Wow. I didn't realize Kyrie Irving was incredible.

[LarBrd33]

The thread comparing Avery Bradley's lowly stats to Rondo's lowly stats at age 21 sent me on a little bit of a research journey (looking at stats of PG's when they were young) until eventually I finally checked out Kyrie Irving's player card:

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/6442/kyrie-irving

For some reason I had been completely ignoring him.  Yeah, I knew he was supposed to be ok, but whatever... I hadn't bothered looking into him in depth.  I just figured it was like young Rose > young John Wall > young Kyrie Irving.  Just another young PG with potential.  Meh.  He plays for the post-Lebron Cavs.  Boring.  LINSANITY!

Holy crap.  How good is Kyrie Irving??  He's 19 years old and averaging 18.5 points, 5.1 assists, 3.5 rebounds, but he's shooting 48%... 43% from from three.... 87% from the line.  Are you kidding me???  He's 19!!

Why have I been ignoring him?  I don't follow College ball.  Looked up his College stats.  Turns out he played a grand total of 11 games for Duke.  Averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds... shot 53%... 46% from three... 90% from the line.  Are you kidding me?  11 games??  This kid is literally 11 NCAA games and 30 NBA games removed from High School.  It's kind of unbelievable, actually.  Is there any comparison to what he's doing at age 19??  It's nothing short of incredible.

Almost have to consider him right up there with Durant, Ray Allen, Steve Nash and Steph Curry as the greatest shooters in the game right now and the kid is still in diapers... and he's doing all of this with pretty much nobody on his team.  It's incredibly they have even won 13 games with the garbage surrounding him.

Wow
          

[Chris]

He is the closest thing I have seen to Chris Paul at his peak.  I think he will be a top 5 player in the league within a year or two, and will stay there for a while.

Way to go Sterling!

[PosImpos]

Yeah, he's been pretty awesome.  Way better than anybody expected, I imagine.

[rondohondo]

The thread comparing Avery Bradley's lowly stats to Rondo's lowly stats at age 21 sent me on a little bit of a research journey (looking at stats of PG's when they were young) until eventually I finally checked out Kyrie Irving's player card:

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/6442/kyrie-irving

For some reason I had been completely ignoring him.  Yeah, I knew he was supposed to be ok, but whatever... I hadn't bothered looking into him in depth.  I just figured it was like young Rose > young John Wall > young Kyrie Irving.  Just another young PG with potential.  Meh.  He plays for the Cavs.  Boring.  LINSANITY!

Holy crap.  How good is Kyrie Irving??  He's 19 years old and averaging 18.5 points, 5.1 assists, 3.5 rebounds, but he's shooting 48%... 43% from from three.... 87% from the line.  Are you kidding me???  He's 19!!

Why have I been ignoring him?  I don't follow College ball.  Looked up his College stats.  Turns out he played a grand total of 11 games for Duke.  Averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds... shot 53%... 46% from three... 90% from the line.  Are you kidding me?  11 games??  This kid is literally 11 NCAA games and 30 NBA games removed from High School.  It's kind of unbelievable, actually.  Is there any comparison to what he's doing at age 19??  It's nothing short of incredible.

Almost have to consider him right up there with Durant, Ray Allen, Steve Nash and Steph Curry as the greatest shooters in the game right now and the kid is still in diapers... and he's doing all of this with pretty much nobody on his team.  It's incredibly they have even won 13 games with the garbage surrounding him.

Wow
         

he's been a beast all year and i started noticing after his game winning shot against the c's.

He is going to be right up there with cp3 and rose and if he gets some legit teammates the cavs will be back in the playoffs very soon.

[LarBrd33]

The thread comparing Avery Bradley's lowly stats to Rondo's lowly stats at age 21 sent me on a little bit of a research journey (looking at stats of PG's when they were young) until eventually I finally checked out Kyrie Irving's player card:

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/6442/kyrie-irving

For some reason I had been completely ignoring him.  Yeah, I knew he was supposed to be ok, but whatever... I hadn't bothered looking into him in depth.  I just figured it was like young Rose > young John Wall > young Kyrie Irving.  Just another young PG with potential.  Meh.  He plays for the Cavs.  Boring.  LINSANITY!

Holy crap.  How good is Kyrie Irving??  He's 19 years old and averaging 18.5 points, 5.1 assists, 3.5 rebounds, but he's shooting 48%... 43% from from three.... 87% from the line.  Are you kidding me???  He's 19!!

Why have I been ignoring him?  I don't follow College ball.  Looked up his College stats.  Turns out he played a grand total of 11 games for Duke.  Averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds... shot 53%... 46% from three... 90% from the line.  Are you kidding me?  11 games??  This kid is literally 11 NCAA games and 30 NBA games removed from High School.  It's kind of unbelievable, actually.  Is there any comparison to what he's doing at age 19??  It's nothing short of incredible.

