The End of the John Wall vs Kyrie Irving Debate

By Trey Johnson

Ok. I’ve seen enough useless arguments and pointless stats determining who is better between John Wall and Kyrie Irving. Don’t get me wrong I love the debate, it’s between two players that are similar in age, both are key contributors on their teams and both are the key reasons why their respective teams stand where they stand. However, there are 10 factors that determine who is the better player and whoever wins the most categories is the better player. These categories include shooting, scoring, passing, playmaking, rebounding, defense, leadership, durability, impact and longevity.

Shooting: Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving takes this category as shooting is his strongest suit and I can’t say the same for Wall. If you need stats to back this up, here they are:

Kyrie Irving field goal percentages through the years:

11–12: 47%

12–13: 45%

13–14: 43%

14–15: 47%

15–16: 45%

16–17: 47%

17–18: 49%

John Wall field goal percentages through the years:

10–11: 40%

11–12: 42%

12–13: 44%

13–14: 43%

14–15: 44%

15–16: 42%

16–17: 45%

17–18: 42%

The stats clearly show that Kyrie is consistently putting up field goal percentage numbers in the latter 40s while Wall is consistently putting up in the early 40s. So for this one, Kyrie gets the edge.

Scoring: Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving is simply a better scorer than John Wall, there’s no other way to put it. He can adapt to many types of defenses and finish at the rim or from three and he is more efficient than John.

Kyrie Irving Career:

22 PPG

46% FG

38% 3PT

52% EFG

John Wall Career:

19 PPG

43% FG

33% 3PT

46% EFG

PER:

Kyrie 17–18: 25.0

Wall 17–18: 19.2

Kyrie has also averaged over 20 points per game 5 out of his last 7 years in the regular season while John Wall has averaged over 20 points per game once in his entire career. Kyrie and Wall have also both averaged over 20 points per game twice in their careers during the playoffs although Wall has the better scoring numbers in the playoffs. I also mentioned that Kyrie is more efficient than Wall which shows because Kyrie’s Player Efficiency Rating is higher than Wall’s.

Passing: John Wall

John Wall is clearly the superior passer. Although Kyrie is putting up average assist numbers for a point guard, Wall is putting up elite assist numbers for his position. Wall averages 9.2 assists when it comes to his career and he also averaged over 10 dimes for three consecutive seasons from 2014–2017 while Kyrie averages 5.5 assists for his career and his career high for assists is 6.1 dimes per game in the 2013–14 season.

John Wall season-by-season assist stats:

10–11: 8.3 assists

11–12: 8.0 assists

12–13: 7.6 assists

13–14: 8.8 assists

14–15: 10.0 assists

15–16: 10.2 assists

16–17: 10.7 assists

17–18: 9.6 assists

Kyrie Irving season-by-season assist stats:

11–12: 5.4 assists

12–13: 5.9 assists

13–14: 6.1 assists

14–15: 5.2 assists

15–16: 4.7 assists

16–17: 5.8 assists

17–18: 5.1 assists

Playmaking: John Wall

Kyrie Irving is an elite playmaker but John Wall is one of the very few that tops him. While shot creation and ball handling favor Kyrie, playmaking favors Wall as he’s an elite passer that could make any big man or player get 15–20 points in a game. Kyrie has never had to create for other players to make the rest of his team better while Wall has had to do that on multiple occasions during his career.

Rebounding: John Wall

Rebounding isn’t the most important stat for a point guard but it’s still a part of the game. Wall is a better rebounder than Kyrie Irving, averaging more RPG in every season played than Irving, and has a career average of 4.4 rebounds per game to Kyrie’s 3.4 rebounds per game.

John Wall Rebound Stats:

10–11: 4.6 RPG

11–12: 4.5 RPG

12–13: 4.0 RPG

13–14: 4.1 RPG

14–15: 4.6 RPG

15–16: 4.9 RPG

16–17: 4.2 RPG

17–18: 3.7 RPG

Kyrie Irving rebound stats:

11–12: 3.7 RPG

12–13: 3.7 RPG

13–14: 3.6 RPG

14–15: 3.2 RPG

15–16: 3.0 RPG

16–17: 3.2 RPG

17–18: 3.8 RPG

Defense: John Wall

John Wall is among the elites at his position when it comes to defense in the NBA. Not only is John Wall a very good shot blocker at his position, he can also jump the passing lanes and pickpocket other guards. Wall and Kyrie are very identical when it comes to averages in steals but the averages in shot-blocking help push Wall over Kyrie in defense.

John Wall season-by-season steal stats:

10–11: 1.8 SPG
11–12: 1.4 SPG

12–13: 1.3 SPG

13–14: 1.8 SPG

14–15: 1.7 SPG
15–16: 1.9 SPG
16–17: 2.0 SPG
17–18: 1.4 SPG

Kyrie Irving season-by-season steal stats:

11–12: 1.1 SPG

12–13: 1.5 SPG

13–14: 1.5 SPG
14–15: 1.5 SPG

15–16: 1.1 SPG

16–17: 1.2 SPG
17–18: 1.1 SPG

Leadership: John Wall

Kyrie Irving hasn’t been the number 1 guy on a contender yet but when he has been the 1st option, his teams have failed to reach the playoffs. Wall is clearly the better leader right now but this could change depending on next season’s results.

Durability: John Wall

Both Wall and Irving have been plagued by injuries throughout their entire career, but Wall has played in 76+ games 4 times, while Irving has never reached that mark once. Kyrie has also never played all 82 games of a season before while Wall has reached that feat once during the 2013–14 NBA season.

Impact: John Wall

John Wall missed over half the season this year, and the 4 seed Wizards from last year were out of the playoff picture when Wall returned from injury, and he led them to the 8 Seed in the final days of the season. When Kyrie got injured, the Celtics kept on cruising and finished the season one win away from the NBA Finals.

Longevity : John Wall

John Wall has more playoffs played in, more All NBA Defensive team selections, more total points, more total rebounds, more total assists, more total steals, more total blocks, etc. Wall has been in the league one season longer, but has also been considered an elite player for longer while Kyrie had just started being considered an elite player when LeBron went back to Cleveland in 2014.

When you look at things in retrospect, the only things Kyrie does better than John Wall are scoring and shooting. Passing, playmaking, rebounding, team defense, on ball defense, impact, durability, longevity, etc all favor Wall. In conclusion, it is for these reasons that John Wall is a better player than Kyrie Irving as he’s a more complete player than Kyrie. While he may not have better scoring numbers, he has better rebounding, assisting and shot-blocking numbers which makes Kyrie more of a one-dimensional player and Wall is more of a true point guard, one who not only can create his own shot but can make the rest of the team better just by his presence on the court.

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