Way, WAY too much to give up. Irving is not that much better than Thomas.
ummm yes he is
Care to expand at all?
- more efficient scorer
- possibly best ball handler/dribbler of this generation..maybe of all time
- NBA champion - knows what it takes to win a title at just 25.
- 5 inches taller. Better at getting in passing lanes and disrupting opposing offenses.
- better rebounder
- more proven clutch shooter
- better pulling up off dribble
you could argue that having IT4 at 7 million season is better than having Kyrie at 20 mill a season, but if you're arguing IT4 is a better player then you are delusional and don't really know basketball.
2017 stats:
Kyrie Irving:
25.2 PPG
3.2 RPG
5.8 APG
.53 eFG%
Isaiah Thomas:
28.9 PPG
2.7 RPG
5.9 APG
.54 eFG%
Im not sure where did you get the Kyrie is a "much better scorer", nor a "much better rebounder" narrative when their number are quite close. Best ball-handler, sure. But is he really a winner? Couldn't take his team to the playoffs before Lebron arrived. IT, meanwhile took a bottom 5 team to the playoffs and the Celtics are slowly improving to a powerhouse team.
Robert Horry is a 7x champion and is just as clutch as Kyrie. I guess he's a better player than both of them.
First of all Thomas's stats on scoring are of course going to be better. He was the only true scorer on the team, stats can lie. Irving had to share the ball with James and Love both guys that can drop 20 points easy daily.
When it was simply Irving of course he didn't take them to the playoffs, the rest of the team blew. Thomas got traded to a good overall team needed help.
Thomas scores more efficiently than Irving, and at a higher volume. The defense keys in on IT, and he is still more efficient. Irving has LeBron on the court, and is less efficient. Thomas was unquestionably the better scorer last year, both in volume and efficiency, and virtually every metric, traditional and advanced, confirms that.
Maybe Irving
should be the better player, given his size advantage and legitimately terrific handle that embarrasses people, but for whatever reason, he's hasn't been. Personally I think the most overlooked fact is that IT gets to the free throw line twice as offen per shot attempt, which helps boost his efficiency tremendously. His ability to draw contact in the lane, and now from 3-point range as well, is something that Kyrie doesn't have, and while it doesn't always make the highlight reals, it's truly valuable.
And Kyrie should be a better defender, but he's not. He's arguably as much of a liability as IT, and that's due to effort, not physical limitations. It's past time for him to know how to play at both ends of the court.