Almost have to consider him right up there with Durant, Ray Allen, Steve Nash and Steph Curry as the greatest shooters in the game right now and the kid is still in diapers... and he's doing all of this with pretty much nobody on his team.  It's incredibly they have even won 13 games with the garbage surrounding him.

Wow
         

he's been a beast all year and i started noticing after his game winning shot against the c's.

He is going to be right up there with cp3 and rose and if he gets some legit teammates the cavs will be back in the playoffs very soon.

Thats my point... when Rose came out they were like "He's got great potential but he's a poor man's Dwayne Wade"... when John Wall came out they were like, "He's a poor man's Rose"... and when Irving came out my perception was "he's a poor man's John Wall".

But holy crap... I can't believe I'm just now realizing what he's doing.  I mean, I even saw a front page ESPN thing on him a couple weeks ago and I ignored it.. "meh whatever... I'm sure he's having a nice little season"...

I don't think there is a single player who compares to what he's doing at age 19... those shooting percentages are insane.

[LarBrd33]

Also I should mention that I was out of town and missed the rookie game.  DIdn't realize he had put up 34 points, 9 assists and shot 8-8 from three.  I am running two fantasy teams and Irving is on one of them... and yet I still had completely ignored what he was doing.  If someone had asked me to guess what Irving's stats were I would have said... "well he plays on the Cavs... probably like 17 points... 41% shooting... 30% from three..65% from the line"... I had this perception locked into my mind that he was a poor man's John Wall.  A less athletic and slower version.

[Roy H.]

Yeah, he's definitely a stud, and he's 19.

I have somebody in another thread saying that Kyle Lowry is better than Kyrie Irving currently.  All I can do is shake my head.

[LarBrd33]

Yeah, he's definitely a stud, and he's 19.

I have somebody in another thread saying that Kyle Lowry is better than Kyrie Irving currently.  All I can do is shake my head.

i have another obsessed NBA fanatic friend and I just put him to the test as well:

Me:  "Without cheating... guess Kyrie Irving's stat line.  Points, rebounds, assists and his shooting percentages
Him:  17 4 6 1 40% 85%
Me: whats he shoot from three
Me: guess
Him: .333

Funny... the both of us just assumed he was putting up the kind of numbers you'd expect from a 19 year old PG with potential... John Wall percentages. 

Turns out Irving is an otherworldly shooter, though. 

[TheReaLPuba]

The kid definitely reminds me of Chris Paul but still needs to work on his court vision and defense.

I don't think anyone knew just how good of a shooter this kid really is. He probably has the best shot at the PG position besides Steve Nash.

To top it all off he doesn't play like a 19 year old rookie. He plays like he's a 5 year vet.

[LarBrd33]

One last thing... I should also bold the fact that he averages 31 minutes probably because Sessions is one of their better players...

CP averaged 36 as a rookie.  Rose averaged 37.  Wall averaged 38.

So project Irving's stats to 37 minutes and you'd get:

22 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds

[cman88]

Irving is going to end up being better than Rose, cP3, dwill etc. IMO

he is LEGIT...kind of funny when this past offseason people were saying this was going to be the worst draft in years and Irving wasnt a franchise player..but already you've got a budding superstar

and alot of guys contributing..

[ManUp]

I was sold his first game against us. He's continued to look amazing since. I really didn't want to take the leap and compare him to Paul, but that's honestly what I see when he plays. I know the passing numbers aren't there, but I expect it to come.

[GreenFaith1819]

Nice post.

I would not be surprised if there was some validity to Lebron going back to CLE. After all, he would have Kyrie there, and Andy would still be there, too.

Imagine Kyrie in 2 more years?

Toss in the fact that they'll probably miss the playoffs this year, get a few more pieces through the draft, and whatnot.

So in two-three yrs, if things don't work out in MIA(And I hope they DON'T ) - Lebron could go back to CLE and have a VERY good team there waiting for him.

What a story.

[LarBrd33]

Nice post.

I would not be surprised if there was some validity to Lebron going back to CLE. After all, he would have Kyrie there, and Andy would still be there, too.

Imagine Kyrie in 2 more years?

Toss in the fact that they'll probably miss the playoffs this year, get a few more pieces through the draft, and whatnot.

So in two-three yrs, if things don't work out in MIA(And I hope they DON'T ) - Lebron could go back to CLE and have a VERY good team there waiting for him.

What a story.

]

Currently they have the 8th best odds of landing Anthony Davis.  I'm just saying.

[pearljammer10]

I hadnt seen him play until 2 games ago when the celts played them. I thought he was absolutely amazing and couldnt believe he was only a rookie. After watching him again, I can only seeing him becoming a star.