Chat Transcript: Paul Pierce

Five-time NBA All-Star Paul Pierce has played for the Boston Celtics for all nine years of his career, but no season was tougher than 2006-07. Pierce and the Celtics were overwhelmed by the injury bug; The Truth played in just 47 games for the Celtics thanks to a pesky stress reaction in his left foot and problems with his left elbow. Meanwhile, the Celtics endured an 18-game losing streak and won just 24 games, their lowest total in a decade.

But after an amazing offseason in which Danny Ainge overhauled the Celtics roster, Pierce is more excited than ever about playing in Boston. The C's landed sharpshooter Ray Allen in a draft-day deal with the Seattle Supersonics, and then they followed that up by acquiring Kevin Garnett in the NBA's blockbuster trade of the summer. All three are already back at voluntary workouts in Waltham, MA, and with Pierce, Allen and KG in the fold, the Celtics have positioned themselves as legitimate NBA Finals contenders.

The Celtics captain is excited for training camp to begin, and he has his eyes set on raising a 17th Championship banner to the rafters of the Garden.

Paul is dropped by Celtics.com for a live chat on Thursday. Check out what Pierce had to say about the new team, Scot Pollard's toenails and much more.

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FLCeltsFan (Panama City,FL): Thanks for chatting with us! I am very excited about this upcoming season. How is the elbow? It has bothered you for two seasons now, even after surgery. Is it fully healed or is it an ongoing problem that you will have to play around?

Paul Pierce: The elbow is fully healed. I expect no problems with it for the upcoming season. Although, I really think it might have helped my shot the past few seasons! (Laughing)

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Chris (Hull): Hey paul, excited to see that you guys are in for workouts already... how are they going so far? How many of the guys are there?

Paul Pierce: I've seen the entire team. We're all real excited about the upcoming season. It's an exciting time for us and we're looking forward to a big year.

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boston: How will your role change this year with the aquisitions of KG and Ray Allen?

Paul Pierce: I don't think I'll be asked to score as much as in the past, which will allow me to do other things, like rebounding. Also, my assists should go up, with better players around me.

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Andi (Graz - AUSTRIA): Besides you, Allen and KG, who else on the roster a fan should watch out for?

Paul Pierce: I'll say James Posey, Tony Allen, Kendrick Perkins, Rajan Rondo, Brian Scalabrine, Leon Powe, our entire roster. Including Scot Pollard (Laughing). We're all in good shape and ready to go.

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Kenny Boston: Hey Paul in Practice when you see Tony Allen How far do you think he's come from his knee injury and how well will he come along with the all stars that we have now on the team

Paul Pierce: I think Tony is going to have a great year. I've been working out with yim every day, and he should be ready to go at the start of the season. This is as hungry as I've seen Tony since he's been a Celtic.

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david Tallahassee: Has Boston responded to the personnel changes? Is the anticipation buzz for this upcoming season the greatest you've seen since you've been with the Celtics?

Paul Pierce: It definitely is. You can feel it in the air, going around the city. Boston is excited about basketball and their Celtics again.

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Justin (Boston): Tell us something about Scot Pollard that us fans may not know about, based on your Kansas Jayhawk days together.

Paul Pierce: Hmmm. Wow. I been around him since college, but Scot does not bite his tongue, he really speaks his mind. He has a great personality. The only thing weird about him, is he likes to paint his toenails and fingernails. By the way, I love his hairstyles.

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Omar (Minneapolis): With the addition of All-Star Kevin Garnett do you think it will make a huge difference playing against teams like Spurs, Suns etc.. where they have lots of bodies inside the paint

Paul Pierce: Well, KG is a tremendous rebounder and defender and athlete, something I haven't really had on my team in my NBA career, so I think our whole team's level of play will go up. KG can match up with basically anybody and that can really, really change our whole team.

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Mike (Brookline): Please give us a prediction of your videogame ranking after this season. Back in '02 and '03 you were in the high 90s, but you've slipped a little bit since... think you can regain some videogame stature?

Paul Pierce: I don't know. I haven't kept up with the video games. But this year, with us winning more, maybe that will go up. I think your video rating goes up if your team is winning and we hope to do more winning this year.

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Diego (Argentina): Paul: Hi! from Argentina. I'm a really really fan of you and of course, I'm a fan of the Celtics. I wanna ask you if you think the celts needs a veteran PG to be a Championship contender or with the roster we have, we can win the champ???

Paul Pierce: I think with the roster we have we can make a run. But we need to get out there and see what our strengths and weaknesses are and go from there, adjust is necessary.

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carter grant harlem ny: If you have worked out with KG and Ray ALLen is there anything that surprised you about there game

Paul Pierce: Probably how hard they work in the offseason. You know they're great and put in the work, but to see how consistently they bring it, day in and day out, during the offseason, and this being like their 12th or 13th year. You expect that from a young guy, trying to make his way, make his mark on the league. Those two guys, at the gym every morning at 8'o-clock, is very impressive.

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Justin (Boston): 10 seconds left, down by 1, who's taking the last shot?

Paul Pierce: With this team, whoever is hot at the time!

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Antonio(Brooklyn, NY): You guys almost made it to the finals a couple times a couple years back making it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. How would you compare this team to that team when you had Antoine Walker by your side?

Paul Pierce: The team this year has higher expectations. Those other teams, snuck up on people, but this team will have more of a target on it's back than the one that reached the Eastern Conference Finals.

Paul Pierce: I want to thank all my fans for supporting me, through the good and the bad, and hopefully I'll be able to help us bring you an NBA Championship. Thanks again for all support.