<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDwZcbf9V1A" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDwZcbf9V1A</a>]]>
any of you follow Irving? i do not so i'm curious... his shot selection during iso seems pretty poor to me. in couple of the clips above he should've pass to the cutting team mate. is he being selfish or is his court vision that poor? has he improve over the years or remain the same?
Interesting video... Great analysis but also like most analysis it's over analysis. Overall really educating but I do laugh at two of clips where the narrator praises the Warriors for their efficient clockwork offense that leads to a curry falling down three which he makes and lambasts the Cavs offense for an 11 dribble isolation play that leads to a poor shot - an open Lebron three that he misses... Analysts forget sometimes that the most important part of the game is still making shots and all the analysis in the world can't explain away the fact that sometimes one team makes more than the other whether they were "bad" or "good" plays or shots...
Still the Warriors advantage may start w better shot making but it certainly doesn't end the video does a great job highlighting that as well as the failings of Kyrie Irving.
As far as your questions about Kyrie. He is an incredibly frustrating player. I've actually been to his workouts and man he is really amazing... I've seen him work on his footwork plays and his foot ambidexterity is otherworldly. He is about 5'11 and he can one dribble left foot right hand dunk on baseline, he can one dribble right foot take off w left hand dunk on baseline, his amazing ability to choose which foot to use makes him impossible to guard and always leaves a step for his array of euro-steps that come off both sides.
However.... Despite to fact that he is the shiftiest one on one cover I have ever seen he also is not a point guard (terrible vision) and when he isn't hot will chuck up shots that are so ill advised. I mean his on ball shiftiness is an 11 out of 10 which means you can't guard the man straight up. You can take w steps back and he will still somehow find away around you.... But at some point... A defender takes enough steps back and you can't go around him... When this happens sometimes it's funny because help will show and the defender will back up giving Kyrie the shot... He won't take it! He will dribble and crossover and few times and "create" a fall away jumper that he didn't have to create! He is just such an extreme isolation off the dribble player - catch and shoot is not an option!
I actually think w him on your team to utilize him you gotta have the game run through a pick and roll with him...
This is another thing about Lebron people don't realize. I realize I am sounding like a Lebron apologist - but I don't really care...
This big 3 is very different than the heat. Wade and Bosh led their teams to the playoffs each year while Lebron was leading his team to the finals or ECF (and 1 or 2 seeds) most years before they all joined the heat...
Let's be honest about Love and Irving... Irving was essentially the best player on the worst team in the East and Love was the best player on the worst team in the West.
Putting up big numbers for a great team is really hard because you have to be really efficient (see curry, Jordan, Lebron on heat)... I mean the Warriors wouldn't be 73-9 if Curry was averaging 38 pts a game on 42% shooting... That kind of inefficiency is gonna spell more than 9 losses.
Putting up big numbers for a good but not great team is much easier. You don't have to be as efficient as long as you have a high usage rate and the team can offset your inefficiency with defense. Think of the 76ers in 2001 with AI. The team made the finals and had a decent record and he scored a lot of points on somewhat inefficient shooting... This worked because they played great D and slowed the other team down massively at the expense of their own fast breaks and quick buckets - which made it harder for them to score points to the degree that AI shots were pretty good in context... This is kind of how I look at Kobe in 2008/2009 with the twin towers, good but not historically great teams that are lead by a player whose inefficiency is balanced by the fact that he doesn't get great shots...
Now the last rung is big numbers on a terrible team. Love and Irving are both in this class... This is why in hindsight the Cavs should have kept Wiggins - because had the won with Love the media narrative is "3 superstars coming together" and Wiggins would have probably been better and kept the media down...
