Let's be real, Kyrie is a loser

[godkiller]

Cleveland would be better with Rondo and a 2 shooter that can provide some offense.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Not really. I've been doing it for a while now and it's tiresome to see the same dumb shyt being regurgitated over and over.

That Kyrie impact (negative)

2. I wish I had this data when I wrote my Cavs column last weekend. In those 41 minutes, that group has outscored opponents, 90-61. The plus-29 points is obviously impressive. But just as important, that group held opponents to 61 points.

3. I've been trying to find some combinations to cover up the defensive weaknesses of Love and Irving. It appears Thompson, Shumpert and James can do just that.

How about the Big 3?

To find what three-man combination on the court is most effective for the Cavs, I set the parameters to playing at least 250 minutes together. The stats are per 100 possessions.

Here we go:

1. James, Love, Shumpert: plus-22
2. James, Dellavedova, Love: plus-20.5
3. James, Love, Thompson: plus-19.3
4. James, Dellavedova, Shumpert: plus-19.2
5. James, Dellavedova, Thompson: plus-17.6
6. Dellavedova, Love, Thompson: plus-16.5
7. James, Dellavedova, J.R. Smith: plus-15.6

Where is Kyrie Irving?

He doesn't appear until No. 12 for the Cavs: It's James, Thompson and Irving: plus-12.7

How about the Supposed Big Three of James, Irving and Love?

They don't appear until No. 26: plus-6.6 points.

The worst?

It's Irving, Mozgov and Love: minus-5.4. They have played 304 minutes together.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

1. Dellavedova, Thompson and Shumpert appear in a lot of the top combinations because they bring a defensive presence to the court.

2. When Love and Irving on the court at the same time, opponents often set up and pick-and-roll play against them. That's because Irving has trouble defending point guards, Love does not move well when far away from the basket. So the man being covered by Love will come out and set a pick on the man being covered by Irving -- and that creates problems for the Cavs.

3. When Love is not on the court with Irving, the Cavs have better defenders at guard in Shumpert and/or Dellavedova. That negates some of the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll play.

4. The worst trio of Mozgov, Irving and Love is not a big surprise. Mozgov has not moved well all year and has struggled on defense.

5. Come the playoffs, Coach Tyronn Lue will have to make some hard decisions about combinations. It may mean splitting up some of the playing time with Love and Irving. It may mean more time for Shumpert. It will require the rookie head coach to worry about what combinations will win the games, not who has the maximum contracts.

Cleveland Cavaliers have Terry Talkin' LeBron James and who is the Best 3? -- Terry Pluto (photos)

 

[ROFL_GUY]

I read the thread title in Donald Trump's voice

 

[OG Talk]

I went to see him for the first time in person Friday night in Atlanta.. Watching him on TV doesn't do any justice on how bad his defense is.. He gives so little effort, and even when he tries Jeff Teague had him on skates..

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I wonder if they just need to focus on a running a second unit with Irving-Shump-TT out there, and try to let Irving dominate the ball without losing too much on defense. Obviously no matter what you do Lebron and Irving are going to get a lot of minutes together, but unless Irving turns it around, I'd dial down his minutes and keep them as much as possible to him being on the court whenever Lebron was off.

Last year if they had just rested Irving until the Finals and then had him on the court 20 minutes/game, it would have been huge for the Cavs. They would have had a reliable shooter out there, some semblance of offense when Lebron was sitting, and the Cavs wouldn't have gotten completely gassed and dying playing a 7-man rotation when only 2-3 of those players could do anything on offense. It might be worth looking again at what went so well last year (won 14 of the first 18 playoff games) and tweaking it rather than trying to focus on this being the "big 3" team.

 

[Long Live The Mamba]

But he was the missing piece last year

 

[IllmaticDelta]

outside of handles, I see nothing great about him. He can't pass and his defense is terrible.

