To be honest, If I had to choose. Imma have to go Start Bird, Bench Tatum, and Cut Pierce. No offense to my boy THE TRUTH he was really good. But Bird was one of the Greatest in every way and Tatum only being 26 has already made 6 Eastern finals and 2 Finals appearances with winning one. Just imagine these 3 on a Celtics team together👀
by JPeter_Parker99
33 Comments
This is the correct answer. Not only is Bird one of the 5-6 best players ever, making that an easy decision, but Tatum is already used to getting benched from his Team USA experience lol.
Pierce was amazing and is a Celtics legend, but hard to compete with 3 straight All-NBA 1st Team selections.
Pierce is my favorite player of all time but he’s not as good as Tatum and certainly not bird
With Tatum vs Pierce it really depends on the team you have around them
Start Bird, Bench PP, Cut Tatum
OP, if you put a 26yo PP on those teams in Tatum’s place, do they do better or worse?
imma start tatum, bench truth, cut larry.
larry is like 60 now and truth is 40
Just imagine if Larry Bird had all the training techniques and medical tech, That they have today how great of a player he would’ve been.
I know people question if he could’ve played the game at the speed it’s at now… I think if he had everything that’s offered to today’s player. He would’ve been five times as good. And I think his body would’ve held up a lot longer.
Paul Pierce is my favorite Celtic ever and the reason I got into the sport. But yes, he is getting cut.
I think this is easy. Start Bird and bench Pierce.
Tatum is a fantastically talented player, but he lacks the killer instinct that the other two have in spades.
Side note. I find it interesting that certain teams have a pattern of having a great player at the same position in multiple, and sometimes consecutive, generations. It’s not all teams and I’m sure it’s a coincidence but it comes up every now and then. It makes me question if certain teams are better at developing certain archetypes at a position for whatever reason.
There’s this example with the Cs, Spurs Robinson-Duncan-Wemby, Magic Shaq-Dwight, Lakers Wilt-KAJ. I’m sure there’s more
I wouldn’t physically be able to cut Paul, so he’s on my
bench.
I’m starting Bird, benching Pierce, and saying bye to Tatum.
Starting Bird
Bench Tatum
Cut Pierce
It was easy honestly lol
Bird pierce tatum
The easiest choice is to start Larry Bird.
After that, if we’re only counting what has happened so far, I have to bench Paul Pierce and cut Tatum.
I think by the end of his career, Tatum will pretty easily surpass Pierce. But I’m just not ready to put Tatum above one of the best players of his own generation at the age of 26.
Pierce absolutely carried those Celtics teams before KG and Ray Allen got to Boston. He dragged that absolutely terrible 01-02 team to the ECF. Early in his career, he never had the benefit of being on a great team to coast to accolades. And by the time he got a great team, he was competing against LeBron for the one and only SF slot. While Tatum is the best SF in the league at this point and his 3 straight First Team All-NBA’s are a great achievement, he also took over right as KD and LeBron were slowing down. Not saying this to put down Tatum, just to emphasize that Pierce had no real path to First Team All-NBA because early in his career, the Celtics were terrible, and later in his career he had LeBron (and eventually KD) to contend with.
Easy one for a Celtics fan.
Damn, I think I would start Bird, Bench Truth, and cut Tatum. The only time Truth had some legit support, he was the best player on a team that went to the finals twice and ECF thrice in five years.
Cut these uniform colors. Why do these dudes look like they’re playing for the Hornets?
This is in no way a difficult decision.
Bird, Pierce, Tatum.
Sorry but I don’t fear Jayson Tatum offensively in the playoffs at all and don’t trust him with the ball. I trusted Paul. Tatum might be a better all-around player but I’d rather have Paul.
Start Larry, bench Pierce, cut Tatum. Tatum could come to have a better career than Pierce, that’s definitely on the table, but not yet.
Start Bird
Bench Pierce
Cut Tatum
Fairly easy. It’s Larry Bird lmao.
You obviously start Bird. Duh.
At this point Tatum and Pierce are virtual ties and I can’t choose yet.
They’re both one-time NBA champs with a bunch of all star appearances and deep playoff runs.
Both are gifted SF’s that are top 10 players in their playing season at their peak (debatably top 5), both needed/had some top tier talent to get them over the hump of 2nd round.
Tatum is streaky and can get into funks where PP was more consistent, though Tatum peaks are a little higher.
PP toiled years on bad Celtics teams so it’s easy to forget just how good he was at his peak, he was at the end of his prime in ‘08. Tatum has had a lot better cast around him.
Even if the season repeats exactly with a Title at the end, I still might have a hard time declaring Tatum definitively better than PP. I need to see him as serious MVP contender / lose his streaky-ness / be hands down best player in finals run to be 100% convinced.
I could talk to myself for another several paragraphs of indecision.
Damn I hate to say it but …
Start Bird
Bench Pierce
Cut Tatum.
The pic is the order
Tatum needs another ring before he’s better than Pierce. Bird is in a of class of his own.
Picture is already perfect, nothing to add or change.
Tatum is better than Pierce but I trust Pierce a whole lot more in the clutch. I would give Tatum the edge, Bird is an easy start.
Bird, Pierce, Tatum
The hot-take is playing Larry at the 4 – he was basically a modern 4 anyway – and playing Pierce at the 3, with Tatum as a multi-positional multi-roll star off the bench.
But then this gets into Garnett moving to the bench, because you’re absolutely playing Russell at the 5. His athleticism, shot-blocking and outlet passing make him the Superman version of a modern rim-running 5.
Cousey/Allen/Pierce/Bird/Russell
Derrick White/Havelick/Tatum/Garnett as the main bench guys.
White’s the weird one here, but assuming this is a modern NBA, he plays the same exact role on the bench as he did for the Olympic team. I can’t run DJ, Sam Jones or JoJo White out there because modern defenses would just leave him.
Also, Havelick was the original 6th man. This bench with Russell is making lives MISERABLE for an offense for like 5 minutes
McHale for weird “Hey we need someone to go get 8 points in 6 minutes” moments
Parish for size
12th guy I need another backcourt player. Smart or Holiday for glue guy and another defender? Brown for the athleticism, versatility, and shooting? Heinsohn or Horford for a bench dad?
The answer is probably Jaylen Brown.