Elite In Action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxhSj5PMtGs

It's hard to remember anybody who is as ambidextrous from <10' as Kyrie. MJ? Even if so that is pretty damn elite company.

Sorry Terry.


bob



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I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid unless Kyrie improves as a point guard.

So Phil this is your counter argument? This is your evidence that supports your opinion about Kyrie.

Your have already attacked his character in other threads and now you want to impugn his PG skills.

Make your point if you will instead of posting a video of (who the F was that) he is an idiot. Is this the best you can come up with?

He is crap or mediocre at best for assists versus turnovers and the same can be said for his defense. All I did was counter a video with a video.

Who is that guy? He's another human being who sounds very sincere. One can search "Kyrie Irving overrated" and find weeks and months worth of content. It's not rocket science why anyone might think he is overrated.

And Kyrie telling that guy to suck his **** wasn't very convivial.

What if that ball he threw into the stands hit someone in the head?

I'd take Shane Larkin back and put the Kyrie money into the front court. It'd be a shame if this is the result of Ainge's hard work- Hayward as damaged goods and overrated Kyrie Irving.

Irving has to take a leap or two. He is extremely special at scoring. It is a very important skill but he is currently too mediocre at everything else except confidence. Kyrie is probably the best NBA player at making love to the mirror.

Wow, Phil.

No love for Kyrie?

Phil

I posted an offensive highlight because it was fun to watch a magnificent ball handler and scorer. A scorer from all 3 levels. That makes him an elite scorer. That is all the posting was about but because you have been on this negative Kyrie Irving trip you find a video posted by F...face.

Whatever

Kyrie is an elite scorer.  Period.  Full stop.  Every team that wants to go deep into the playoffs needs at least one irresistible force, one unstoppable need-a-bucket-gets-a-bucket guy on offense for crunch time and he's ours.  Tatum is coming along, hopefully Hayward will be doing that by April too but right now the only guy the Celtics have that has the big time experience and cannot be checked is Kyrie.

Kyrie is a mediocre defender.  So was IT.  Lots of point guards are, it's a byproduct of them being smaller and offensively-oriented.  Offensively-oriented players tend to expend less energy on the defensive end.

Kyrie's assist-to-turnover ratio this year is 2.21:1.  Here's some other notable point guards' numbers, this season-to-date:

Russell Westbrook, 2.17:1
John Wall, 1.9:1
Ben Simmons, 2.27:1
Chris Paul, 3.0:1
James Harden, 1.49:1

As you can see, Kyrie's point guard efficiency is right in there with other elite point guards.  CP3's numbers are significantly higher, but he is the facilitator of a high-octane offense (but crappy defense) team.  His scoring #s are a bit off.

Kyrie might not be getting the gaudy assist boxscores that Westbrook, Wall and Simmons get but he is more efficient.  Furthermore, he isn't expected to run the offense on the Celtics like the way all those other PGs are.  Hayward and Rozier and Smart are facilitators on our team too.  Sit Simmons and who is point?  McConnell?  Sure, but he's only playing 14mpg.  Dennis Schroder is playing heavy minutes (28+mpg) but his assist-to-turnover ratio is a poor 1.92:1, and he was a starter for years in Atlanta.  

Could Kyrie work on his defense?  Hell yeah, that has never been a forte of his, but his floor generalship is solid.  He now has the luxury of playing off the ball OR running in the show.  

Kyrie straight up for Anthony Davis? Talk to me. Kyrie for anybody else? Probably not. Roster depth gets you good playoff seeding, and that earns you more home games and that's worth a few points/game, but it's individual quality that wins in playoff crunch time especially on the road.


bob


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Kyrie was elite tonight towards the end. He might take a leap. If he is who he's always been, then trade him. Or he needs to score thirty every night without a lot of ball pounding diva ball and in the flow of the game. Tonight was good Kyrie and a step in the right direction against a miserable team.

gyso wrote:Wow, Phil.

No love for Kyrie?

Again, wow Phil.

After Kyrie lead us back from oblivion, you double down?

The end of that branch must be a very lonely place.

What BobH said X100

He scored or assisted on every Celtics basket except one in the overtime. His assist got us to overtime.

Wow.

He’s not that good, let’s trade him....

cowens/oldschool wrote:He’s not that good, let’s trade him....

LOL...well some are never content ......anyone who's read my drivel here from time to time know I'm always playing "armchair GM"...but I've felt the need to do it less now that Danny has built the team (last year).

while Hayward would not have been my pick as another max player, this is the team Danny built...and its a damn good one.

Does Irving's injury history give me pause about a max deal, sure...but he's one of the elite player in the NBA when healthy for sure.

the ONLY players in the NBA right now that I would consider as upgrades would be Durant and Davis.

neither we have any cap room for ,except  in a trade deal.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 34 minutes ago
Kyrie Irving over the last five games: 29.4 ppg, 5.3 apg, 5.2 rpg, 53.3% 3-pt. "We're going to be fine. I'm going to make sure of it."



bob
MY NOTE:  He also had 12 turnovers over those 5 games, 2.4/game.  That gives an assist:turnover ratio of 2.2:1, roughly his season-to-date numbers.




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Ho hum...another Elite performance from Kyrie.

No pretension, just pure confidence and a complete understanding of his abilities.

"We're going to be fine. I'm going to make sure of it."

Anybody out there doubt what he is saying?

Phil

Everybody sees things differently but there is no need to over-react.

I think we agree on a few things.  You referred to Kyrie as a hybrid shooting guard while I see him as a combo guard.  Sounds quite similar.

Take a step back for a second.

You believe that Kyrie does not make his teammates better.  You have brought up his assists totals.  You seem to have a picture in your mind of what a PG is suppose to be like.  However in the process you completely overlook the coaching philosophy of Brad Stevens.  

This team under Brad was designed to succeed without a PG needing to be the dominate catalyst in terms of assists.  Danny traded one of the best pure assist guys because he did not fit into the style that Brad envisioned for success.  It was Rajon Rondo.  Under Brad's system the pass that turns into an assist is not the most important pass in the sequence.  

You state that you are not seeing much evidence that Kyrie does not make his teammates better.

I disagree.  Kyrie is in fact a perfect fit inside the Celtics offense.  He is not a ball dominant guard (18th among all guards in touches per game) and when he has the ball in his hand it does not stick there eating up valuable seconds on the shot clock.   Kyrie is ranked 67th among all guards in average seconds per touch at 4.33.

But the one thing that seems obvious is the fact that his very presence on the court demands attention which opens up opportunities that for his teammates.  That makes them better and is of tremendous value.

Kyrie is not a great defender but his 103 defensive rating is not bad.  As a matter of fact if you look at all the high profile guards he has a better defensive rating than every single one of them except for Simmons, Conley and Olidipo.

https://stats.nba.com/players/defense/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2018-19&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&PlayerPosition=G

So guys like Curry and Harden and Paul, etc. etc. ect.  have worse ratings.

If you do not see things maybe you just missed seeing things.

If we can't get Shane Larkin back , what is Phil's namesake doing?

jrleftfoot wrote:If we can't get Shane Larkin back ,  what is Phil's namesake doing?

Besiktas (2018--present)

He signed with Beşiktaş of the Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL) on September 11, 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Pressey

I'd trade Hayward and THREE First for Davis!


there, that should get everyone off your back for a while!