Have the players tuned out Stevens?

[PhoSita]

I think people need to get over this notion of Kyrie being a facilitator.

Kyrie is an assassin. A great scorer who will get points from anywhere on the floor with good efficiency.

You can't expect huge performances every night in the regular season necessarily, but in the playoffs he has shown that he can average 30-40 points for the majority of a long playoff series.

The idea of adding Kyrie to this team, as I understood it, was that he could slot right into the existing system and do his thing without causing any disruption.  The team had a system in place created by Brad that was all about moving the ball around and getting numerous players shots. The main facilitator was Horford, with Smart helping off the bench.

One of the major problems this year is that the system seems to have broken. The system being broken is why we find ourselves looking toward Kyrie, and to a lesser extent Rozier, to facilitate and make the offense work for the whole team. But that is not Kyrie's strength, nor is it a good role for Rozier.  Those guys are essentially shooting guards that play at the 1.

So I think we need to figure out how to get back to an offense facilitated primarily by Horford and various actions that don't require a lead ballhandler type.

Maybe eventually Gordon can be the primary facilitator and playmaker. Im sure that was part of the plan before he got hurt.  But he's nowhere near that right now.  Any attempt to use him that way is going to meet with disaster right now.

This is a fairly solid analysis of Irving and matches what I've been saying for years though maybe not as eloquently.  That said, Irving has never averaged 30 in any playoff series.  He generally has 2 great games, 2 to 3 good games, and 2 to 3 poor games in a 7 game series.  He just isn't consistent enough, even as an assassin, to truly be relied on in any playoff series.  Most people always remember the great games and totally forget about the other games in a series.  That was a huge problem with Rondo on this board, but in that respect Rondo and Irving are very similar.

2016 finals he averaged 27-4-4-2 on great shooting.

Games 5-7 he was a monster as was LeBron.

[Moranis]

I think people need to get over this notion of Kyrie being a facilitator.

Kyrie is an assassin. A great scorer who will get points from anywhere on the floor with good efficiency.

You can't expect huge performances every night in the regular season necessarily, but in the playoffs he has shown that he can average 30-40 points for the majority of a long playoff series.

The idea of adding Kyrie to this team, as I understood it, was that he could slot right into the existing system and do his thing without causing any disruption.  The team had a system in place created by Brad that was all about moving the ball around and getting numerous players shots. The main facilitator was Horford, with Smart helping off the bench.

One of the major problems this year is that the system seems to have broken. The system being broken is why we find ourselves looking toward Kyrie, and to a lesser extent Rozier, to facilitate and make the offense work for the whole team. But that is not Kyrie's strength, nor is it a good role for Rozier.  Those guys are essentially shooting guards that play at the 1.

So I think we need to figure out how to get back to an offense facilitated primarily by Horford and various actions that don't require a lead ballhandler type.

Maybe eventually Gordon can be the primary facilitator and playmaker. Im sure that was part of the plan before he got hurt.  But he's nowhere near that right now.  Any attempt to use him that way is going to meet with disaster right now.

This is a fairly solid analysis of Irving and matches what I've been saying for years though maybe not as eloquently.  That said, Irving has never averaged 30 in any playoff series.  He generally has 2 great games, 2 to 3 good games, and 2 to 3 poor games in a 7 game series.  He just isn't consistent enough, even as an assassin, to truly be relied on in any playoff series.  Most people always remember the great games and totally forget about the other games in a series.  That was a huge problem with Rondo on this board, but in that respect Rondo and Irving are very similar.

2016 finals he averaged 27-4-4-2 on great shooting.

Games 5-7 he was a monster as was LeBron.

game 6 he was 7 of 18 (38.9%) with 23 points, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds.  That is not a monster.  Game 7 he was only slightly better at 10 of 23 (43.5%) for 26 points. He had 1 assist with 6 rebounds.  Again not a monster.  But this is what I mean about people overrating his performances.   People remember the shot in game 7 and his absolutely epic game 5 and that is how they remember him in that series but that really wasn't how he was that series.