Kyrie Irving

[RappSoda]

I was thinking the same about ESPN. How was that last play not the top play of the day?

i think rose' game winner beats out kyrie's shot..

Well even with that he didn't sniff the top 5.

I looked at the NBA top 10 and Kyrie was 5. Honestly, the four ahead of him were damn good.

[Housh]

That compliment would have so much more satisfying if it came from anyone not named Skip Bayless. You just can't take that guy seriously.

He says shit just to be "that guy"

[Rob]

That compliment would have so much more satisfying if it came from anyone not named Skip Bayless. You just can't take that guy seriously.

Agreed. He's a clown.

[Cratylus]

I was thinking the same about ESPN. How was that last play not the top play of the day?

Because Plays 1-5 were:

5. Derrick Rose - hit game winning shot.
4. Jeremy Lin - ate breakfast.
3. Jeremy Lin - sneezed and blew his nose.
2. Jeremy Lin - watched two old episodes of This Old House.
1. Jeremy Lin - took a 1-pound dump at 3:31 PM.

[Jon]

Isn't time kind of telling now? I mean, it has been a trend for Kyrie to take over in the 4th, so stamina must have something to do it. I just see Kyrie doing this all of the time, by now you'd think that teams would come in prepared to not let him get to the rim, yet he keeps getting to the rim. He gets there whenever he wants.

We'll see. He certainly has a terrific ability for getting to the rim and finishing but otoh, it's still his first time around the league .vs. a lot of teams, and even so teams generally don't know the cross conference teams very well given they play at most 2 games a year.

I do think our strategy of holding him back until the 4th is helping him finish strong.

[Bob_The_Cat]

I was thinking the same about ESPN. How was that last play not the top play of the day?

For those who didn't see it, on First Take they were just debating who would you rather build your team around, Rose or Kyrie. Skip was just gushing over Kyrie, saying how Rose will never be close to Kyrie as a shooter, that Irving is already a better distributor, and that he has an easier time getting into the lane than Rose (Rose definitely relies on his strength to power through defenders). Now, Kyrie certainly will never be the pure athlete that Rose is. However, once his body matures some he's going to become that much better at finishing at the rim, which is kind of scary since he's already elite in that category.

Kyrie wants the game on his shoulders. That much has become clear. He was having a pretty abysmal game up until the last 2:35 of the 4th, and then he absolutely took over. With 2:35 left and the Cavs down two, Kyrie converted on two and-1's, assisted Gee on a crucial bucket, made two layups in the last 24 sec (one the game winner), and forced Lawson into an extremely difficult shot that would have won the game.

I was a huge Kyrie supporter going into the draft, but he has continually blown me away this season. I never could've imagined that he'd show this type of late game moxie, especially with all the circumstances surrounding his rookie season (recovering from injury, no offseason workouts, shortened season, crappy team, etc). He went from having a sub-par game last night to throwing the team on his shoulders and hitting another game winner in a matter of 2:35. There are very few guys in the league that are capable of doing that, let alone a rookie. I just can't wait to see what this kid does with another weapon on the perimeter and a full offseason. The sky is the limit.

[Czvosec]

18-8-5 with 3 steals on 50% shooting? Damn this kid's good...

[BigErieCavsFan]

Well even with that he didn't sniff the top 5.

Kyrie's play was #6 and Gee's dunk was #5 on the NBA top 10.

[MRMsix6]

Did you guys hear what Skip had to say about Kyrie?

They were comparing him to Rose..Skip said he'd rather have Kyrie for the future. He also said that Kyrie was the better shooter, passer, and is better at getting to the rim and finishing.

I was shocked. I'm pretty happy with Kyrie and wouldn't trade him for anyone, but a better finisher than Rose? I can't give Kyrie the nod on passing either.

Regardless it's way too early in Kyrie's career to really compare these two.

Just thought what he had to say was very interesting.

It's called attention seeking. Nothing this man says can be taken seriously. He's made a good TV career out of trying to get a rise out of people. Just know that his primary intention with these statements is to rile people up rather than praise Kyrie or provide legit analysis.

[MRMsix6]

Because Plays 1-5 were:
1. Jeremy Lin - took a 1-pound dump at 3:31 PM.

That is quite impressive. No qualms about that one.

[Jon]

I think it has to do more with how smooth Kyrie looks when he finishes if that makes sense. I like Rose a lot and he can get to the rim at will but when you compare the two, Kyrie just looks smoother when he penetrates and finishes. Rose is superior athletically and he uses his athleticism to finish at the rim. In way, he looks a little mechanical but he gets the job done. Kyrie doesn't look mechanical at all. The kid is just friggin smooth with the rock.

The Bulls play very well even without Rose, so when the Bulls face a team that can defend Rose and he can't get to the rim at will but yet he forces up shots anyway - you can can argue he becomes a detriment. The potential for Kyrie to change speeds and score even in a crowd is there. His ability to just pop-in J's is there. His sense that he needs to get his teammates involved is there.

Skip in this case just likes the potential of the PG with more weapons, because when it comes to the big games ... you need them.

[Pavlovic3Ball]

Anyways, I would take Irving over Rose. Rose needs the ball in his hands 100% of the time, still not a great defender, and not always very efficient. Im not saying the kid isn't the best player at his position, but its a lot easier to build around Kyrie. And Rose's game is going to get ugly fast if his athelticism starts to slip. Irving is the kind of player that plays well into his thirties.

