Prokorov wrote:Netaman wrote:vincecarter4pres wrote:There is no confusion between Kawhi and Kyrie. Nor KD and Kyrie. Or AD and Kyrie. Well maybe the latter, almost. He's more Lillard or Paul George than LeBron, obviously and for sure. But he's still a great player, in his prime, a lifelong Nets fan, etc.
Lillard is a perfectly reasonable comp in terms of how they've produced - the difference is that Lillard hasn't bounced around 2 teams. This is going to come off harsher than the reality, but there's a Marbury quality to Irving. Maybe it was just unfortunate circumstances in both CLE & BOS. Or maybe not. If he's the best we can do I have no issue rolling the dice. Giving up DLo is where I have some pause.
remind me of when marbury won a title as a top 2 player on a team? did he do that in china? certainly not in the NBA
Remind me when Marbury played with the equivalent of Lebron (aka prime MJ)?
Remind me again how far Lebron took Cleveland against GSW the year prior to winning the title when Kyrie was hurt? And where Lebron took them the year after he got traded for basically nothing? And how far the Celtics got in the postseason in 17-18 when Kyrie was out vs. this past year with him?
In the 3 years before Lebron came back Cleveland was about 70 games under .500 with Kyrie (they had a **** ton of problems in those years i'm not blaming on Kyrie, just pointing out the absurdity of Lebron's greatness). Year 4 Lebron shows up and gets them within 2 games of a title with Mozgov, Delladova, Shumpert, and Thompson starting next to him. Kyrie deserves plenty of credit for hitting the shots that won the championship when he was healthy, and I'm by no means saying he isn't clutch or an excellent sidekick, but it's impossible to credit another player on the court for elevating a team when Lebron is there literally triple doubling his way to destroying every finals record known to man. He was basically like a powerball ticket for Mozgov, Delly, Thompson, and Shump.
And Boston won 53 games the year before Kyrie got there and with him they went up to...55. And went further into the playoffs both the year he was hurt and the year before he got there vs. the year he was playing. Again, not knocking his contribution just pointing out he's not a case study in carrying teams to new heights.