it is important to recognize that after 11 years, his average will begin dropping considerably. And, keep in mind most of these players had to share the ball more than Pierce – possibly inflating his numbers on a comparative basis.
However, on the flip side, Pierce’s Celtics only averaged 97 points per game during the last 11 seasons while Sam Jones’ Celtics scored over 116 ppg. Therefore, I thought it only fair to adjust each player’s averages predicated upon the team scoring 100 ppg during their career. I called that (drum roll) “Adjusted Points Per Game” (APPG). Based on APPG, Pierce is first.
Shown below are the all-time top Celtic regular season scorers per game (minimum 8 seasons).
| Player | Yrs | PPG | APPG |
| Paul Pierce | 11 | 22.9 | 23.6 |
| Larry Bird | 13 | 24.3 | 21.7 |
| Antoine Walker | 8 | 20.6 | 21.4 |
| John Havlicek | 16 | 20.8 | 18.0 |
| Bob Cousy | 13 | 18.5 | 17.5 |
| Bill Sharman | 10 | 18.1 | 17.2 |
| Jo Jo White | 10 | 18.4 | 16.7 |
| Dave Cowens | 10 | 18.2 | 16.6 |
| Tommy Heinsohn | 9 | 18.6 | 16.1 |
| Kevin McHale | 13 | 17.9 | 16.1 |
| Sam Jones | 12 | 17.7 | 15.5 |
| Robert Parish | 14 | 16.5 | 14.9 |
| Bill Russell | 13 | 15.1 | 13.1 |
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As to scoring, it is not unreasonable to put Pierce in Bird’s shadow. Bird played when teams scored a lot more points, but he also had to share it with a some excellent teammates – something Pierce has not had to do very often. You can conclude for yourself how they compare in completely different situations and eras.
Apart from scoring, there really isn’t any comparison to Bird – as if anyone thought there would be. But, just for the record, Bird’s career EFF is 29.77, while Pierce is 21.22.
It’s been a lot of fun watching a Jayhawk do so well in the NBA and we will surely have some more highlights along the way. I just doubt it will be in the NBA championships – not with LeBron in the East.
Thanks for this treatment of Pierce who deserves more credit and media coverage than he has gotten over the years. His talents were held in check like a lot of KU greats for team basketball. I believe in the only Elite 8 game Pierce, Vaughan, LaFrentz, Pollard, et. al. played in at KU, Pierce put up a team high 27 points in a losing cause. KU, Kansas City, Boston and the NBA missed out on promoting Pierce more. He doesn't display the media personality of Kobe, LeBron, Vince Carter and MJ. They seem too similar in front of the camera while Pierce is simply more himself and laid back which, to me, is a plus in that it is unique. I read somewhere that Shaq gave Pierce the nickname "The Truth". Shaq has played against all the greats of this generation and won with Kobe and D-Wade. The fact that Pierce played in all 82 games after the serious stabbing years ago says more about the guy than anything. People might say Pierce is more street but most of the NBA greats including Bird have some of that. Vince Carter got the Rookie of the Year Award over Pierce with very similar statistics. The difference may have been voters' perceptions of "marketablity". Had the Celtics run their organization as they had in the past, Pierce would have had a good supporting cast and more media exposure and NBA rings. His NBA career is second only to Wilt Chamberlain's as far a Jayhawks go. You could argue Jo Jo White as second who has two NBA crowns including an NBA Finals MVP. With Ray Allen, KG and cast, Pierce still put up good scoring numbers. I was amazed at how Pierce flat out simply beat LeBron AND Kobe one on one when the conference and NBA Finals were on the line last year and then this year it was all Kobe, LeBron and D-Wade in the media. Stats I would love to see are Pierce's 4th quarter stats in the regular season and playoffs versus the other greats. He lead the league in 4th quarter points a few years ago. If Pierce had Bird's supporting cast, he might have three rings also. I like Pierce and Bird too much to compare them. Pierce did not participate in the Olympic work outs the past few summers prievious to the Bejing Olympics and I heard it was due to injury. He does seem to prefer to be apart from the NBA status quo to some extent. More I'd like to know more about. Pierce is definitely a Hall of Famer. KU and Boston have been lucky to have him.