GeorgeMarcus wrote:Kyrie certainly has the edge when looking at prime/career but what is the verdict on 3-year peaks? 05-07 Arenas landed 3 consecutive All-NBA bids (1 2nd and 2 3rds) which is the exact same as Kyrie minus the consecutive part. I don't think there's a clear answer on which seasons qualify as Kyrie's 3-year peak so I will defer to the people on that one.
Gilbert was a certified bucket, and a killer on the court. Dude dropped 60 on Kobe's head effortlessly. Honestly one of my favourite players of all time.
It's honestly hard to pin point Kyrie's prime, but I'd say 2018, 2019, 2021 (only 20 games played in 2020) is a relatively safe bet. Over those 3 years he has the following stats
PPG - 25.2
RPG - 4.6
APG - 6.1
SPG - 1.3
TO - 2.5
PER - 24.7
BPM - 6.8
TS - 60.3%
League average TS - 56.2% (+4.1%)
Arenas has the following stats over the 3 year run
PPG - 27.7
RPG - 4.3
APG - 5.7
SPG - 1.9
TO - 3.3
PER - 23.0
BPM - 4.8
TS - 57.0%
League Average TS - 53.5% (+3.5%)
Arenas played way more minutes, but Kyrie played in a much faster paced league. If we adjust their stats for PER100 possessions they get the following stats
Kyrie
PPG - 36.8
RPG - 6.7
APG - 8.9
SPG - 2.0
TO - 3.6
Gilbert
PPG - 34.8
RPG - 5.3
APG - 7.2
SPG - 2.4
TO - 4.2
This honestly surprised me... Kyrie is a better scorer, better passer, and turns the ball over far less. I do feel Gilbert is more explosive, he would go on heaters for stretches and look unstoppable. He would also have some stinkers. Kyrie on the other hand was much more consistent, very rarely would he have a bad game, but very rarely would he go off. Kyrie just had a deeper bag, so on a possession by possesion basis he was harder to stop. Gilbert on the other hand was alot like Harden, he relied alot on his jumper + the whistle. If his jumper wasn't falling it was much easier to contain him. I also feel like Arenas had more of a "chuckers" tendency to him, and he had to shoot his way out of a slump vs Kyrie who had a multitude of different ways of scoring.
Gilberts highs are better than Kyrie's, but his lows are also much lower. Both are best suited to be second options, and in that regard give me Kyrie. I feel like he's one of the few ball dominate point guards who has elite off ball abilities.