[bushwick_bill]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...sct=nba_t11_a1

Three years ago, I was assigned a story for the magazine about a high-school basketball game between Mater Dei and St. Benedict's. The magazine does not usually feature high-school basketball, but this was no ordinary game. Mater Dei, in Southern California, was 23-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation. St. Benedict's, in New Jersey, was 19-0 and ranked No. 2. They were meeting at Mater Dei, in something called the Nike Extravaganza, which one college scout compared to the Super Bowl. The teams combined for more than 10 Division-I prospects, with two committed to North Carolina, two to Texas, and others to UCLA, USC, Stanford and Pittsburgh. St. Benedict's best player was a precocious power forward named Tristan Thompson who called the showdown "the top of the mountain."

The extravaganza was on a Saturday and we spent the week interviewing coaches and players from both sides. On Wednesday, the teams had tuneups, Mater Dei at home against Santa Margarita, St. Benedict's at Rutgers against St. Patrick. I watched Mater Dei thrash Santa Margarita, and during the game, checked to make sure St. Benedict's dispatched St. Patrick.

As expected, it was a blowout. St. Benedict's, though, lost by 26 points. They still flew to the West Coast afterward, and took on Mater Dei 72 hours later, but the stakes were not the same. The story was junked. I later learned how exactly it fell apart. St. Patrick unleashed a new point guard on St. Benedict's, who had only played in five games but scored 21 points against the juggernaut from Jersey. His name was Kyrie Irving.

"Kyrie was a mystery man," said Thompson, for a profile of Irving in last week's issue of Sports Illustrated. "You heard about him, but you didn't know what he could do." Thompson flashed back to that high-school game nine months ago, when he sat next to Irving on a bus, headed to the Prudential Center in Newark for the NBA draft. The Cavaliers selected Irving first, with a pick acquired from the Clippers, and Thompson fourth, with a pick earned from their own 19-63 record. Now, Irving and Thompson both live in apartments in downtown Cleveland, carpooling to practice in the suburbs. On game days, they drive 25 minutes to Krispy Kreme, where they fetch doughnuts for their teammates.

The Cavaliers are trying to treat them like 19-year-old rookies instead of franchise saviors. But Irving makes it hard sometimes, averaging 18.6 points and 5.2 assists per game, and nailing three game-winning shots, including Wednesday night's end-to-end layup in Denver. He stands out even in this era of the point guard. Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook may be more explosive drivers, and Rajon Rondo and Ricky Rubio more telepathic passers, but today's best young point guards are often unreliable shooters.

LOWE: The fastest point guard really is ...

Irving separates himself because, in addition to his driving and passing, he shoots 48.3 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from three-point range. Not only is he better than his peers from the field, he is more than nine percentage points better from three. Rose is obviously stronger and Rondo probably quicker, but defenses cannot sag off Irving, so he has extra room to penetrate.

Cleveland has already lost 23 games this season and will drop many more. Power forward Anderson Varejao is still out with an injured wrist and the Cavaliers are still on the first floor of their rebuilding project. But what made Irving a mystery in high school is what makes him a fit in Cleveland. He spent his first two high-school seasons at Montclair Kimberley Academy, where grade-point average is more important than field-goal percentage. He came off the bench for his AAU team, the New Jersey Roadrunners, and once asked head coach Sandy Pyonin why he was getting any minutes at all. Thompson wondered what was wrong with Irving, since he didn't go to a better basketball school or play for a bigger AAU program. "That's what most guys do," Thompson said.

But Irving thrived in relative anonymity. He worked out every day at the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association, in a window-less basement gym where he played full-court games of one-on-one to 100 against Pyonin. At St. Patrick, he added late-night one-on-one against a Panamanian priest who lived across the street. Irving's desire for a larger stage took him to St. Pat's, Duke and the NBA after only 11 college games. But Montclair Kimberley coaches do not feel like Irving slighted them at all. Rather, he gave them two more years than they could have imagined.

PHOTOS: Top point guards in the NBA

There is no telling how long Irving will spend in Cleveland, but judging from his background, he won't be rattled by a couple seasons in the shadows. "I just love the game," Irving said. "Being in Cleveland adds to it."

Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott is grooming Irving the same way he did Chris Paul, trusting him with final shots in close games. Irving must score more than the Cavs would like, so his efficiency rating has dipped in recent weeks, but it remains higher than Magic Johnson's as a rookie. Irving will need a lot of help moving forward, from Thompson, Varejao and another high draft pick who turns into a scoring wing. Possible candidates range from North Carolina sophomore Harrison Barnes to Kentucky freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Oddly enough, Kidd-Gilchrist played with Irving at St. Patrick and was part of the team that took down St. Benedict's, a high-school game in New Jersey that could live forever in Cleveland.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1oY6m14qy
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1oY6hfgEv

[Rob]

Anyways, I would take Irving over Rose. Rose needs the ball in his hands 100% of the time, still not a great defender, and not always very efficient. Im not saying the kid isn't the best player at his position, but its a lot easier to build around Kyrie. And Rose's game is going to get ugly fast if his athelticism starts to slip. Irving is the kind of player that plays well into his thirties.

Well said.

[Obawan12]

Hollinger in his chat today:

Paul (Cleveland)

How about that Kyrie Irving? What do you think his ceiling is?

John Hollinger (2:11 PM)

Heck of a player, reminds me of a bigger CP in some ways with how under control he is all the time and his technical skill. Wouldn't shock me if he's the league's best PG in five years.