The Kyrie Irving free agency thread(to sign 4yr/$141M w/Nets page 105)

[gpap]

the one bright spot of kyrie leaving is the pain it will cause all the kyrie haters when they realize how bad-to-mediocre we are without him.  Borderline playoff team next season.  Perpetual mediocrity awaits.

With all due respect, we are mired in mediocrity right now. Have you seen any of the games in this series? We are not exactly in the promise land right now.

[Moranis]

the one bright spot of kyrie leaving is the pain it will cause all the kyrie haters when they realize how bad-to-mediocre we are without him.  Borderline playoff team next season.  Perpetual mediocrity awaits.

With all due respect, we are mired in mediocrity right now. Have you seen any of the games in this series? We are not exactly in the promise land right now.

That is what I was thinking.  It isn't going to be much worse, but at least then I don't have to listen to Kyrie's weird interviews, him throwing teammates under the bus, or be totally frustrated by his lack of defensive effort. 

I want Kyrie to come back and if he doesn't then Ainge significantly overplayed his hand and blew it, but if he doesn't want to be in Boston, then he should leave.

[keevsnick]

the one bright spot of kyrie leaving is the pain it will cause all the kyrie haters when they realize how bad-to-mediocre we are without him.  Borderline playoff team next season.  Perpetual mediocrity awaits.

I still wnat Kyrie on this team next year, as long as he's the 2nd best player at best. But honestly, he made it very difficult to feel that way between the absolutely terrible leadership he displayed all year which he then compounded by essentially complaining that the regular season was too long and that we should all wait for the playoffs followed by three straight subpar games. If you wnat to talk big, play big.

[cons]

The excuses for Kyrie never end. He was sick, he sat on the bench to long, ect.. He never hesitates to tell everyone how great he is and such a genius and here he is in his first playoff run without Lebron and so far has disappeared in key moments. Again he tells everyone how much of a 1a player he is but hasn’t backed anything up so far in Boston without  Lebron. Maybe he needs to just shut up and prove it.

Exactly.

[Vox_Populi]

Still sick?  Or maybe just maybe not the player this board generally seemed to think he was.

Kyrie's current play exemplifies a version not any rational person would have expected, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

except it does.  This is what Kyrie does, he mystifies people with these fabulous games and then people just forget about the stinkers he has before those fabulous games.  Kyrie is an inconsistent shooter and does almost nothing else to help a team win basketball games, such that when his shot is off, his teams lose.  When he is on, he is unguardable and magic happens, but he just isn't on nearly enough to truly matter.

He's had back to back seasons of borderline 50/40/90. He is literally one of the least variant high volume shooters in the NBA - although his overall scoring efficiency is inconsistent because he never gets to the line.

He has been as bad as Lillard was last post-season. No one saw this coming from either.

[Chris22]

If we don't sign Kyrie, we have already lost.  IF we didn't want to sign him, we should have traded him.  No matter what you think of him, losing him for nothing is not a good strategy.

Signing him is better unless he blows out his knee or something like that, which is a risk for most any player.

Pretty much. 

Danny made his own bed with this.  Like him or hate him, letting Kyrie walk puts this organization in a worse position in the near term. The AD pipedream goes out the window   then you're praying that Hayward finds his own form back and crossing your fingers that the kids hit their ceiling potential.   They really need to try and convince Kyrie to stay. 

Otherwise, you'll be looking at a team that will be taking significant steps back in the near future with much lower ceiling.

Why? He was injured for one playoff series and he sucked in the other. Adios, Kyrie.

[tstorey_97]

The Bucks are a top defensive team and they have hammered Irving nightly. He is so talented he has managed to score, but....

[zeitgeist49]

Kyrie ain't no Batman. He simply CHOKED the last 3 games. Many Celtic fans are enamored by Kyrie's fantastic handle and his streaky 3 point shots. But at the end of the day, that doesn't win ball games. He publicly called out his team mates too many times  this season. He's NOT a leader. And his horrific  play the last 3 games was the second biggest factor in the Celts losing this series. THE biggest factor in this series loss : Stevens ineffective game strategies and his failure to hold players accountable.

[Chris22]

The Bucks are a top defensive team and they have hammered Irving nightly. He is so talented he has managed to score, but....

Poor woodle Kyrie. He couldn't beat Bledsoe or Collonaide.

[Moranis]

Still sick?  Or maybe just maybe not the player this board generally seemed to think he was.

