Paul Pierce: Deron Will Take His Game To Another Level"

Adam Figman from Slam Magazine took the opportunity to ask Paul Pierce random questions regarding the team and his life in the remaining  summer. The more interesting questions comes from Pierce talking about the team and how he feels Deron Williams can improve his level of play.

Paul Pierce On what he will bring to the team:

I envision Deron being amongst MVP talks this year. I think that’s what we need. I wanna try to push him to be the best point guard in the NBA. My presence and Kevin’s presence should help him move back to that level. I just think him being around us, understanding our NBA habits, understanding what it’s like to have Championship habits—once he sees that, he’ll take his game to another level. Our influence in how we prepare for every game, how we go about our business, how we eat, drink, sleep. All of those things, he’s gonna soak them up.

People don’t understand the impact of a presence. For me and Kevin, it’s not gonna be about our numbers night in and night out. We’ve had the days where we averaged 25 points a game. It’s gonna be our presence: our ability to draw defenses, our ability to maybe command a double team, our ability to knock down shots. Even if we don’t have the ball, our presence out there alone is intimidating.

Pierce was asked how long the he thinks the team will develop chemistry on the court:

It’s really hard to put a timetable on it, because you don’t know the chemistry. For instance, me, Kevin and Ray, we got together and jelled instantly. But that doesn’t happen all the time, that was just a special situation. It’s possible it could happen again. You never could really put a time on it—it’s something that just naturally happens.

He also talked about the Knicks and the "rivalry".

Just thinking about the rivalry now, and being a part of it—you know I had the rivalry with Boston-New York, and now with Brooklyn—there’s nothing like a crosstown rivalry. Now you have Clippers-Lakers, which hasn’t really been a rivalry ever, but now the Clippers are relevant. And now Brooklyn has moved over here and elevated their play to the level where you can say this is a true rivalry.

Relationship with Jason Kidd and the move.

We haven’t talked in a couple weeks, since the press conference. Before that we talked a lot. But I’ll be here—I’m gonna settle in New York probably the first week of September, just to get adjusted to the city, be around the guys before training camp starts.
Everything’s all new. I’m embracing all this, that’s why I’m here in the summer. This is my third trip to New York this summer, going to events like this. I’m gonna embrace it.

Read more here at Slam Online


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