jbk1234 wrote:To do this now goes beyond selfish.
There is the selfish element of it, for sure, but there's also the "overvaluing of self" element about it that makes it a combination of sad and funny at the same time.
Kyrie isn't Kobe, isn't Westbrook, isn't Harden and so forth. He's extremely good at what he does well, and he's quite poor at what he does not do well.
Two pieces came out today that put things into better perspective. One is from Zach Lowe and one is from 538. I made posts about each article in another thread.
As Lowe said, it's almost unheard of for a player to walk out on a Top 3 All Time talent like LeBron. It doesn't happen. Particularly for someone of Kyrie's limited ability. It would be like Magic walking out on Kareem, except Magic >>>> Kyrie.
In the subjective world of the "Someone stood up to LeBron, yay!" crowd, what Kyrie is doing makes sense. From almost any other perspective, it makes no sense. Not from either a timing or a likelihood-of-success angle.
What the 538 article mentions, in contrast to the concept that LeBron hinders Kyrie, is that LeBron play style actually seems to help Kyrie be at his best. And that apparent truism is reflected in the data that Lowe presents as regards what Kyrie does when LeBron leaves the floor. As well as the data of how the Cavs perform when LeBron sits out games.
There is a tremendous amount of risk for Kyrie in what he's doing. I know Kyrie has regretted how he's handled decisions in his career before (I'm thinking of his and Mike Brown's relationship here), and my guess is he'll end up regretting this choice (at least how he's handling it) as well.
Also a podcast
