Shams: Kyrie Irving opting in

[AussieCeltic]

Brunson for Irving? Who says no.

[sp6r=underrated]

Are we sure Kyrie is still trying to win?

I'm not so sure anymore. He might just want checks now.

Plus DC is a short train ride back to NJ where his family is.

I'm not saying it has any chance of happening. Just an idea.

I'm not an east coast person....so a dumb question..... Do rich people ride trains? If not, is it close enough driving where it makes a difference? Like Google says 4.5 hours driving but I could imagine driving is hell through there. At that point, you could just say play in Milwaukee or a city with direct flights to Neward and you would probably get there just as quickly.

I can't speak for the super rich but professionals do take the train from DC to NYC. If you live in the City, which I'm assuming Kyrie does the time is basically the same as the plane without the hassle of the airport. And I find trains more comfortable than plains.

But again the plains he flies on may make the plane more attractive.

Driving from NYC to DC is madness.

[sp6r=underrated]

durant/simmons and elite role players is a title contender. they certainly don't need kyrie as he is an incredibly overrated player, proven by how most teams that get better once he leaves.

Right, it's really odd that people continue to overlook this simply because the dude plays flashy.

This past season was a perfect example. For all the talk about how he ruined the Nets season by not playing, there is some actual evidence to the contrary. They were 30-23 without him and 14-15 with him playing last season, and then 0-4 in the playoffs. And this fits the pattern of most of his career, where he never demonstrably raises the floor of his teams and in some cases doesn't really raise the ceiling either (Boston/Brooklyn).

I'm far from a Kyrie fan and agree with you he's overrated. But both the advanced box score stats and advanced on/off stats tell a similar story he's a pretty good player at his best far from the ATG people think he is. He is a very strong offensive player but never best in the league quality. And he is an atrocious defender. A lot of that is due to innate limitations: he's small and physically weak.

[sp6r=underrated]

Yes rich people take the Acela all the time. I've actually taken it before and ran into NBA players.

Acela will get you between in less than 3 hours.

Flying involves security, checking bags in. A lot of nonsense people don't want to deal with. The whole process will take 5+ hours.

Flight from Milwaukee would be much more of a hassle. And there are not nearly as many direct flights from Milwaukee-Newark as the constant flights/train from DC to Newark.

Trains have WAY, WAY more nonsense going on in NY than flights lol. I'd rather check a bag for a plane than deal with people on trains in that region.

With all due respect you don't know what youre talking about.

Amtraks and particularly Acelas are nothing like subways in NYC. No homeless people or typical shenanigans.

Accela is basically all just rich people.

Just to second Hello Brooklyn, Joe Biden did for decades when he was a Senator for Delaware and even did occassionaly when he was Vice President.

Lots of very prominent and powerful people do. Given what a cluster all of NYC airports are I'd take it. Really only reason to fly to DC is if you live up in westchester and fly in from white plains.

[durden_tyler]

Kyrie to the Knicks please, just for the comedy(and drama).

The perfect fit, i agree.

[Pennebaker]

durant/simmons and elite role players is a title contender. they certainly don't need kyrie as he is an incredibly overrated player, proven by how most teams that get better once he leaves.

Right, it's really odd that people continue to overlook this simply because the dude plays flashy.

This past season was a perfect example. For all the talk about how he ruined the Nets season by not playing, there is some actual evidence to the contrary. They were 30-23 without him and 14-15 with him playing last season, and then 0-4 in the playoffs. And this fits the pattern of most of his career, where he never demonstrably raises the floor of his teams and in some cases doesn't really raise the ceiling either (Boston/Brooklyn).

I'm far from a Kyrie fan and agree with you he's overrated. But both the advanced box score stats and advanced on/off stats tell a similar story he's a pretty good player at his best far from the ATG people think he is. He is a very strong offensive player but never best in the league quality. And he is an atrocious defender. A lot of that is due to innate limitations: he's small and physically weak.

Kyrie is good enough to out-duel and out-perform a legend like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals so he's a little bit better than "a pretty good player." Kyrie can beat and embarrass Steph 1 on 1 any day of the week so you're sleeping on his credentials. In terms of talent, Kyrie is easily one of the most talented players in history.

[sp6r=underrated]

Right, it's really odd that people continue to overlook this simply because the dude plays flashy.

