Not gonna lie, I skimmed
. Kyrie has the edge in shooting and it's comparable in scoring. How many times must I say this? That's it though.
Every other facet of the game is advantage Bron so what it really comes down to is you valuing shooting% and scoring over the entire game.
Obviously when you skimmed you missed this -
Irving: 81 assists and 30 turnovers - 2.7 assists per turnover
Bron: 130 assists and 67 turnovers - 1.9 assists per turnover
Yes Bron is the better passer and playmaker, but for all those extra assists he had (which isn't as big of a # if you add extra usage and distribution loads into the equation), he had over TWICE the amount of turnovers and a worse AST:TO ratio. Which means his playmaking wasn't valuable passed the point of what Irving provided (less touches), because he wasted so many possessions and that's not getting into the fact the shooting possessions and trips to the free throw line as well. Kyrie was more efficient and productive with his load than Bron was with his.
If Bron was out here avg. 17 pts and didn't have his share of big games and quarters in addition to being a table setter and if the Ws and Ls didn't correspond with his better performances I would be prone to agree with you.
What you're failing to realize is that the Cavs needed two out of the three stars to play good-to-great games in order to win, the reason why the Ws and Ls corresponded with his play was largely because when he played shyt, Love would play like shyt too and Kyrie more often than not would be the one that provided efficiency and consistency. He was the aggressor, he was the stable foundation when Bron was going through bouts of FNS, lethargy, and passiveness.
Bron's two most productive games over that span:
vs Pelicans -
Irving (52% shooting, 32 points, 9 assists and 1 turnover)
Bron (52% shooting, 32 points, 9 assists and 4 turnovers)
vs Celtics:
Bron (59% shooting, 41 points, 7 assists and 3 turnovers)
Irving (50% shooting, 27 points, 5 assists and 0 turnvoers
It's no coincidence that Kyrie also balled out in those games too.
The Cavs' ability to win games fluctuated due to Bron's, Love's and Kyrie's play, it two of them didn't play near their best, they'd lose.
It ain't Kyrie who they look to to get other folks going. It ain't Kyrie they look to to guard a top player in the 4th. It ain't Kyrie that is at the top of the opposing Ds hit list.
And it ain't like Bron was getting guys going to a standard that surpassed Kyrie's either (again AST:TO ratio), he did more harm than good when comparing it to Kyrie's playmaking impact. And let's be honest Bron was sleep walking defensively through the majority of those games, he wasn't guarding shyt and was often found out on the defensive end by missing a rotation or doubling up on a player that didn't require an extra defender. And it wasn't like Bron was the lone ranger out there, teams also had to focus on Love and Kyrie (teams' best wing/big man defenders would often guard one of these two), which if you put in frame the differences between all three isn't that notable.
IYou gotta do more than score, especially when you aren't the top focus of the opposing D for me to say that you are outperforming a dude that is scoring and doing that other stuff.
And Kyrie did more than score, he moved the ball constantly to get guys going and would create a lot of mismatches of dumping it down to Love in the post or dragging extra defenders to then finding an open man. For all this 'other stuff' that Bron was vaguely doing, he sure as hell wasn't doing a good job at it. You can harp on all you want about his playmaking/passing, but he wasn't productive doing it -
Over that span Kyrie was top 20 in the league for assists-to-turnovers (currently #15 out of all players in the league)
Over than span Bron was lucky to be top 50 in the league for assists-to-turnovers (currently #44 out of all players in the league)
I don't get why this is so hard to understand.
You continue to ignore this and spew more and more about scoring and shooting which I conceded how many posts ago. So unless you have a substantive response to that, there is really no need to go any further.
I already gave a near absolute response to that, you just can't seem to comprehend for whatever reason that despite Bron's abilities he still wasn't playing better (more efficient and consistent to level of output) than Kyrie was. THE EVIDENCE IS ALL THERE. Instead of skimming over it, read it thoroughly and just maybe you'll understand why I came to the conclusion I did. And don't get it fukked up either, I'm not saying it's a bulletproof-proof, clear case that Kyrie outplayed him, I'm just saying from the evidence, stats and actually watching games that more of an argument can be made for him.