Cavaliers change defensively without Kyrie Irving

Here are five observations following the 112-103 win:

No Kyrie, no problem – I won't get too carried away about how the Cavaliers played without Kyrie Irving on Sunday afternoon because Irving was part of the Cavs' impressive performance Friday night against Atlanta and they wouldn't have won the game without his clutch free-throw shooting. Plus, he's been in the lineup for plenty of quality wins and the Cavs' best lineup statistically speaking has included him, according to NBA.com.

This won't be a debate or a breakdown of how the Cavs are better without Irving. There's a difference between better and, well, different.

The numbers back up the ball moving more and the assist totals increasing. Still, the biggest change for the Cavs sans Irving is on the defensive end of the floor.

In the 29 games without Irving (yes, I'm counting the Oklahoma City bed-bug game where the point guard played nine minutes), the Cavs are allowing 96.0 points on 1045-of-2382 (43.8 percent) from the field.


Extrapolate those numbers over the course of the season and the Cavs would rank second in points allowed and fifth in opponent's field goal percentage -- a number the Cavs value greatly.


In the 48 games with Irving (not counting the Thunder game), the Cavs are allowing 99.2 points, which would rank seventh in the NBA. The opponent's offensive rating is 107.3 with Irving on the court. It drops to 102.1 with him on the sidelines.


So what does this mean? Are the Cavs better without Irving?


No. There are always challenges with three All-Stars and there are spurts where the team will flow offensively with one of them out. It's more natural and it's easier to distribute the looks. The ball is in James' hands more and Love is used a lot like he was in Minnesota.


All of that helps explain the offensive showing against the Hornets, as Kevin Love poured in 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting.

Cavaliers change defensively without Kyrie Irving and why LeBron James tweaked free-throw routine: Fedor's five observations

 

[IllmaticDelta]

A trend has developed in Cavs top assists games of the year. Either Kyrie is out for the game or else he is not the distributor.

Cavs had 5 games this season with 30+ assists, including the game against the Hornets yesterday. Here's how they look.


38 ASSISTS === DEN === Kyrie 3 assists (LeBron 11 assists; Delly 7; JR 5; Iman 4)
34 ASSISTS === ORL === Kyrie out
34 ASSISTS === PHX === Kyrie 3 assists (LeBron 09 assists; Delly 7; Love 4; JR 4)
34 ASSISTS === CHO === Kyrie out
30 ASSISTS === MIN === Kyrie 4 assists (LeBron 09 assists; Delly 7)


So when the team really moves the ball, either Kyrie is not playing in the game or else he is not one of the top two distributors on the team.

 

[G-Zeus]

But he was the missing piece last year

he is not playing the same since the injury.. be a troll that believes his own trollin brehs

 

[IllmaticDelta]

article from earlier today

The Cavaliers' defense could be their downfall

The Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday as they start gearing up for the postseason. Cleveland would secure the No. 1 seed with a win and could turn its attention towards an Eastern Conference field that’s stronger than in year’s past.

In particular, the point guards in the Eastern Conference could give the Cavaliers fits.

The last time the Cavaliers went to Indiana, George Hill scored a season-high 23 points. That was on Feb. 1 and served as a harbinger of sorts for Cleveland’s inability to stop opposing point guards.

Since the All-Star break, starting point guards are averaging 18.2 points per game against the Cavaliers and shooting just under 50 percent from the field. No team has been scored on more by opposing starting point guards. Only the Chicago Bulls have allowed them to shoot a higher percentage over that span.

In theory, the Cavaliers should hold an advantage at the point guard position in most games. However, when factoring in both points scored and points assisted on, opposing point guards have accounted for more points per game than Kyrie Irving has since the All-Star break.

Starting Point Guards
Since All-Star Break


Kyrie Irving Cavaliers Opponents
PPG 19.8 18.2
FG pct 42.8 49.3
APG 4.8 6.2

While he isn’t the only one to blame for the Cavaliers problem defending point guards, Irving isn’t offering much resistance either. ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus has an offensive and defensive component. Of the 85 qualified point guards, Irving ranks 82nd this season in Defensive RPM, ahead of only Derrick Rose, Zach LaVine and J.J. Barea.

With Irving slipping from fifth among point guards in Offensive RPM in 2014-15 to 13th this season, there hasn’t been as much of a cushion to make up for the lapses on the defensive end.