This past season was a perfect example. For all the talk about how he ruined the Nets season by not playing, there is some actual evidence to the contrary. They were 30-23 without him and 14-15 with him playing last season, and then 0-4 in the playoffs. And this fits the pattern of most of his career, where he never demonstrably raises the floor of his teams and in some cases doesn't really raise the ceiling either (Boston/Brooklyn).

I'm far from a Kyrie fan and agree with you he's overrated. But both the advanced box score stats and advanced on/off stats tell a similar story he's a pretty good player at his best far from the ATG people think he is. He is a very strong offensive player but never best in the league quality. And he is an atrocious defender. A lot of that is due to innate limitations: he's small and physically weak.

Kyrie is good enough to out-duel and out-perform a legend like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals so he's a little bit better than "a pretty good player." Kyrie can beat and embarrass Steph 1 on 1 any day of the week so you're sleeping on his credentials. In terms of talent, Kyrie is easily one of the most talented players in history.

NBA basketball isn't played 1 on 1 so 1 on 1 skills are irrelevant.

[kombayn]

Kyrie Irving for Derrick Rose & Julius Randle

[TheLand13]

Every marriage has it's up and downs, you don't just bail when times get tough. I'd like to see a 10-15 year extension worked out between the two sides, and let's be real, just hand the keys to Ky-genius and let him waft his magical sagebrush as player-coach-GM. Brooklyn is a fantastic franchise and Kyrie is a transmental talent. You hate to see these two split up over petty grievances. When Kyrie's cooking in the regular season he's one of the best 1 on 1 players in the game. Brooklyn would be nuts to let that go.

Okay, now let me take you into this world we like to call reality.

Irving has proven time and time again that he’ll put his own selfish needs over the team, to the point where he doesn’t care if that means he’s sitting out for a good portion of the season. His selfish actions not only complicated Brooklyns season and made it more difficult than it needed to be, but it drove James Harden away from the team, a guy who keep in mind the Nets gave up a multitude of assets for, including Jarrett Allen who just became an all star this season. Now they’re stuck with the contract of Ben Simmons who didn’t play at all last year and we don’t know what he’ll be like when he’s back.

Meanwhile, transmental talent? The guy doesn’t have a clue as to how to run an offense. He’s an awful defender. His scoring prowess does not make up for these things. He may be a terrific one on one player, but he makes his teams worse when he’s out there playing. If he’s not having a terrific scoring night on great efficiency, he is hurting your team. That’s not a guy who is worth keeping around.

[LewisnotMiller]

Right, it's really odd that people continue to overlook this simply because the dude plays flashy.

This past season was a perfect example. For all the talk about how he ruined the Nets season by not playing, there is some actual evidence to the contrary. They were 30-23 without him and 14-15 with him playing last season, and then 0-4 in the playoffs. And this fits the pattern of most of his career, where he never demonstrably raises the floor of his teams and in some cases doesn't really raise the ceiling either (Boston/Brooklyn).

I'm far from a Kyrie fan and agree with you he's overrated. But both the advanced box score stats and advanced on/off stats tell a similar story he's a pretty good player at his best far from the ATG people think he is. He is a very strong offensive player but never best in the league quality. And he is an atrocious defender. A lot of that is due to innate limitations: he's small and physically weak.

Kyrie is good enough to out-duel and out-perform a legend like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals so he's a little bit better than "a pretty good player." Kyrie can beat and embarrass Steph 1 on 1 any day of the week so you're sleeping on his credentials. In terms of talent, Kyrie is easily one of the most talented players in history.

Talented one on one scorer? Sure. Awesome to watch when he's cooking. Oozes talent. Really fun player.

Talented defender? Well. He's a good one on one scorer.

Talented point guard? Kind of. Amazing handle, but not amazing at running an offence or generating easy shots for others.

Glue guy? Culture builder? Heart and soul of a franchise? Team mates will bleed for him?

You kinda have to even out the very, very good and the pretty average with Kyrie.

[LewisnotMiller]

Every marriage has it's up and downs, you don't just bail when times get tough. I'd like to see a 10-15 year extension worked out between the two sides, and let's be real, just hand the keys to Ky-genius and let him waft his magical sagebrush as player-coach-GM. Brooklyn is a fantastic franchise and Kyrie is a transmental talent. You hate to see these two split up over petty grievances. When Kyrie's cooking in the regular season he's one of the best 1 on 1 players in the game. Brooklyn would be nuts to let that go.

