KD & Kyrie Remind Us Why We Love Hoops.
By Vinay Killawala (@vkillem)
In the vast landscape of basketball analysis, where most of the national conversation is dominated by personalities who don’t actually watch games, there is a battle that has been going on for decades between bitter rivals.
On one end there is a group a group of keen-eyed coaches and skill trainers who are in endless turmoil against the analytically armed hoop scientists deciding what kind of basketball play is most valuable. On one side you have a group that encourages building breadth in your skillset when it comes to personal scoring profiles and that the most important shot is the best one available. On the other side you have a group of folks who insist on optimizing shooting profiles in order to enhance winning chances based on historical data, graphs, and charts.
What complicates matters more is the constant handwringing over basketball intellectualism. More terminology continues to be added to the lexicon of basketball analysis to where folks are using “metrics” like VORP, RAPTOR, MELO, and BORG hoping to sneak them into basketball culture like a bad Scrabble play.
For the Brooklyn Nets, the performance this season by Irving and Durant has encouraged a thought process that requires appreciation:
Basketball is an art form.
The Brooklyn Nets have fielded one of the best offenses in the league since trading for recent MVP James Harden. They’ve recorded a league best 120.5 offensive rating as the team has become an outright juggernaut on that end. Though they’ve also fielded one of the worst defenses in the league with their 118.0 defensive rating in that same time period, there is still a lot of time to improve on that end. The initial concerns of too many scorers sharing a single basketball is a notion that’s been quickly dispelled as Harden has taken claim to a role that has always been most natural to him as the Nets primary decision maker.
The most important part of the Harden addition hasn’t just come from how he has integrated into the roster. It is how his arrival has removed the playmaking burden from his teammates Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
It’s the relief of that burden that is enabling both superstars to display a level of on court artistry that is hard not to appreciate.
Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Allen Iverson, and many others over time have been celebrated for their offensive artistry. These are some names of players who fans have adored not just for their winning ways but for the sheer magic created out of their individual efforts on the offensive end. For Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, it is that same wizardry that sits in the very core of their play styles. Neither superstar is physically equipped to overwhelm their matchups with strength.
To be successful, Durant and Irving have to dominate their matchups with their individual skills.
It is that same skill work that triggers a wave of nostalgia for the audience that watches them make incredible plays. Both player’s abilities to succeed with an array of unique skills quietly invokes memories of personal pride for basketball purists. Games against at local parks and gyms, rec leagues, and even competitive environments all contain memories of singular moments of pride.
When Durant and Irving find success on the floor, it's hard not to remember to a time you overcame with skill as well.
That nostalgia arises when you watch Kyrie have to use a series of dribble combinations in a phone booth’s amount of space to get off a quality shot.
That same nostalgia rears itself when you see Irving zip through the limited angles of the defense to finish through long limbed defenders.
For the bigs that have always wanted to show off their guard skills like Durant, it comes in the form of defenders who ferociously crowd his space, hoping to prevent his ability to get to the rim.
The nostalgia is ever present every time Durant uses his long sweeping crossovers and morale crushing jumper against loaded up defenses.
Somewhere deep in the recesses of your basketball soul there are memories of personal glory on the hardwood. Whether or not you like it, the spectacular scoring from Irving and Durant is unearthing those memories. While the Nets carry the expectations of a Finals contender, their lack of defense clarifies that there are still serious faults that need to be addressed.
Even with those faults, it's clear that the Brooklyn can lock in well enough to go along with their overwhelming offense when we look at their fourth quarter advanced data.
In 41 fourth quarter minutes the trio of Durant, Harden, and Irving have recorded a Net Rating of +28.9 which includes a MONSTROUS offensive rating of 148.2.
The Nets have been so good on the offensive end in the last quarter it is almost making their porous defense an afterthought. They don’t have to lock you down defensively to win games, they just have to play well enough defensively to win the game. Usually team’s with high-quality defenses enable for a margin of error that allows them to go through offensive droughts throughout games. The Nets margin of error doesn’t come from their defense. It comes from the fact that their super trio is an offensive juggernaut.
For a trio of stars who have only a championship in mind, the margin of victory and data behind their efficiencies won’t matter. All they want to do is win games.
With their offensive excellence though, there should be no doubt to the prolific nature of their shot making. With Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving leading the way with their on ball theatrics, there isn’t much to nitpick when it comes their team on that side of the floor.
They are the only two teammates in the league currently that are averaging over 25 PPG while shooting 50/40/~90 splits.
Just like the audience that stands before a gorgeous work of art and admirers the technique and thought behind the colors as the piece takes them evokes an emotion out of them, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant do the same on a nightly basis.
All you can do is appreciate it.
