Pierce is a defensive guru
The 42-year-old didn’t shy away from his voicing his love for defense during his introductory news conference with the Hawks.
‘If we weren’t doing this press conference right now, I’d probably have these guys doing some defensive drills,” Pierce said while looking at his new players sitting in the front row. ”That’s who I am.”
Pierce comes to Atlanta with an impressive defensive background. He was tasked with running the Philadelphia Sixers defense during his time there as an assistant coach. The team made big leaps defensively last season. Philadelphia finished first in opponents’ field goal percentage and third in defensive efficiency.
Sixers Head Coach Brett Brown “gave me full autonomy on what we were going to do on the defensive end,” Pierce told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Whether it’s the drills, the game plan — I game-planned for all 82 games — the concepts and kind of creating that defensive culture. It’s been a huge responsibility. I don’t know how many assistant coaches in the league have had that responsibility to cover the entire defense and all 82 game preps. That was the role.”
Pierce also credits former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins for developing his coaching identity. Pierce was an assistant for Hollins’ “grit and grind” Memphis teams. Pierce describes Hollins as one of the toughest coaches he’s been around.
“They were a top-2 defensive team in the two years I was there,” says Pierce. “And it’s his DNA, it’s his mentality, it’s his approach and it’s definitely what we’ll have here in Atlanta. Because my DNA is the same.”
