Kyrie Irving’s Next Step – Offensive Superstar

Kyrie Irving has the opportunity to be one of the league’s best scorers. How can he accomplish that? It’s just a matter of an increased role.

This past postseason, Kyrie Irving had the greatest run of his career. After the first round against Detroit, Kyrie led the entire playoffs in three-point percentage. He was a definitive offensive factor through the entire playoffs, the climax of course hitting a step back, go ahead three with a little less than a minute to go in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Throughout Kyrie’s entire career, he’s been held back by poor supporting casts and especially injury. It wasn’t until LeBron James came back home to Cleveland that Kyrie had any legitimate talent around him.

Guys like Dion Waiters, C.J. Miles and Alonzo Gee nowhere near compare to J.R. Smith, LeBron James and Kevin Love.

Before the 2014-15 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers had won a total of 78 games in Kyrie’s career. In the 2014-15 season, the Cavaliers had a combined playoffs and regular win total of 67 wins. Just goes to show, the one man show featuring a very young Kyrie Irving wasn’t cutting it.

However, Kyrie Irving has missed a total of 100 regular games in the past 5 years.

Point guards who play with the flashy game style that Kyrie does tend to easily sustain injury to the knee. For example, guys like Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, etc. all have had season ending knee injuries.

Kyrie’s injury susceptibility has slowed down his development as a player. Even so, you can see by this chart, year-by-year (disregarding injury) that his ability to score has increased, as well as improvement in the turnover department

Kyrie Irving MPG Usage % PPG APG TOPG

2011 – 2012 30.5 28.7 18.5 5.4 3.1

2012 – 2013 34.7 30.2 22.5 5.9 3.2

2013 – 2014 35.2 28.2 20.8 6.1 2.7

2014 – 2015 36.4 26.2 21.7 5.2 2.5

2016 – 2016 31.5 29.5 19.6 4.7 2.3

In the 2012-13 season, Kyrie had his highest usage percentage while playing upwards of 35 minutes a game. Irving averaged the most points per game of his career, as well as his second highest assist per game average.

Looking back at the 2012-13 season, Kyrie was coming off of a broken hand sustained that summer, as well as a broken nose and index finger during the beginning of the season.

Even though Kyrie made the All Star team, the Cavaliers finished 13th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 24-58.

This has brought up the idea that if Kyrie Irving could average 35-plus points per game with a usage percentage of 30 percent plus, what kind of numbers could he produce? He’s on a much improved team, and he’s nearing the prime of his career.

Just take a look at his stats from these past playoffs.

Kyrie Irving MPG Usage % PPG APG TOPG

2015 – 2016 36.9 30.4 25.2 4.7 2.3

Kyrie Irving averaged nearly 37 minutes per game, with a usage percentage of 30.4. This was the expected playing output from Kyrie Irving in the regular season, but he was coming off a terrible knee injury in the 2015 playoffs, came back in December, and didn’t hit full form until the playoffs in 2016.

When he averaged these minutes with the high usage, he put up 25.2 points per game and close to five assists per game.

Albeit a small sample size, but with the loss of Matthew Dellavedova as the backup point guard, Kyrie will have to take even more of a role in the offense and play more minutes every game.

To gain a perspective how actually good these stats are per game, these Kyrie Irving’s playoff statistics put next to the Top 10 leaders in points per game in the 2015-16 regular season.

2015 – 2016 Points Per Game Leaders

Player MPG Usage % PPG FG% 3P% TS%

Curry 34.2 32.6 30.1 .504 .454 .669

Harden 38.1 32.5 29.0 .439 .359 .598

Durant 35.8 30.6 28.2 .505 .386 .634

Cousins 34.6 35.4 26.9 .451 .333 .538

James 35.6 31.4 25.3 .520 .309 .588

Irving* 36.4 30.4 25.2 .475 .440 .574

Lillard 35.7 31.3 25.1 .419 .375 .560

Davis 35.5 29.6 24.3 .493 .324 .559

Westbrook 34.4 31.6 23.5 .454 .296 .554

Derozan 35.9 29.8 23.5 .446 .338 .550

George 34.8 30.4 23.1 .418 .371 .557

Not only is Irving sixth in points per game, he’s second in three-point percentage, fifth in field goal percentage and fifth in true shooting percentage. This would make Kyrie Irving, statistically, one of the most dangerous scorers in the league.

By looking at the minutes per game and the usage percentage of the rest of the Top 10, the output of minutes and time with the ball is attainable. This is not a question of reaching his potential. It’s a question of playing time and a surge in his offensive role.

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Irving’s 37 minutes per game with a 30 percent usage rate isn’t necessarily a bloated playoff expenditure.

By Cleveland losing their backup point guard in Matthew Dellavedova and (possibly) shooting guard J.R. Smith to free agency, Kyrie’s role in the offense has to increase.

Whether or not he plays more minutes as the primary ball handler, is up in the air. If and when Kyrie gains the opportunity to run the offense, a better supporting cast than he’s ever had will help improve those assist numbers.

Fact of the matter is, Kyrie Irving is very capable of becoming a top five scorer in the league, as well as one of the most efficient shooters in the league. If he plays at the least around 35 minutes a game with 30 percent usage, Kyrie has the opportunity to be exactly that.

Will Kyrie Irving become a superstar, or is he already considered one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or on Twitter @KJG_NBA.