Cleveland Cavaliers: Best Case Scenarios For 2016-17

Kyrie Irving Becomes Elite

The discussion of where Kyrie Irving fits amongst point guards of the league has become the equivalent to beating a dead horse. He doesn’t fit the mold that point guards are evaluated by, which makes the topic a heated debate.

There is one area that Irving will become considered as an elite player this season: as a scorer.

Playing next to James is an adjustment for any player. Not that it’s a bad thing, but everyone around him needs to become more effective off the ball and be ready to shoot at all times. Irving is one of, if not the best, one-on-one scorer in the NBA.

As you can imagine, he needed to pick and choose his times when to attack early on.

But 2016-17 will be Irving’s third season with James and he now can be completely comfortable with his role. In fact, after his amazing Finals performance in which he hit big shot after big shot, it’s likely that James will defer to Irving even more this season.

Not to mention more deferring will mean less of a workload for James throughout the 82-game season.

More opportunities for Irving will only mean for a higher average in the scoring category. In the playoffs last season, Irving averaged 20.1 field goal attempts per game. He averaged 25.2 points per game on 47.5 percent shooting from the field and 44.0 percent from three in the 21 games.

His 20.1 shot attempts per game in the playoffs was a 3.1 increase from regular season play. Those few more attempts displayed how effective Irving can really be in big time situations.

James is a basketball genius who realizes at this point in his career, he must preserve some of the energy he has in order to maximize his years. This is the perfect opportunity for him to defer more to Irving on offense.

Irving will be a 25-plus point per game scorer next season and make a real challenge for the NBA scoring title as the Cavaliers continue to dominate the Eastern Conference.

Next: LeBron Gets Opportunities For Rest