Lineup data suggest the Cavaliers could benefit from playing more lineups with Matthew Dellavedova alongside LeBron James and Kevin Love. The Cavaliers have played 677 minutes this season with those three on the floor together without Irving.

In that time, they’ve allowed 96.6 points per 100 possessions, which would rank second in the NBA behind only the San Antonio Spurs. With those lineups on the floor, the Cavaliers are allowing opponents to shoot just 42.4 percent, including 31.3 percent from beyond the arc – both of which would lead the NBA.

In lineups with Irving, James and Love on the floor but not Dellavedova, the Cavaliers are allowing 104.5 points per 100 possessions.

In a postseason in which the Cavaliers could potentially face Reggie Jackson in the First Round, Isaiah Thomas or Kemba Walker in the Conference Semifinals, Kyle Lowry in the Conference Finals and Stephen Curry in the NBA Finals, stopping point guards could be of the utmost importance if Cleveland hopes to finally win that elusive NBA title.

The Cavaliers' defense could be their downfall

Kyrie and his sh!tty defense

 

[Barry Sanders]

 

[T.he I.nformant]

A lot of nikkas in this thread need to hold that L

 

[KRiLL (+)]

outside of handles, I see nothing great about him. He can't pass and his defense is terrible.

he might be but is he lying

And you have nikkas actually debating whether he is better than John Wall.

Give me Wall any day of the year,

John Wall is better than Kyrie at everything but shooting.

We need winners, not losers, okay. I know winners, believe me. I'm the best winner, and I know winners. Little Kyrie has always been a loser, and if you keep him as your point gaurd, your whole team will be losers. I'm not making this up, people.

players like kyrie NEVER build you a winning culture, never. And same with Kevin Love.

Teams are having ball movement where players work on both ends of the floor. This wannabe allen iverson tunnel vision no defensive shyt is outdated, this guy looking like tracy mcgrady when tmac starts shooting those inefficient long range 2s. Look at recent champs, do you see any tunnel vision one dimensional scorers winning championships?

Everybody knew kyrie was selfish before Bron joining cavs again. And he can't even stay healthy when he's a 2nd option. Holly shyt did Bron make a career mistake.

Kyrie is an elite offensive player. Handles , jumpshot, 3 pt ability, and finishing around the rim with both hands.
Outside of curry and cp3 he probably best pg when you combine those attributes
Problem is..... THATS IT
Bol basketball iq is terrible
Bol passing and court vision is terrible
Bol defense is terrible
Bol body language and attitude is
Bol leadership abilities are terrible


You can not build a good team around him as we already saw cause he can't elevate bad players to be better
And with his shytty defense, bball iq, and attitude you have to wonder if he can even be an effective beta dawg/helper on a chip winning team

And brehs swore he's better than Rondo

When people do these kind of comparisons. A lockdown defender with ulimitedcourt vision vs A take you off the dribble light you up guy. Kyrie gotta be compared to PGs like Dame and Curry, and I like kyrie but I'm taking Dame or Curry over him

Thus guy may the only player in recent memory who peaked as a 18 year old rookie.

But you know games didn't matter then. Who can't put up empty stats on a 20 win team.

Cleveland would be better with Rondo and a 2 shooter that can provide some offense.

But he was the missing piece last year

WORLD CHAMPION, ON YOU HOE ASS nikkaS...

 

[Da King]

players like kyrie NEVER build you a winning culture, never. And same with Kevin Love.

Teams are having ball movement where players work on both ends of the floor. This wannabe allen iverson tunnel vision no defensive shyt is outdated, this guy looking like tracy mcgrady when tmac starts shooting those inefficient long range 2s. Look at recent champs, do you see any tunnel vision one dimensional scorers winning championships?

Everybody knew kyrie was selfish before Bron joining cavs again. And he can't even stay healthy when he's a 2nd option. Holly shyt did Bron make a career mistake.

 

[BurnSlow]

Are nikkas just searching for these threads. The cypher is etherous and beautiful tho