Cavs: Kyrie Irving......... Best PG in the NBA now?

[DAF86]

LeBron has taken as many "big shots" as Kobe - in fewer seasons - and has made a lot more of them:



Relative to the league-wide average, James generated 4.8 more total points than expected on his go-ahead shots, which translates to about one entire playoff win beyond what an average shooter would have contributed from the same field-goal distances. And those numbers become magnified when you consider that James’s average go-ahead shot came in a playoff game with championship implications 34 percent greater than the typical postseason contest. After we weight by the leverage of his specific game-winning shot attempts, James generated the equivalent of 8.5 more points than expected, or roughly two playoff wins above average, with his clutch end-of-game shooting alone.

(By contrast, Bryant generated 3.2 fewer points than expected and did it in games that were about 64 percent more important than the average playoff game, compounding the damage of his 1-for-10 performance.)

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/l...is-generation/


Against SA when they won, he made the three that made Ray Allen's shot matter for anything:



He also made the game-winner with the championship on the line in Game 7:




Yet all anyone will remember is The Block. Kyrie's lucky chuck will be forgotten by everyone other than salty LeBron haters.




Unanimous.

Wait. Edit. I don't get that thing. Are Manu's numbers good or bad? :?:

[lefty]

[Obstructed_View]

Maybe not, but like Kobe winning crossed his mind.

And thanks to superior teammates, they both won.

[Thread]

And thanks to superior teammates, they both won.

Like Artest & Kobe when Kobe passed to him.

Pierce about himself. & after he'd swore up & down he'd not return to Los Angeles.

Just shows ta go ya.

[Ice009]

He was arguably in 2007. He was the best PG finisher at the rim and carried the Spurs to the championship in 07. Im not saying he was, but he was in the conversation.

Are you ing high? Tim Duncan was far and away the best Spurs player in the 2007 playoffs. Parker exploited a mismatch in the finals. All the tougher series that the Spurs were in before the finals, Tim Duncan was by far the best Spurs player. Pisses me off as TD should really have that MVP too. Parker didn't carry the Spurs to anything. Tim Duncan was gigantic in the series against the Suns. Never would have even made the finals for TP to exploit boobie Gibson (or whatever his name is) if Tim didn't play great to get us there.

[Ice009]

An incredible stat line:

Kyrie averaged 22pts a game in the regular season, 25 pts a game in the first 3 rounds of the playoffs, and then 27 pts a game in the final 7 games. That is almost unheard of outside of MJ, Lebron and various superstars that win the Championship. Most others scoring average drops off. Ask Kobe the mamba Bryant how that worked out for him.

I'd actually say that if you put a young, prime Kobe on this Cavs team instead of Irving, he would have averaged even more points that Kyrie did. , he may have averaged more than Lebron for the series. Kyrie's compe ion wasn't really that great up until the finals. I don't take what he did before then as much at all. A young Kobe probably easily averages more points per game than Kyrie if he played those teams the Cavs played in the first 3 rounds.