Kyrie Irving is one of the best one on one players in basketball and one hell of a shooter but he’s barely been a point guard in his career. Lebron ran the show in Cleveland and for all the talk this offseason of how much higher Kyrie’s assists were going to be now that he was out of Lebron’s shadow he’s still setting up teammates only about as often as Demar Derozan does. And that’s why I think Lowry really has been a better true point guard and is a better point guard than Irving. Irving is more of a scoring combo guard playing point guard with weak defence. In some ways he functions more like a rich man’s Demar Derozan than he does a 2-way floor general like Kyle Lowry.
Here’s a quick comparison between Demar Derozan and Kyrie Irving:
http://bkref.com/tiny/L7o05Derozan even gets more assists than Irving and their turnovers aren’t even that far off! And Derozan’s a pure 2.
Look at some of those baseline comparables. Their teams give them similar shot attempts and they set up teammates about the same. Derozan slashes more and gets to the line more. Irving shoots the 3 more. They’re both 1-way scoring guards but Kyrie is better at it and more efficient at it because he has the 3 ball as a weapon and Derozan doesn’t. Irving’s defence will continue to slip though as it has in years past in DRPM and in the end on the year he’ll just be the better version of a Derozan type. A guy who helps you more overall on offence than Derozan does with greater efficiency from 3 point shooting but a guy whose defence hurts you.
I’d rather hide my defensive weakness at SG and have him guard 3&D types in the corner than at the point of attack vs these new offences which are tailored around scoring PGs though and that’s what the Raptors have been able to do with Derozan. Having top 10 defences despite him playing 36mpg.
When it comes to making teammates better through passing, or defending, or active, vocal leadership Lowry is above Irving in each of those areas. CP3 has loved Lowry for years for these reasons because they’re areas where CP3 is special too. The biggest advantage Irving has over Lowry is ball handling and individual scoring in one on one situations. If the question is who’s the better scorer it’s Irving. If the question is who is better at making something out of nothing with flare it’s Irving. If it’s who steps onto the court and makes their teammates better on both sides more it’s Lowry. Look at Patterson’s RPM with Lowry and Patterson without him. Look at Biyombo with Lowry and Biyombo without. Look at the way he leads those Raptors bench units and gets the most out of unheralded draft steals by putting the ball in their hands exactly when it’s right to. He figures out where guys like the ball and what they’re good at and gets them there. And Irving and Lowry both shoot the 3 about the same in the end.
This will be Irving’s first test in the playoffs without Lebron and Love as an offensive focal point versus NBA playoff level defences with more time to scheme him. So, it will be interesting to see if Irving’s playoff efficiency remains as high. My guess is that it won’t and that teams will try and force the younger Celtics to beat them.
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