The Celtics were Paul Pierce’s team.
It was the “big three” era but Pierce was the face of the Celtics, the best and most loved Celtics star since the Bird era.
Even he admits putting on a Nets jersey next season will be a little strange at first, but it also will be very different on the court. Brooklyn is Deron Williams team, he is the guy setting the table and creating a lot of shots.
Pierce recognized that speaking to the Boston Globe.
“There will definitely be less pressure on me on this ball club than there was in Boston,” Pierce said. “In Boston, I was the No. 1 primary option. Here we have so many options. We have young All-Stars on this team. My job is to be more of a glorified role player, as Doc [Rivers] used to always say, with the guys we have.
“With my abilities to do so many things, there’s going to be nights where I’m not going to score a bunch of points. I can do other things to help this club win. With the combination of these guys, we’re going to take pressure off each other.”
Brooklyn has D-Will at the point, Joe Johnson at the two, Pierce, Kevin Garnett at the four, and maybe the best offensive center in the game in Brook Lopez. Off the bench they bring Jason Terry, Andrei Kirilenko, Andray Blatche and Reggie Evans. That’s a deep and talented roster, one with a number of questions but this is a potentially very dangerous team.
Pierce will see his scoring numbers drop but he is going to need to be more than a glorified role player — he’s going to have to help this team on both ends of the court in the playoffs. He and Garnett need to bring some toughness to a roster pushed around by the shorthanded Bulls in the postseason.
But it certainly will be a different role for Pierce. And one that will take a little getting used to seeing.