Kyrie's current play exemplifies a version not any rational person would have expected, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

except it does.  This is what Kyrie does, he mystifies people with these fabulous games and then people just forget about the stinkers he has before those fabulous games.  Kyrie is an inconsistent shooter and does almost nothing else to help a team win basketball games, such that when his shot is off, his teams lose.  When he is on, he is unguardable and magic happens, but he just isn't on nearly enough to truly matter.

He's had back to back seasons of borderline 50/40/90. He is literally one of the least variant high volume shooters in the NBA - although his overall scoring efficiency is inconsistent because he never gets to the line.

He has been as bad as Lillard was last post-season. No one saw this coming from either.

have you actually looked at his shooting percentages.  He had 5 games at 30% or worse and 5 games at 70% or better.  9 games between 30 and 39.9%, but just 6 games between 60 and 69.9%.  17 games in the 40's, 11 games at exactly 50%, and 14 games from 50.1 to 59.9.  In other words, he has about an even distribution all the way through with plenty of crappy games. 

This is exactly what Irving does, while playing crappy defense, not passing that well, not rebounding well, etc.

[Banner18now!]

Kyrie ain't no Batman. He simply CHOKED the last 3 games. Many Celtic fans are enamored by Kyrie's fantastic handle and his streaky 3 point shots. But at the end of the day, that doesn't win ball games. He publicly called out his team mates too many times  this season. He's NOT a leader. And his horrific  play the last 3 games was the second biggest factor in the Celts losing this series. THE biggest factor in this series loss : Stevens ineffective game strategies and his failure to hold players accountable.

BINGO!!! Too many people fall for the uncle Drew crap and fall in love with his handles. He is a number 2 and if the Celtics don't get AD right away then Kyrie is absolutely bolting. He can talk about how great he is and what a genius he is but even after this year even he knows he can't carry a team.

[gpap]

Safe to say that Kyrie is gone. Seems like the writing is on the wall.

[Sophomore]

Still sick?  Or maybe just maybe not the player this board generally seemed to think he was.

Kyrie's current play exemplifies a version not any rational person would have expected, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

except it does.  This is what Kyrie does, he mystifies people with these fabulous games and then people just forget about the stinkers he has before those fabulous games.  Kyrie is an inconsistent shooter and does almost nothing else to help a team win basketball games, such that when his shot is off, his teams lose.  When he is on, he is unguardable and magic happens, but he just isn't on nearly enough to truly matter.

He was bad tonight. No excuses, no question.

But why are you giving everybody else a pass? Hayward has simply disappeared in both ends. Tatum hasn’t been able to buy a wide-open 3. Horford misses some key wiiiiiiide open 3s. Terry was awful but that’s his level. This was a team loss.

[Silky]

why does the narrative keep changing against Kyrie?

Small players dont win championships? No single player wins any championship in the past 30 years.

So lets look at teams that have won the last 20 championships and look at their starting pg.

GSW - Steph 6foot3
GSW
Cleveland - Kyrie 6foot3
GSW
SAS - Parker 6foot2
Miami - Chalmers 6foot2
Miami
Dallas - Kidd 6foot4
LAL - Fisher 6foot1
LAL
Boston - Rondo 6foot1
SAS
Miami
SAS
Detroit - Billups 6foot3
SAS
LAL
LAL
LAL
SAS
Bulls - Harper 6foot6

The notion that you cannot win with a "small" pg is foolish.

And the notion that Irving has to, or cannot be the one, who can win finals MVP because of his size is incorrect as well.

If a player impacts his team winning the finals more than anyone else on the team....that player will get the MVP award.

Size does not matter in relation to this, it is an award given to impact.  If Boston wins the finals this season, and Kyrie continues to put up big numbers with everyone else on the team doing middling contributions, then Kyrie will win the MVP award.

You are missing the point. Small guards don't win championships. You need a Durant, Lebron, Leonard, Kobe, Pierce, etc....

Until we get someone like that, we aren't winning a championship.

Steph amd billups say no to that.

You win with talent

Get enough of that and you win it all.

Team has a glut of at times underperforming wings and oft injured bigmen

Give kyrie a consistant shooter and defender on the wing spot. Someone who can consistantly score with him and a couple bigmen who can defend and stay healthy and no problems.

Kyrie has been shut down in this series so far. This is the problem with small guards. Teams actually play defense in the playoffs. The best thing to have is someone bigger who can score like Lebron, Durand, Leonard, Giannis, etc...

Kyrie has been shut down cause no one else can do anything.

[TheReaLPuba]

Kyrie as your best player has a limited ceiling.

He is not in the same league as Steph or even prime playoff Tony Parker.

This C’s Team has talent and depth and a great Coach.

The only issue is lack of leadership.