Cleveland Cavaliers: Top 30 all-time greatest players
By Ben Beecken
156. <ul> <li>6 seasons with Cavaliers (2011-17)</li> <li>Averaged 21.6 points and 5.5 assists per game</li> <li>3x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion with Cavs</li> </ul>. PG. . Kyrie Irving. 7. player
Regardless of how the marriage ended, Kyrie Irving remains one of the seven-best players to don a Cavaliers uniform.
Irving was selected first-overall in 2011 despite only having played in 11 games in his one and only season at Duke University. His oft-injured ways continued into the NBA, as Irving missed 15 games in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season and proceeded to play in just (80.4 percent) 330 of 410 possible games over the next five seasons.
But when Irving was on the court, he was fun to watch. And once LeBron James returned to Cleveland in 2014-15, Irving became dynamic as the team’s No. 2 option.
Irving might have made two All-Star teams before The King arrived, but he was a far more effective player with James in the fold, shooting 46.8 percent from the field and a career-best 41.5 percent from beyond the arc in 2014-15.
The Cavs went to the NBA Finals with David Blatt as head coach and lost to Golden State, but Irving got his ring the next year despite only playing in 53 regular season games and not being named to the All-Star team.
Irving was unceremoniously shipped to Boston in the summer of 2017, reportedly after having requested a trade.