Originally Posted by
COYS
Pierce's post-season success came later in his career than where Melo currently is in terms of age. Before that, Pierce languished on a pretty terrible Boston team. During the championship season, his stats were actually down across the board as he shared the reigns with KG, Ray Allen, and (to a lesser extent, then) Rondo. That championship is impressive, however, he only has one. Also, Melo has almost always had better rebounding numbers than Pierce, posting double digit rebound percentages every year of his career since '08 with the exception'10 when he was at 9.9. During that time, he had rebounding percentages over 11% three times. Pierce has cracked double digit rebounding percentages only three times in the past 10 seasons.
This is not to say that Melo is better than Pierce, but aside from post-season success, I'd say that Melo has been maybe just a bit better. Pierce is a better passer and has become a better defender (Melo's biggest issue, for sure), but if Melo can ever play on a team that is built correctly, we might see him reach the same heights as Pierce. I'm not sure you can blame Melo for struggling to mesh with Amar'e as much as you can blame the Knicks brass for acquiring too many ill-fitted pieces.