Hey everyone.. First post but have been a member since '09. Someone usually has shared an opinion with me in a thread so I haven't been compelled to start posting. Until now I guess ha.
There's something concerning to me with Kyrie that I haven't seen someone on here post (maybe it has been brought up, but missed by me) nor have I heard it ever brought up on the radio..
The thing that has made Kyrie special in the NBA are his ball handling, smooth shot, and (in my opinion, most impressively) his insane ability to absorb contact from a big guy at the rim, and still finish. The only problem was that he kept getting hurt when he would drive to the hoop and absorb that contact and was beginning to get labeled as injury prone, and no longer as just unlucky with his health. So to my point.. Did anyone else notice he stopped driving this year? To me, this was the 1 trait that REALLY made him special. He won multiple games by taking the ball to the rim early in his career. It seems like he backed off on driving and began shooting a lot of jumpers this year, thus limiting him as a threat a little bit on offense (in addition to being below average on defense). The thing I struggle with is: was this a result of Mike Brown being a clueless offensive coach OR Kyrie wanting to play a full season (which he ended up not able to do anyways)? My gut says it was Kyrie wanting to stay on the court.
So with this said, is Kyrie REALLY worth a max deal? The Kyrie that crashed into guys at the rim and finished is worth the max deal to me skill wise, but that Kyrie was hurt constantly (so actually not worth the money I suppose?). The Kyrie the stayed (mostly) healthy this year by relying more on a jump shot is not worth a max deal in my opinion. A catch22 sort of deal here.
There are a couple ways to look at a "max contract" though..
1) Straight money draw to the Cavs that Kyrie brings in... Here I would guess Kyrie definitely deserves a max deal from the Cavs. I'm guessing LeBron would be worth $100+ mil a season if a max contract was measured this way, as an example.
2) Pure skill+reliability a player has compared to his peers around the league. Again, driving and finishing Kyrie is worth max money here. Hurt Kyrie is not. Jumpshot Kyrie is not. Again, in my opinion.
When these two things are both met by a player, he DEFINITELY deserves the max. When they are not, things can get dicey. Only having 'option 1)' would be a poor use of cap space because that cap space used doesn't really make your team better on the court. 'option 2).'. I suppose financially you shouldn't spend money that isn't being drawn in?
Sorry for length here, just had to lay it all out there ha. Thoughts?
