Kyrie Irving: "I'M the point guard."

[3ball]

.
"For us, it's just a better communication between me and Coach Blatt," Irving said. "That's basically what it boils down to. I'm his point guard out there, and some things that I see, you know, he has plays in his mind and I have plays in my mind as well.



Now I like Kyrie's swagger - he ain't the leaf blowing in the wind that Chalmers was alongside Lebron, but I see a problem here.

Last night, despite not doing anything, Lebron's time of possession was 5.1 minutes, good for 23rd in the league on a per-game basis and tops in the league for non-point guards (again), while Kyrie's time with the ball was 6.2 minutes, good for 12th in the league.

http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/possessions/



Last YEAR, the numbers were IDENTICAL... Lebron was at 5.1 minutes per game for the entire season, and Kyrie at 6.2... http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/possessions/?Season=2013-14



So nice coaching Blatt - way to corral these guys and make sure they are trying to play together, rather than just play their regular game... Blatt looking like Scott Brooks out there... :roll:

Hey, at least Lebron got a whopping 5 assists last night out of his ball-domination - close to his 6 assist average of last year... He's always been a goat-level passer.. :rolleyes:

Phil Jackson must have been smiling and rubbing his hands together last night... Should be a fun season.

[SavageMode]

Nah, Phil Jackson is probably pissed.

This Knicks team did not play any triangle offense at all last night.

[HurricaneKid]

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Kyrie is no PG. He is a slashing 2 guard in a PG body.

Did you see that play where he and LeBron had a 2 on 1? LeBron had nothing but the basket in front of him but Kyrie took two dribbles, covered almost half the court before he looked up and passed and was fouled on the pass. A PG had LeBron on a breakaway and either refused to give it to him or was too busy watching himself dribble for half the court and cost his team a basket. I don't even know which is worse: that Kyrie would look off the best finisher in the game undefended or that he can't look up and dribble with his left in the open floor.

LeBron was terrible last night. He wanted to be the distributor and went so far outside of his game he could never get back. But the stuff you saw from the rest of the team was far scarier. Not even attempting to defend; lazy PnRs, not rolling, etc.

[ralph_i_el]

Lebron had a bad game. Now I'm convinced that he was never good.

MJ never had a bad game. Not even once.

[Ramza]

Bran was always a Beta. So what else is new?

[PleezeBelieve]

Kyrie PG insincts suck

[DonDadda59]

Uncle Drew on some Somali Pirate bullshit.

http://media.giphy.com/media/rVZEejvVWEbug/giphy.gif

[STATUTORY]

mid 20th century novelist thomas wolfe once wrote "you can't go home again" well nikkas, I guess Lebron be proof of that

Lebron thoought he was returning to the small sleepy town of cleveland where the ball is just waiting for him to dominate and all his teammates just waiting to do his bidding standing around the 3 point line spotting up for the king

But naw this ain't the cleveland he once knew. and this is not a team he will be able to lord and bully over

Kyrie Irving "I AM THE POINT GUARD. He's got plays in mind but I decide what plays get run"
:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:


get ready to wait for your turn on the buffet line like a welfare nikka Bran

[QuebecBaller]

Lebron: "Yes Kyrie, you are the point guard. But that's MY ball, MY team and MY fans!" :D

[FatComputerNerd]

Sorry, but this IS Kyrie's team, not Lebron's.

Kyrie needs to continue to assert himself, and should never take a back-seat.

[Fudge]

Bron is gonna stunt Irving's growth as a PG and player. I could already see it.

[Real14]

Sorry, but this IS Kyrie's team, not Lebron's.

Kyrie needs to continue to assert himself, and should never take a back-seat.

Kevin Love will be either 1A or 1B tho.

[Real14]

Bron is gonna stunt Irving's growth as a PG and player. I could already see it.
Watch him do him wrong like he did Wade wrong in 2011 finals.

[Kingwillball]

Sorry, but this IS Kyrie's team, not Lebron's.

Kyrie needs to continue to assert himself, and should never take a back-seat.


:biggums:

[04mzwach]

He was just saying he has to communicate and execute out there is my understanding. I didn't think he was crapping on Lebron.

[Real14]

:biggums:
:applause: :oldlol:

[FatComputerNerd]

Kevin Love will be either 1A or 1B tho.

That will vary from game to game I think.

Hate to use a loss as an example, but Kyrie was our leading scorer and assist man last night.

I'm not saying that he's better than Lebron or Love, nor do I expect him to lead us in scoring every night...just that it is his team, and he is our PG.

[oarabbus]

Nah, Phil Jackson is probably pissed.

This Knicks team did not play any triangle offense at all last night.

They should keep playing whatever it is they played last night.

[SpecialQue]

Sorry, but this IS Kyrie's team, not Lebron's.

Kyrie needs to continue to assert himself, and should never take a back-seat.

This guy gets it.

It WAS Lebron's team, until he shit all over them and decided to go elsewhere to win. Kyrie's been leading this team since 2011. The idea that Lebron can just come back and take it away from him is bullshit.

