Robert Parish: "Paul Pierce is the best Celtics offensive player EVER"

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/





"I think Paul Pierce, the way he manufactures points is the best player the Celtics have seen thus far," Parish told the Globe. "That's saying a lot because you are talking about John Havlicek was the best offensive player that the Celtics had, the way he manufactures points. But Paul Pierce has them all beat. He’s got the Sam Joneses, the (Don) Nelsons, the Tommy Heinsohns, Jones, Havlicek, (Larry) Bird, (Kevin) McHale, myself, Paul Pierce is the best offensive player the Celtics have seen thus far."

Pierce is third all-time in scoring for the Celtics, trailing Havlicek and Bird and is 101 points from reaching the 20,000-point plateau. Pierce averages 22.5 points per game, compared to 24.3 for Bird and Havlicek finished at 20.8.

Said Parish, "And (Pierce's) number will be retired once he retires. And if they don’t retire it, then it’s a travesty to justice."

Interesting... that's one hell of an endorsement. Because I didn't see Havlicek (or anyone from that era) play, and have only seen the Bird era on tape a few times, I'll give it to Pierce.

Larry Bird was a better scorer than Paul Pierce AND he did it better in the flow of the offense.

Pierce is clearly a Top 10 Celtic of all time - but a better scorer than Bird and Hondo? No way.

It is hard to disagree with a guy that played with Bird, but I can't agree with Parish at all. If do agree with kleen that Bird scored within the flow of the game. If Larry didn't play with 3 other hall of famers and he had to score more, he could and would have. Larry averaged 24.3 ppg in his career but I think Larry could have been right near Jordan's career average of 30 ppg if he shot more.
Larry never shot more then 22 FGA in one season. Jordan had MORE then 22 FGA in a season 12 straight years.
You could name any Celtics players you want to be below Bird, but in my opinion, none, including Pierce, are anywhere near the scorer that Bird was.

Brandon, I hope you don't mind if I added a couple of names to your list. You wouldn't want to exclude a guy who is tied for first place, at least in terms of points scored per 36 minutes (per Basketball Reference):

22.8 Sam Jones
22.8 Tom Heinsohn

22.8 Larry Bird (* had advantage of the three-point basket)

21.8 Paul Pierce (* had advantage of the three-point basket)
20.7 Kevin McHale (* had advantage of the three-point basket)
20.4 John Havlicek
19.0 Bob Cousy
18.8 Robert Parish (* had advantage of the three-point basket but didn't use it)
17.7 Jo Jo White
12.8 Bill Russell

I'd rank Sam and Heinie above Bird because of the advantage Larry had with the three-pointer. True, Heinie and Sam played in a faster-paced game producing more possessions (and Larry outshot both on a percentage basis), but the faster pace was more debilitating.

These are regular season figures. I would consider using playoff figures as one way to break the tie between Sam and Heinie. Heinie wins that one, 23.0 to 22.5. However, another possible tie-breaker would be shooting percentage. Sam wins that one at 45.6% to Heinie's 40.5%. (Pierce is at 44.5%.)

All things considered, I'm going with Sam Jones because (1) I think his shooting percentage plurality is very impressive for a jump-shooting guard in the days of volume basketball and (2) he played until he was nearly age 36, while Heinie quit while in his prime at nearly age 31. I'd place Heinie second and Larry third. But the real news is that all three are tied; and all deserve to be acclaimed as the most effective Celtics scorers.

The Other Sam

i'm glad we're back to the clarity of talking about scorers, and not best offensive players - they're not the same thing.

certainly the numbers tell part of the story, but i picked Larry b/c as has been said, he played in the flow of the game so effectively. he also was adroit at tossing in daggers in a timely manner, and could (i think) have scored pretty much at will.
he didn't b/c he chose team first.

Michael

Two things kept Sam from being even a more prolific scorer. (1) He had to play behind Cousy and Sharman for several years, and didn't become a starter until his fifth season (at age 28). (2) He "competed" with so many future hall-of-fame teammates for scoring opportunities (Russ, Havlicek, Cousy, Sharman, Heinsohn, Ramsey, Howell, Embry, K.C. Jones).

Sam