Paul Pierce hasn’t said what he plans to do next season, and in fact has said virtually nothing publicly since his melancholy postgame remarks the night the Wizards’ season ended. David Aldridge reported that many around the league believe Pierce will opt out of the second year of his Washington deal to join his hometown Clippers. Randy Wittman said he’d be surprised if Pierce didn’t return to the Wizards. Others wondered whether Pierce could be mulling retirement. Pierce increased the uncertainty by declining to speak to reporters on the day of Washington’s exit meetings. (Although he did wear a Nats hat while walking around Verizon Center that afternoon.) But Pierce broke his silence this week with an appearance on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. Pierce told hosts Ben Lyons and Ryan Duffy on “The Players Tribune” show that he’ll be making his decision in the next couple of weeks, but when asked about the end of this season, he sure sounded like a Washington Wizard. “Man, it was a good run,” Pierce began. “We really have a really good young team, and a couple budding superstars. It was tough. It especially really hurt us when John [Wall] broke his hand. Even though he came back, that really kind of hurt our rhythm, because we [were] playing so well. We felt like we were the better team if we had stayed healthy, but we lost some heartbreaking games. “You know how the playoffs are,” Pierce went on. “Every game is close, and it all came down to the end, but I’m happy with the way guys fought. Nobody expected us to beat the Raptors. I thought we were better than Atlanta. We fell up short, but I really like our team, I really like the young budding stars. And we’re definitely disappointed, and would have gave Cleveland probably a better challenge than Atlanta, I think, but it was tough.” That’s a lot of present tense — we have a good young team, I really like our team. Look, I have no idea what Pierce will do, and both the Clippers and retirement seem like viable options. But here was Pierce later, when asked about mentoring Wall and Bradley Beal. - See more at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...wizards-quite-yet/?postshare=3841433524283747
