Is Kyrie Irving Underrated or Overrated? and how does he match up to other guards?
Kyrie Irving has been the talk of the NBA these past couple weeks after requesting a trade from the Cavs. Now he is being question by everyone if he is really good enough to lead a team. Everyone is torn some saying yes and some saying no. Cavs fans have completely have hopped off the Kyrie bandwagon and basically disowning him. It’s almost ridiculous how opinions can change on someone so quick. However, that is not what I’m talking about today. Today I’m talking about if Kyrie is as good as he thinks he is and comparing him to other top point guards and see how matches up.
Underrated or Overrated?
This term has been thrown around and this word can be used on every player but is it justifiable. Well Kyrie this season average 25ppg,6apg, and 3rpg which is all star caliber numbers. Unfortunately those aren’t best point guard in the league numbers or even best in the east numbers. Some People have proclaim him as best point guard in the league after his 2016 finals performance. Now don’t get me wrong he played amazing, almost unreal but playing unreal for 7 games shouldn’t allow you to be consider one of the best point guard in the league. Their are players who play unreal every night in the regular season and if you just look at the numbers you can tell. Compared to other top guards in the NBA his numbers look very less impressive.
Other East Point Guards:
To fellow east point guards John Wall and Isaiah Thomas his numbers aren’t better. John wall average 23ppg,11apg, and 4rpg plus him actuallly playing solid defense. Now a lot of hate goes to Isaiah Thomas and his defense but people fail to realize that Kyrie has the same defensive rating as him. So Thomas defensive problem is nonsense here and he also averages more points a game and led a team to the 1st seed. I would talk about other east point guards but there isn’t much competition to Kyrie in the East.
To West Point Guards:
I Honestly believe if Kyrie was out west he wouldn’t be consider an All Star. Guards like Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Chris Paul, and Damian Lillard would steal his spots in the all star game. I mean compare his stats to everyone one of those guards they are better. Westbrook and Lillard both have clear stats advantage over Kyrie but Curry is a different story. Curry and Kyrie almost have identical stats except for Curry‘s two steals per game. So people may ask, why is he a better guard than Kyrie? Well adding KD to your team is different gonna take a hit on your stats. Also having such an overpower team that some nights you could be consider a 3rd or 4th option on team. However, Kyrie with Lebron who is, dont take this the wrong way, a past first type of player. Always looking for the open man before a shot, which isn’t bad but because of that it leaves Kyrie who is a look to score first type of guard. So almost daily he is the number 1 scoring option for the team, so his numbers will be higher because of this. Now with comparing Chris Paul to Kyrie Irving it is hard to explain but Paul is just more important to his team. Without Paul, this season, the Clippers have looked unbearable and finding it hard to score the ball. Now without Kyrie Irving, this season, the Cavs seem to not lose a step because Lebron just seems to takeover. So to compare the two its really not that close. However, there is still the question of if Kyrie can lead a team?
Can he lead a team?
It depends what you mean by lead a team. If you mean lead a team into the playoffs than most definitely he can do that but if you mean to title I have to say no. Kyrie Irving is an exceptional basketball player and one of the great young guys in the NBA. He just isn’t good enough to do so, I mean if you look at the teams that he could be “the guy” it doesn’t look that good. The Suns are in a tough western conference so even making the playoffs would be tough. The Knicks would have to give up, I would believe, Carmelo in the trade so they would be back to square one. The knicks replace a great iso player with another great iso player so I don’t see them improving at all. Also with the Spurs and Timberwolves, he really wouldn’t be the main guy with Kawhi and Butler on the team. The smart move is to just stay with the Cavs even if Lebron is leaving in a year you can still have another shot at a ring. Then when Lebron leaves you can finally be “the guy” and you don’t even need to leave Cleveland.