[Mr.Kite]

Its only 1 game and this shit is already happenning?

[kamil]

This guy gets it.

It WAS Lebron's team, until he shit all over them and decided to go elsewhere to win. Kyrie's been leading this team since 2011. The idea that Lebron can just come back and take it away from him is bullshit.

bingo.

[oarabbus]

This guy gets it.

It WAS Lebron's team, until he shit all over them and decided to go elsewhere to win. Kyrie's been leading this team since 2011. The idea that Lebron can just come back and take it away from him is bullshit.


Kind of, except not really at all since LeBron is way better.

[The_Pharcyde]

This guy gets it.

It WAS Lebron's team, until he shit all over them and decided to go elsewhere to win. Kyrie's been leading this team since 2011. The idea that Lebron can just come back and take it away from him is bullshit.


What has kyrie done to show he is leading this team... They have shown no signs of improvement since he got there.

And don't give me that bullshit that he didn't have the talent to win

There was more than enough talent to make the playoffs last year on that team... And I know I was at 70% of the games, watching from an unbiased POV

[FatComputerNerd]

I don't think Lebron wants to "take it away from him".



People shouldn't read too much into one game. With 3 ball-dominant players in the starting 5 it is going to take some time for everything to gel.

I'm looking forward to tonight's game vs Chicago. We clobbered them in our matchup in pre-season...even with Rose going off for 30 pts, and Lebron barely scoring.

[AirFederer]

Kyrie gonna get sonned by Bron' s mom

[DonDadda59]

We clobbered them in our matchup in pre-season...

:oldlol:

[SugarHill]

This guy gets it.

It WAS Lebron's team, until he shit all over them and decided to go elsewhere to win. Kyrie's been leading this team since 2011. The idea that Lebron can just come back and take it away from him is bullshit.

When a top 2 player comes to your team and actually already has history that predates your entire career as an NBA player on the very same team, it's not your team. :roll:

[jlip]

Its only 1 game and this shit is already happenning?

This

[Milbuck]

When a top 2 player comes to your team and actually already has history that predates your entire career as an NBA player on the very same team, it's not your team. :roll:
Are we sure he's a top 2 player though? Just checked last night's box score and he's in that 70-75 range, imo.

[oarabbus]

Are we sure he's a top 2 player though? Just checked last night's box score and he's in that 70-75 range, imo.


The power rankings have him pretty low right now. But the upside is there.

[FatComputerNerd]

:oldlol:

Okay maybe clobbered is too strong of a term to use, but we did win, even though Rose played out of his mind. :confusedshrug:

[jlip]

Anybody notice how the quote in the OP is clearly about communication issues between Kyrie and the coach, but the OP in his obsession with Lebron made it about... Lebron? Below is the link to the article. Notice how probably 75% of the article is about Kyrie and Coach Blatt. There were only two sentences that mentioned Lebron, and they had little to no connection to Kyrie. The title of the aricle is even, "Kyrie Irving, David Blatt take blame." Here are the paragraphs surrounding quote in the OP.

"Kyrie Irving led Cleveland in both points (22) and assists (seven), but pointed to his four turnovers as proof that he needs to work with coach David Blatt in executing the plays that are being called."

<OP's quote.>


"It's just a better communication between me and Coach Blatt," Kyrie Irving said in assessing Thursday night's loss. "We're just going to continue to grow. It's a process."

"We're just going to continue to grow. It's a process. Within practice, we kind of switch on and off [calling the plays], but for us it's about what's going on out there on the court and what he sees and what I see, and hopefully we can get on the same page pretty soon."

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11795263/kyrie-irving-cites-miscommunication-david-blatt-part-cleveland-cavaliers-loss

[3ball]

"Kyrie Irving led Cleveland in both points (22) and assists (seven), but pointed to his four turnovers as proof that he needs to work with coach David Blatt in executing the plays that are being called."

"I'm the point guard."


"It's just a better communication between me and Coach Blatt," Kyrie Irving said in assessing Thursday night's loss. "We're just going to continue to grow. It's a process."

"We're just going to continue to grow. It's a process. Within practice, we kind of switch on and off [calling the plays], but for us it's about what's going on out there on the court and what he sees and what I see, and hopefully we can get on the same page pretty soon."


Excellent quotes - they show that it's Kyrie calling the plays and taking responsibility for the loss like a true boss mentality... it's his team.

It's interesting though because Kyrie might be forcing Lebron off-ball, but I sense a bruh-ha-ha coming because off-ball players aren't just produced overnight - Lebron hasn't perfected off-ball moves so that he can rely on them exclusively for a big game - he's only known dominating the ball since junior high, which is a contrast to true off-ball players like Jordan and Bird, who honed their off-ball skill since junior high.

While the point of the OP was obviously to shed light on Kyrie having the biggest alpha on the team (bigger than Love's, and Lebron is beta), the OP also points out an interesting coincidence that Lebron and Kyrie's time of possession (ball-domination) was exactly the same in Game 1 as their respective averages for all of last year - this approach will probably not work, but good luck turning lebron into an off-ball player..
.