OrlandoNed wrote:Kyrie is an extremely potent scorer but not much else. Having Lebron on his team taking the primary role as playmaker means Irving doesn't have to worry about anything other than putting the ball through the net. If Irving didn't have Lebron on his team and he was the best player on said team, they'd be a low seed that can't get into the 2nd round.
Lebron is the only reason Irving is in the position to put on a scoring exhibition in the Finals.
It's these kind of statements why certain players do not feel appreciated for what they do.
Let's compare a team to a family. You have a mother, children, father, uncle, aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins. Each family member plays a role.
Going to use stereotype's but they can be switched so people do not feel offended:
Father's - breadwinner, does yardwork, fixes/washes the cars, does maintenance around the house
Mother's - breadwinner, cooks meals, laundry, interior decorating
Mothers/Fathers are the stars of the team, they provide most of the heavy lifting and leadership in the family unit. Now just because the father may make more money and can fix things around the house does not make him the most important person in the family. Or just because the mother provides all the cooking in the house doesn't make her the most indispensable member. The other members of the family may provide elements that may be singular or focused in one area but are necessary for the success of the family.
This is how it looks from the outside is that Kyrie and Lebron are the mother/father of the Cavs but because Lebron makes more money, or can do more things that he would be able to run the family just as well without Kyrie's contributions. We all know that is incorrect. As is it is for all families. The problem is this family does not work as well as the Warrior family, so then Kyrie get's nitpicked for everything that he does not do like Steph Curry. Yet, Lebron remains uncriticized for not being able to create a family that works as well together as other families i.e. the Spurs family, the Warriors family.
We see the success that other families have when they all are working together contributing relatively equally, but when only one or two family members are contributing and the rest of the family is sitting on the couch watching.....then the whole family suffers......