LA Clippers player grades for first 30 games of 2016-17 NBA season
By Tom West
Paul Pierce: F
I’ll get Paul Pierce out the way quickly, because there really isn’t much to say here. At least, nothing positive.
Unfortunately for both The Truth himself and his LA Clippers, Pierce is terrible now. He was last season, and while some fans may have been hopeful that he could have found some revitalized sense of youth this year and bounce back somewhat, we’ve seen nothing of the sort so far. He’s been exactly the same, which means he’s a liability at both ends and is only slowing down as he draws closer to 40 at 39 years old.
He’s only played in seven games after dealing with injury early on and has been a wavering element of the rotation, but he’s still played in seven games and was used instead of Wesley Johnson by Doc Rivers in several games due to “defense”. What Doc sees, we have no idea, but Pierce certainly can’t be relied upon on defense.
He’s too slow to cover wings at the perimeter and avoid getting beat off the dribble, and he lacks the bounce, size or toughness to hold his own inside or on the boards as the small-ball power forward that he is now.
To make matters even worse, he’s shooting 33.3 percent from three and a woeful 32.1 percent overall (as if last year wasn’t bad enough).
As you can tell, I don’t have many positive things to say about Pierce, seeing as the Clippers are majorly worse whenever he’s on the floor (a +9.9 point differential without him, and -10.7 with him).
He receives a F grade, and it’s time to move onto his younger small forward teammate, Wesley Johnson.