No. He's got the talent to become one, but so far in his career he's been a superlative individual scorer and that's all.
I put him on a similar level as guys like Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. He's a cut below John Wall and Kyle Lowry, not to mention Westbrook, Curry, Harden, Paul, etc. I might even put Mike Conley above him.
I can't see him as a superstar until he demonstrates that he's capable of elevating his team, not simply putting on impressive individual scoring displays.
I think it's possible for a pure offensive player to be a superstar, but the production needs to be otherworldly. Isaiah Thomas arguably hit that level last year.
Again, he's got the talent, but hasn't actually put it together in that way for more than a few games at a time in the playoffs.
That's ridiculous. I can see the Wall argument, but putting Lowry and Conley over him is laughable. He's also clearly better than McCollum.
God, how did Celticsblog underrate this kid so much?
Lowry and Conley have shown they can actually run an offense and get others involved.
They also play defense.
Irving is clearly better than McCollum, but they're a similar sort of player to this point in their careers.
Again, I want to make clear the distinction here -- there's no question Kyrie has a lot of talent. It wouldn't shock me if he's much better than Lowry, Conley, even Wall as soon as this year.
But he hasn't shown that over any extended period of time so far in his career.
Look, he's an exceptional one on one scorer. I just don't place that high a value on isolation scoring, period. It's a nice skillset to have but to be a lead guy on a good team you need to do more than that. We'll see if Kyrie can become a more well-rounded team oriented player.
This is a perfect example of the emotionalism I referred to in another thread. It was here against Kevin Garnett. It was here against Ray Allen.
I get the perspective it comes from. I just find it thoroughly bereft of logic.
Im curious what you mean by "emotionalism" in this context.
If you've got an argument supported by evidence in favor of Kyrie being exceptional at anything other than isolation scoring, finishing tough layups, and shooting, please share it.
Apparently people aren't allowed to prefer IT without being accused of being overly emotional and told to "get over it"
I'm not even arguing that Kyrie isn't potentially a better player than IT, though I don't think there's any question IT had a better season last year.
I just don't think the difference between them is enough to justify trading the guy who was the face of the franchise, unless you assume Kyrie has another level he hasn't hit yet.
If Kyrie makes a leap the way Harden made a leap after going to Houston, then it's a no-brainer, sentimentality aside.
And BTW, I think "sentimentality" was the word that CoachBo was looking for.
Yes, I will readily admit to that. I have some sentimental feelings about IT versus Kyrie.
I'm not going to apologize for that, either.
It's true that Ainge traded Paul and KG when they were still the heart and soul of the team. But, they were also in their mid-30s and no longer capable of being more than part-time starters on a decent team.
Generally speaking I agree with the notion that you root for the team and not the individual players, and the GM should leave sentiment out of his thinking.
Still, I think for the purposes of building an organizational culture and making players feel that they are valued, not to mention giving the fans a team in which they can emotionally invest themselves, you need to have a very strong reason to trade away a guy who has been the heart of your franchise for multiple successful seasons.
I can appreciate the trade from a place of pure logic, but I don't think I would have done it if I were the GM. Part of that is that I am not convinced Kyrie is especially likely to consistently play 60+ games per year over the next 5 years or become more than a very good individual offensive talent. Part of it is that I don't think the Celts are likely to make the Finals even if Kyrie does take another step forward. Still another part of it is that I think I'd feel more watching the team led by Isaiah get over the hump against Cleveland rather than watching the team do it with Kyrie.
But hey, Brad Stevens will probably work his magic and I'll love Kyrie before the end of this next season.
If not, it'll be fun watching Isaiah play against the Warriors in the Finals.
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Topic: Is Kyrie a superstar? (poll) (Read 18107 times)