I thought you were calling out Kyrie with that first sentence, but apparently you're using it to defend him. If we're going with a marriage analogy, Kyrie is the hot older adultress wondering why her new boyfriend doesn't trust her enough to marry her without a prenup.

[Zvaart]

Every marriage has it's up and downs, you don't just bail when times get tough. I'd like to see a 10-15 year extension worked out between the two sides, and let's be real, just hand the keys to Ky-genius and let him waft his magical sagebrush as player-coach-GM. Brooklyn is a fantastic franchise and Kyrie is a transmental talent. You hate to see these two split up over petty grievances. When Kyrie's cooking in the regular season he's one of the best 1 on 1 players in the game. Brooklyn would be nuts to let that go.

Okay, now let me take you into this world we like to call reality.

Irving has proven time and time again that he’ll put his own selfish needs over the team, to the point where he doesn’t care if that means he’s sitting out for a good portion of the season. His selfish actions not only complicated Brooklyns season and made it more difficult than it needed to be, but it drove James Harden away from the team, a guy who keep in mind the Nets gave up a multitude of assets for, including Jarrett Allen who just became an all star this season. Now they’re stuck with the contract of Ben Simmons who didn’t play at all last year and we don’t know what he’ll be like when he’s back.

Meanwhile, transmental talent? The guy doesn’t have a clue as to how to run an offense. He’s an awful defender. His scoring prowess does not make up for these things. He may be a terrific one on one player, but he makes his teams worse when he’s out there playing. If he’s not having a terrific scoring night on great efficiency, he is hurting your team. That’s not a guy who is worth keeping around.

i think he was ironic

[maverick_41]

Brunson for Irving? Who says no.

Dallas.

No need to be so desperate right now.

[GTR11]

Why BSPN just rewind old videos from months ago, nothing changed here.

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=lmRhUKtjejtv9oBMd1YRXg

It's obvious BK don't want Kyrie back and his buddy cosigned on it. Otherwise we would be seeing tweets and completely different talks. Now we need to fund a sucker who will give Kyrie full max. Only team we can use as a leverage is Lakers. Marks got work to do.

[Pennebaker]

I'm far from a Kyrie fan and agree with you he's overrated. But both the advanced box score stats and advanced on/off stats tell a similar story he's a pretty good player at his best far from the ATG people think he is. He is a very strong offensive player but never best in the league quality. And he is an atrocious defender. A lot of that is due to innate limitations: he's small and physically weak.

Kyrie is good enough to out-duel and out-perform a legend like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals so he's a little bit better than "a pretty good player." Kyrie can beat and embarrass Steph 1 on 1 any day of the week so you're sleeping on his credentials. In terms of talent, Kyrie is easily one of the most talented players in history.

Talented one on one scorer? Sure. Awesome to watch when he's cooking. Oozes talent. Really fun player.

Talented defender? Well. He's a good one on one scorer.

Talented point guard? Kind of. Amazing handle, but not amazing at running an offence or generating easy shots for others.

Glue guy? Culture builder? Heart and soul of a franchise? Team mates will bleed for him?

You kinda have to even out the very, very good and the pretty average with Kyrie.

He's been to the NBA finals 4 times and won a championship so you can't question his ability to be the type of winning teammate that can go to the finals and win.

He has proven that he can sacrifice and do whatever is asked of him in order to keep going to the finals and to keep winning. Ty Lue would often bench him and Kevin Love in 4th quarters because of their defense and he never complained about it. That's why Kyrie's trade demand blindsided Cleveland because he hadn't shown any outward signs of discontent since 2014.

So yes he can be a winner.

[TheLand13]

Kyrie is good enough to out-duel and out-perform a legend like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals so he's a little bit better than "a pretty good player." Kyrie can beat and embarrass Steph 1 on 1 any day of the week so you're sleeping on his credentials. In terms of talent, Kyrie is easily one of the most talented players in history.

Talented one on one scorer? Sure. Awesome to watch when he's cooking. Oozes talent. Really fun player.

Talented defender? Well. He's a good one on one scorer.

Talented point guard? Kind of. Amazing handle, but not amazing at running an offence or generating easy shots for others.

Glue guy? Culture builder? Heart and soul of a franchise? Team mates will bleed for him?

You kinda have to even out the very, very good and the pretty average with Kyrie.

