Duke4life831 wrote:sp6r=underrated wrote:Duke4life831 wrote:You can basically pencil in Kyrie as 25+ppg and flirting with 50/40/90 every season. His TS% would be ridiculous if he ever started to bait for fouls. Which is the thing I find most enjoyable about his game, he doesnt foul hunt, he just contorts himself and uses crazy english for amazing finishes.
Dallas for sure is a team to watch out for in the playoffs. They got 2 straight up unguardable guys in Luke and Kyrie. They also dont have to rely on a Maxi/Powell rotation at the 5. Now they have Gafford and Lively taking up minutes at the 5.
That is a team that you dont want to face in the playoffs this year.
I know why the NBA wrote the rulebook the way they did. It really does make offensive explosions easy which is what fans want according to the data. But one they missed is fans greatly prefer watching players get points the way Kyrie does then the endless foul baiting.
Yup. It also kills any argument of, "these guys are just so skilled, defenders have to foul because they get beat." Kyrie is as skilled as they come and the dude has a FTr of just .190 so far this season.
And thats the funny thing about Kyrie, I think the best part about his game is probably the biggest negative about his game when it comes to advanced stats. What does Kyrie's numbers look like if he's getting 7-9 FTs per game, instead of just 3? He probably goes from a 25ppg guy with a TS% around 59-60, to a 30ppg guy with a TS% in the mid 60s. Im sure that would give him a nice boost in some of these metrics.
Just from an impact standpoint he should probably play like that. But ya as a fan, I love that he doesnt.
Yeah with all that considered, I think if there was a "shotmaking" stat — as in, it just measures the amount of shots you make any given night — Kyrie might be the league leader. He makes so many buckets. I wish he told himself "Ok, I'm going to get 5 free throw attempts every single game no matter what" so he could average like 6 or 7 attempts game. Even that would push his average to like 28-29 ppg on 63-64 TS% instead of the 27 on 61 or so he's generally at. Especially for the playoffs. But despite that, the impact stats that don't do cumulative numbers actually have him as a top 12 player this year. In the all-around rankings for that stuff, he was top 15 last year and generally ranks around there dating back to 2018. Just an amazing versatile, scalable scorer who doesn't turn the ball over or make a lot of mistakes and is a better defender and much smarter player than people realize. I just want him to make it to and through the playoffs. I know for certain no team can stop Luka, but Kyrie can be at least kind of held down. But with a well-rounded team and Luka to take the main defensive assignments, the worst Kyrie would do I think is like 22/5/5 on decent efficiency for a bad series, and he could explode in others, and that's good enough for Luka and this team. Can't wait to see how things play out.