Washington Wizards veteran Paul Pierce has been around the NBA for a long time - 17 years, to be exact. In that time, he's straddled different generations of fellow NBA players, and he listed the five toughest players he's had to guard over the years in a post for The Players' Tribune.
The list includes three players from his generation - Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant - as well as, of course, LeBron James. Yet Pierce names Carmelo Anthony the league's toughest cover.
Pierce writes:
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.
There's not much surprising in that statement, as easy as it is to malign the inefficiencies in Melo's game. But this list isn't about efficiency, it's about guarding a guy one-on-one.