He's been to the NBA finals 4 times and won a championship so you can't question his ability to be the type of winning teammate that can go to the finals and win.

He has proven that he can sacrifice and do whatever is asked of him in order to keep going to the finals and to keep winning. Ty Lue would often bench him and Kevin Love in 4th quarters because of their defense and he never complained about it. That's why Kyrie's trade demand blindsided Cleveland because he hadn't shown any outward signs of discontent since 2014.

So yes he can be a winner.

Um, I don't know what version of the Cavaliers you were watching, but Irving was very rarely ever benched in the fourth quarter for defensive purposes. Even when he was crapping the bed at that end (which was pretty much all the time), he usually always played in the fourth anyways. The only time I can recall him sitting for an entire fourth was when Cleveland made the 26 point comeback against Indiana in 2017 during the playoffs, and that's only because Lue felt that the group they had out there was doing so well that there was no need to bring Irving or Love back in the game.

On top of that, Irving very rarely ever sacrificed for the sake of the team. Apart from allowing alley-oop attempts for LeBron, Irving usually still held the offense hostage with his style of play, and LeBron would usually just let him do it if he was hitting his shots. He didn't attempt to become a better playmaker for LeBron's sake. Hell, LeBron outright stated in 2017 that they needed a playmaker. Rather than try to become that guy, Irving just stuck to his roots and kept going with what he already knew: score and not worry about anything else. Take it from someone who watched just about every single game of the Cavaliers big three era: Irving was anything but a winning teammate.

[LewisnotMiller]

Kyrie is good enough to out-duel and out-perform a legend like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals so he's a little bit better than "a pretty good player." Kyrie can beat and embarrass Steph 1 on 1 any day of the week so you're sleeping on his credentials. In terms of talent, Kyrie is easily one of the most talented players in history.

Talented one on one scorer? Sure. Awesome to watch when he's cooking. Oozes talent. Really fun player.

Talented defender? Well. He's a good one on one scorer.

Talented point guard? Kind of. Amazing handle, but not amazing at running an offence or generating easy shots for others.

Glue guy? Culture builder? Heart and soul of a franchise? Team mates will bleed for him?

You kinda have to even out the very, very good and the pretty average with Kyrie.

He's been to the NBA finals 4 times and won a championship so you can't question his ability to be the type of winning teammate that can go to the finals and win.

He has proven that he can sacrifice and do whatever is asked of him in order to keep going to the finals and to keep winning. Ty Lue would often bench him and Kevin Love in 4th quarters because of their defense and he never complained about it. That's why Kyrie's trade demand blindsided Cleveland because he hadn't shown any outward signs of discontent since 2014.

So yes he can be a winner.

He could, certainly. Although I'd make the point that plenty of people question whether Wilt was a winning teammate, despite two rings, so I'm not seeing how that makes him immune from any criticism on that count.

But in any case, my point wasn't about Cleveland Kyrie.
It's about recent Kyrie, albeit assuming that provides some pointer towards likely future Kyrie. I'm not convinced Kyrie is much interested in sacrificing for team at age 30.

I think he'd had enough of sacrificing, had his Finals moment, and saw himself at a level both within and without basketball that few others achieve. I don't agree with his self-assessment but we all learn from our experiences and I think what he learnt was that he's great.

[Johnny Bball]

[Stephen A. Smith] Kyrie Irving last season would conduct his own team practices after Steve Nash

That's pretty weird

Very odd.
Kyrie being Kyrie! Coach Kyrie probably expects a full max and side pay for Coaching.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

Is this for real? You think it would have been huge news?

[Celts17Pride]

If only Cavs and Celtics fans had warned Brooklyn fans

[BK_2020]

Are we sure Kyrie is still trying to win?

I'm not so sure anymore. He might just want checks now.

Plus DC is a short train ride back to NJ where his family is.

I'm not saying it has any chance of happening. Just an idea.

I'm not an east coast person....so a dumb question..... Do rich people ride trains? If not, is it close enough driving where it makes a difference? Like Google says 4.5 hours driving but I could imagine driving is hell through there. At that point, you could just say play in Milwaukee or a city with direct flights to Neward and you would probably get there just as quickly.

The only bad driving areas are DC and NYC. Apparently Kyrie's family lives in West Orange so if Kyrie lives in a fancy Maryland suburbs he can be within 3.5 hr driving distance to that part of Jersey.