Agree: his defense has really improved dramatically this year but people notice defensive improvement late and then overrate your D for a long time (ala Kobe). In previous years, PGs would just go off on him and that has completely changed this year so he deserves the All Star nod more then in the past. As noted he's hurt by his reputation as a poor defender and the Cavs playing poorly without Lebron.
It's not really a fair criticism either regarding the Cavs not doing well during the time when James was hurt.
Look, no one is going to argue that having the best player in the NBA back healthy and dominating again doesn't improve your chances to win dramatically. But, the issues the team was facing over that month-long drought where things just completely fell off the map were not due to LeBron James not playing alone. The issues started before he even exited the lineup.
Interestingly enough, the low point to me was the bludgeoning the Pistons gave us in late December and it was a game LeBron played, but Kyrie didn't. I thought that was the worst we looked all season in a game where the majority of our starters were on the floor. I'm not counting the Sixers loss where we had four out of five starters out.
LeBron's rest came at an opportune time for this narrative. We had lost 2 out of 3
with him. Both losses were to teams under .500 and the one win was a narrow one over a horrible Orlando team. The writing was on the wall as the schedule was about to toughen that the Cavs were in for a rough stretch with or without LeBron. Now, do we go 1-8 with LeBron on the floor? Probably not. But, we probably wouldn't have been a ton better with the way he was playing.
Irving, on the whole, has been fantastic this year. It has been easily his best start to a season in his career and he's already had some pretty good ones. The effort defensively and the way he is sacrificing touches and involvement offensively (as it compares to previous seasons) while actually having MORE impact than ever before is a great sign for the longterm future of this franchise.
I think a lot of people are burying the lead when they focus on what Kyrie did individually while LeBron was out. Yes, it is safe to say he wasn't as dominating in that span. There are lots of reasons for it, but I'm waiting for someone to explain to me why it's a bad thing to be the kind of player who can maximize his game while playing on the same court as other great players.
Would we really rather have a guy that will light it up when LeBron sits games out but then be marginalized when he's on the floor? Isn't the fact that Kyrie is so good playing alongside LeBron, like... the most incredible news ever? And something a lot of people openly worried about not being the case prior to seeing it happen right in front of them?
