Kyrie better than Lillard. That's hilarious.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=0&player_id1_hint=Damian+Lillard&player_id1_select=Damian+Lillard&y1=2019&player_id1=lillada01&idx=players&player_id2_hint=Kyrie+Irving&player_id2_select=Kyrie+Irving&y2=2019&player_id2=irvinky01&idx=players
Make an argument, rather than just posting hyperbolic nonsense.
Kyrie leads in FG%, 2PT%, 3PT%, eFG%, TS% assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, etc., he leads in DRtg and Net Rtg, and his points per possession are almost identical.
Lillard also has a higher time of possession and avg number of dribbles per possession than Kyrie. In other words, he holds the ball more than Kyrie does.
Just intercepting the inevitable "he passes the ball more!" claim.
You forgot a few "stats" that can't be measured. Intangibles and leadership .... where this is easily Lillard > Irving
I don't think anyone is denying the fact that Irving is a talented scorer/player
but without Lebron, can you win with him? keep the house in order?
thus far the jury is out
The jury is still out on Lillard, too, and about 450+ players who have never won a championship as the lead guy.
Even with the superstars, there are questions, if you apply the same logic. Can Lebron / Durant / Curry win without another All-NBA player beside them? Kawhi is perhaps the only lead guy in the NBA to win without an all-star or two beside him, and he had the framework of Spurs greats and Pop around him.
Horford is an all star
Hayward took a dip due to injury but is an all star
Tatum and Brown are youngsters that are all star type talents
Isnt this enough for Irving to work with?
Do you think if you flipped Irving with Lillard ...it wouldn have made a difference and Celts still lose 4-1 to Bucks?
McCollum is a better player than any guy on the roster around Irving.
Hayward isn't an all-star. He's not even close to that level right now. He was 2 years ago but he's more Evan Turner than all-star in his current form.
Horford is good but was he better than Nurkic this season? Its much closer than you'd like to think.
Tatum and Brown have all-star talent, sure, but they're far from actualizing that talent.
Maybe if you switch rosters things might've been different. Maybe we could've won more games with another guy next to Kyrie that could consistently get you 20 pts a game like McCollum does, or with a big that can go in and get 10+ rebounds a game and be a bonafide third scorer in the paint like Nurkic was. Maybe Boston doesn't lose in 5 to the best team in their conference. Maybe Portland wouldn't be on the verge of getting swept by the best team in theirs.
We'll never know.