Paul Pierce lists his hardest players to guard in the league and number one is...

[Springsteen]

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--YkouM09f--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/19altlarxgklwjpg.jpg

His list is...

5. Kobe Bryant

4. Tracy McGrady

3. Vince Carter

2. Lebron James

1. Carmelo Anthony


If I had to single one guy out who is the most difficult player to guard in the league, it would have to be Carmelo. He’s a unique blend of being big, strong, and athletic while also having a world-class shooting touch and a natural ability to get to the rim. That’s what sets him apart — every facet of his game is elite.

Some great players will have one or two particular skills that make them special. But Carmelo can do everything, which puts you in a baaad situation as a defender. A lot of guys might shoot better from certain areas, so you try to force them elsewhere on the floor. Carmelo doesn’t have a spot on the floor where he can’t consistently hit shots.

In my opinion, his combination of physicality and shooting touch is unmatched in the NBA. You can’t take one second off when you’re matched up against him.

Kobe is one of the best scorers in NBA history, but I don’t have as much trouble with him in the post as I do with Carmelo. LeBron is a great post-up player, but if you get him to settle for the jumper on some nights, you might be able to slow him down if his shot is off. That’s not the case with Melo. If you give him space to shoot, he’ll make it many more times than he misses it.

To put it plainly, he’s not a fun assignment on defense.

But then again, none of these guys are.

PAUL PIERCE

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/paul-pierce-five-toughest-players-ive-ever-guarded/

I guess Melo will win something after all this year, the honor of being mentioned in an article by the Truth :applause:

[riseagainst]

http://www.troll.me/images/brace-yourselves/brace-yourselves-the-greatest-shitstorm-of-our-time-is-upon-us.jpg

[jlip]

Kobe basically said the same thing.

[Marchesk]

I don't see Durant in that list :confusedshrug:

[blablabla]

told ya best scorer in the game, durant can eat a d1ck

[TaLvsCuaL]

To be fair, Melo problem never was his offensive capabilities.

[tpols]

melo's natural ability to get to the rim :oldlol:

Ive never seen a worse leaper in my life.. hes got such little agility/dexterity or ability to manuever in traffic. Hes one of the worst slashers of all time given how much he scores.

[Kblaze8855]

melo's natural ability to get to the rim :oldlol:

Ive never seen a worse leaper in my life.. hes got such little agility/dexterity or ability to manuever in traffic. Hes one of the worst slashers of all time given how much he scores.


Cmon now....

Even relative to his ppg...hes not among the worst ever. Too many straight up shooters have been in that 25ppg range.

[Noyze]

50 year old Pierce can't guard anything so what does this mean???

[lilteapot]

50 year old Pierce can't guard anything so what does this mean???
He has guarded all of these players both in their primes and in his prime.

[Springsteen]

50 year old Pierce can't guard anything so what does this mean???

:facepalm

[Hey Yo]

Funny that PP mentions Kobe's 17-47 game.

"No one's ever taken 47 shots on me"

He should have kept going and said "and no one's ever missed 30 shots on me in a single game"

[Noob Saibot]

Paul Pierce is the truth on and off the court. #respect :pimp:

[AirFederer]

Otoh he had no problems guarding Joe Johnson. Where's that gif :lol

[Real Men Wear Green]

The list is funny to me because watching him as a Celtic the guy I always thought was hardest for him to stop (read: impossible) was Kevin Durant. It may be that the players think, when asked who is hardest to guard, about how hard they have to work and not necessarily the end result, whether or not they actually succeeded. That would explain why Pierce mentions the game where Bryant took 47 shots. Having to defend Bryant for most of that, Pierce had to work as hard as he ever has defensively. But Bryant missed 30 times and the Celtics won, so that was a good night for Pierce, unlike some random game where KD gets 30 and the Celtics lose where Pierce is just defending 15-20 shots.

[Im so nba'd out]

I notice he didn't have kelvin anywhere in his top 5 hmmmm interesting

[bence23]

Cmon now....

Even relative to his ppg...hes not among the worst ever. Too many straight up shooters have been in that 25ppg range.

i can't believe you're still on this site breh :biggums:

[Top Gun]

No KD? List is void.

[MMM]

Of course he would not rank KD because Pierce wasn't in his prime when KD took off.

[Overdrive]

A guy who has the lay up conversion rate of Tony Allen, the least amount of and 1's of any top scorer during his tenure, puts up turnaround fadeaways after receiving the ball without even an attempt to ball fake or dribble with lousy percentages is the toughest to guard?

I really like Melo's style of play in some way, he's got fluid motions, good form and when he gets hot he's great, but he simply is eating up possessions with alot of ill advised shooting.

Maybe the injury will make him think about his game, but I highly doubt it. Melo would be better suited feeding off a player who drags defenders in the paint.

[JohnFreeman]

I love Pierce

[Akrazotile]

To be fair, Melo problem never was his offensive capabilities.


It is one of his problems, actually. He shoots the ball while being guarded better than his peers can shoot it while guarded. He cant, however, shoot better while guarded than most wing players can shoot while open. His tunnel vision and inability to create easier shots for himself and teammates doesnt make him nearly the offenively impactful player that a carefully selected highlight reel would have you believe. If you consider offensive IQ as a 'capability' it definitely weighs down any accurate measuring of Anthony as an overall offensive player.

[Papaya Petee]

Just looked at some H2H, and this is how players fared against Pierce. Pierce played against the best wing players in the league in his career and here are their numbers.

Jordan- 23 PPG 5 APG 10 RPG 42.5% FG

Kobe- 26 PPG 4 APG 5 RPG 41.6% FG

T-Mac- 19 PPG 4 APG 5 RPG 45.9% FG

Vince- 21 PPG 4 APG 5 RPG 42.7% FG

Carmelo- 25 PPG 5 APG 7 RPG 42.1% FG

Durant- 27 PPG 3 APG 5 RPG 50.6% FG

LeBron-30 PPG 6 APG 7 RPG 48.9% FG

Wade- 22 PPG 6 APG 5 RPG 43% FG

Just from these raw stats, it looks like LeBron is the only one who really destroyed Pierce throughout his career. T-Mac, Vince, Wade, Carmelo, and Kobe all put up decent numbers, but were piss poor from the field. Pierce needs more credit for his defense, as he was usually on those guys. Durant did ok for his standards so far.

[JohnFreeman]

I loved watching LeBron and Pierce h2h