Originally Posted by
hq2
Pierce has clearly matured as he has gotten older, but I don't think Anthony has, and he's already pushing 30. The Pierce of 10 years ago was a great scorer who was not a great defender or team leader. His maturation has occurred around the last five years or so, when he realized he needed to change in order to win. He does not have the explosiveness he had 10 years ago, but he's a better shooter, and a wily veteran who knows all the tricks (angles, step back shot, drawing fouls), so he's still a good scorer. However, unlike earlier, he has learned when to let the other players get more involved and when to step up, which I don't think Anthony has. Anthony will have to do so soon if he wants to be remembered as an elite player.
I agree that Pierce has matured as he has gotten older and that he may not be the rebounder that Carmelo is, but Pierce didn't have a lot of choice about allowing teammates to help out in the past. He played on some very poor teams for a few years where he had to do everything, and he did. I agree with others who have also mentioned that he has always been a better playmaker than Carmelo.
I was also thinking of the Alex English comparison for Carmelo and was also thinking of the other great scorers of that era that were not able to lead their teams far in the playoffs, including Adrian Dantley, Dominique Wilkins and Mark Aguirre. I think I would put Carmelo ahead of all of them except Dominique at this point and think he deserves credit for his very solid play for the national team.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”