2012-13 NBA Player Ranking Through 500 - Cleveland Cavaliers Edition

[PosterTime]

WE have a top 25 player for sure.. and he isn't even able to drink legally yet. Lightning has struck twice ..

Neither can I... I had court this morning 20 just doesn't cut it.

I really do think Kyrie will be the best point guard in the game in 3 years. Stats don't tell everything but you know he's special when you watch him. You know he's special when he had one of the best NBA rookie seasons of ALL TIME. The thing that makes him so special is his lack of flaws. His only real flaw is defense, but he's certainly smart enough (BB IQ) to become an excellent defender; it's just going to take hard work. He's so polished, yet there's still so much potential. It's actually quite scary.

He can shoot like a "shooter" can (40% from 3 is rock solid)
He can break a defenders ankles, spin past help, and double clutch reverse and score on a shot blocker.
He can pull up and consistantly hit midrange jumpers when he can't get all the way to the rack.
He can find open/cutting players when he gets swarmed with defenders.
He can put the fucking team on his back doeeeeeee. (he can take over games and take game winners with no fear)

Some other players can do all of those things (rare) but Kyrie has the smarts to know WHEN to make a certain play.

He's special folks, and this all comes with a great attitude. That's the icing on the KyrieCake.



Defense

 

[NtG]

Neither can I... I had court this morning 20 just doesn't cut it.

 

[Nathan S]

What people don't notice is that while Kyrie's regular stats are eye-popping, his crunch times stats were freaking ridiculous. Like, what the fuck is even happening ridiculous.

53.8 points per 48 minutes??? WTF??? This led the league by a MASSIVE margin.

In the 82 minutes of clutch time he played, he shot 31/57 from the field, 4/6 from 3, 26/31 from the line. What the fuck? Not a single player shot a higher percent while having as few of their baskets assisted. Of players who shot a higher percentage from the field than Kyrie, Tim Duncan came closest to Kyrie's scoring rate at 32 points per 48 minutes, and 50% of his buckets were off assists. Chris Paul shot fully 12 percentage points worse than Irving, and at 41 points per 48 minutes was well off the pace in volume as well. A guy called Lebron shot 45% from the field while scoring 40 points per 48 minutes, AND was assisted more often than Kyrie. Anthony and Durant, 2nd and 3rd in clutch scoring rate, both shot under 40% while being assisted, again, *much* more often than Kyrie.

Keep in mind that by any standard other than Kyrie, guys like Duncan, Paul, Lebron, Anthony, and Durant were awesome in clutch time. I haven't even brushed on guys like Kobe (33/21/80 shooting), Rondo (26/0/87 shooting), Harden (30/0/70 shooting), and Iguodala (24/20/35 (not a typo) shooting) who all had truly humiliating clutch numbers. Kyrie's supposed "rival" John Wall? He had 17/0/66 shooting splits in crunch time. Yeah, that bad.

I mean, there's no way he's actually this good, right? He can't possibly be able to raise his game to this level consistently, right? But 82 minutes is actually a significant amount of playing time, and 57 shots is a significant number of shots. Is it possible that Kyrie can actually *be* this good, or somewhere remotely close to this good, day in and day out someday? I mean, i don't even need to check...I know no rookie has had numbers even approaching these in clutch time. This guy is the real deal, folks.

 

[TopGun]

25 - Manu Ginobli
24 - Marc Gasol
23 - Tyson Chandler

 

[Jon]

James used to play that way (*** FOR US ***) in clutch time, but no, it's not reasonable to expect anyone to play like that for 48 minutes.

One of Kyrie's challenges this season will be playing harder for more minutes per game, and we'll just have to see what he has left in the tank when it's time to close out games.

 

[Douglar]

Looks like Kyrie is going to be just short of the top 20--

 

[SteelSmack]

#22, not bad, kid. Now let's take this top 5 next year.

 

[randymoss1881]

ya not bad for someone who was suppose to be a poor mans cp3 or better yet a mike conely clone. Lets keep that in mind when we look at waiters just becuase espn and others say we reached dosent mean its true. Waiters could go the same way irving did so lets just wait and see him play

 

[Stark]

Been waiting a few weeks to say this.

Fail poll.

 

[davedugan43]

I think Irving is better than KG this year...

 

[Nathan S]

We'll have to see to what extent Kyrie faces tougher defense this year. On one hand, he won't be flying under the radar at all anymore...he'll be every defense's #1 priority on every play. On the other hand, he has a lot more weapons around him than he did a year ago, and should be able to punish defenses for throwing double teams at him too readily. If he can show that he has elite level skills as a passer, his game can take another huge step forward toward superstardom. If he turns out to be merely ordinary as a distributor next season, his performance and the Cavs' performance will both lag behind their potential.

 

[UncleDrew]

#22, not bad, kid. Now let's take this top 5 next year.

I think he goes higher than #22.

 

[JMcCurry08]

That's great he's #22 after one season.....i could see him easily being regarded as the best PG in the league and a top 5 player in two more seasons

 

[ClevelandOwnz]

Been waiting a few weeks to say this.

Fail poll.

lol i had high hopes.. i still say he really is a top 20 player... i'd take him over KG any day. Lets see who else is ranked higher... Deron Williams, I'd take Kyrie over also.

 

[Stark]

lol i had high hopes.. i still say he really is a top 20 player... i'd take him over KG any day. Lets see who else is ranked higher... Deron Williams, I'd take Kyrie over also.

Yeah, I'm just messin'.

Thanks for holding the thread and keeping it updated over the past few weeks. It's been pretty interesting to follow.

Hopefully you'll have to keep it up a couple extra days next year when Kyrie arrives in the top ten.