Pierce taking wait-and-see approach to trade

WALTHAM -- Paul Pierce reluctantly spoke about the Boston-Minnesota trade this morning at the team’s shootaround, saying he still needed to let it all ‘‘soak in’’ after spending a sleepless night trying to digest the deal. The seven-player trade sent Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks, Justin Reed and two conditional second round picks to the Timberwolves for Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones of the development league’s Florida Flame and a conditional first round pick likely to be exercised in 2008.

‘‘I don’t know if I’d put it up there with how difficult it was to see Antoine [Walker] go the first time,’’ said Pierce. ‘‘I’ve played with Antoine more years. I’ve been further down the road with Antoine. Me and Ricky have only played together a year and a half. We never went anywhere together, as far as playoff success. But I don’t look at that. I look at the relationships you build with these guys. The ups and downs you go through together. The time you spend understanding each other, what you go through on and off the court.

‘‘[Ricky and I] were friends long before he ever got to this team. I thought Ricky had a great time here. I thought he was maturing, growing as a player. It’s always difficult to lose a friend ... But it looks like they want to see what happens with the combination of me and Wally. I guess I look at it as a commitment to me.’’

Not surprisingly, Pierce will take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to chemistry with Szczerbiak. He does not really know Szczerbiak, though the two players have seen each other a few times during the summer. Pierce is hopeful that with Szczerbiak in the mix the Celtics are now on their way to establishing a long-term core of players.

‘‘You look at four or five guys and say, ’These are our core guys’ and you build around that,’’ said Pierce. ‘‘Obviously, Ricky was one of our core guys and he’s been replaced by Szczerbiak as a core guy. I don’t think it’s as difficult when you have one core guy being replaced as it is if you trade two or three core guys away.

‘‘You expected something to happen, but I didn’t expect it to be at this level. It’s a business. It’s difficult for me. Ricky really committed himself to the city of Boston. He moved his family out here. He just bought a house out here. I know how difficult it is for him and I feel for him.’’

Pierce said the trade did not change his long-term commitment to Boston, his desire to retire a Celtic. But he knows there is a lot of work to be done.

‘‘You look at our record (17-25) and wonder how good was this team going to be this year,’’ said Pierce. ‘‘What did the owners, management want to get out of this team? Obviously, they wanted to shake things up to make a playoff push. They could have said, ’OK, the season is going where it’s going and we are who we are and see what happens.’ But obviously, this team is committed to trying to win, to put fans in the stands and that’s what I think we’re trying to do with the trade.’’

That said, Pierce did not know whether Boston would be better equipped to reach the playoffs with Szczerbiak.

‘‘Wally is definitely a talent,’’ said Pierce. ‘‘He’s been an All-Star. But it has to do with how well you play chemistry-wise.’’