Kyrie Irving has quickly transformed himself from a dependable scorer into a clutch shot-making weapon of mass destruction capable of ripping teams for 30 points without so much as blinking an eye — and he just turned 25.
Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving has done more than enough this season to justify himself as one of the league’s most efficient go-to scorers.
Not only has Irving established himself as an all-around scoring machine, but perhaps he has already established himself as the most clutch shooter in all of the NBA.
Just take a look at this recent compilation the NBA put out as a tribute to Irving turning 25 on Thursday.
Make sure you have some time to sit down and watch the entire video, because it’s 14 minutes long.
Once again, this man is only 25 years of age.
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The real question, however, is this: can Kyrie Irving one day lead the NBA in scoring?
The short answer is yes, but let’s dig into it a little more.
Since Irving entered the NBA as a 19-year-old who played fewer minutes in college than many walk-ons, he has never averaged less than18.5 points per game.
Unfortunately, Irving was trapped on a team whose roster featured talent that never got any better than Cleveland Cavaliers legend Dion Waiters.
In his first three season in the NBA, Irving averaged 18.5, 22.5, and 20.8 points per game, respectively.
In each of those first three seasons, Irving’s field goal percentage, three-point percentage and Effective Field Goal percentage all went down as each year went by, understandably so if you look at the other options.
He was still an incredibly gifted scorer, but the strain of having to do everything for one of the worst teams in the NBA never benefited Irving in terms of becoming a more efficient scorer.
Then LeBron James returned to Cleveland and Irving began to flourish. Well, at least for a little bit.
FanSided
Irving’s first season as a member of the Cavs’ “Big 3” saw him benefit from the spacing that LeBron and Kevin Love created, allowing Irving to pick and choose when he wanted to feast on his opponents ankles and pride.
Irving’s scoring only slightly increased from 20.8 points per game up to 21.7, however his efficiency sky-rocketed.
During that 2014-15 season, Irving averaged career highs in three-point percentage (up from 35.8 percent the previous year to an impressive 41.5 percent) and Effective Field Goal percentage (which went up from 48.0 percent to 53.2 percent).
He saw his usage rate at the lowest it had been since he entered the NBA (mainly due to learning to play with LeBron and Love) but he made sure that every time he touched the ball, he was going to do something positive with it.
Then the injuries began to kick in, once again.
Irving missed 29 games during the Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA Finals run last season where he saw his play and stats suffer.
After fracturing his left kneecap in Game 1 of the NBA Finals the season prior, Irving wouldn’t even see the court until the middle of December the following year.
This threw Irving off his game entirely for the remainder of the regular season.
Posting numbers he hadn’t seen since his rookie season, Irving had his worst shooting season from behind the arc, and by a big margin.
Irving shot 32.1 percent last season from 3, considerably lower than his previous career worst average of 35.8 percent from the 2013-14 season.
It wasn’t until the Cavaliers’ first playoff series of that season against the Detroit Pistons that the NBA finally saw what Kyrie Irving was truly capable of.
Irving averaged 25.2 points per game during 21 playoff games while shooting an incendiary 44 percent from beyond the arc to go along with 47.5 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line.
Irving managed to score 25 or more points in 12 of those games, including six 30-point games and a historic 41-point explosion in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Not to mention, he also hit arguably the biggest shot in NBA Finals history.
That shot was Irving’s official coming-out party to the NBA. That shot was a message to league that probably read something like this: “I’m ready to light every single one of you up for 40 points and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”
After watching Irving for 60-plus games this season, he has definitely lived up to that message.
The Smoking Cuban
The tantalizing point guard has been on fire all season, averaging a career high in way too many statistical categories: from eFG percentage (53.8), to field goal percentage (47.5), to free-throw percentage (90.7) and, most impressively, total number of shots per game (19.8) along with usage rate (31.0).
Interestingly enough, Irving’s career-high 3-point percentage of 39.9 from his rookie season is justttttt better than the 39.8 percent he’s averaging this season.
His increase in usage coupled with his increase in what feels like every single statistical category is what impresses me the most. Irving is ending more possessions with the ball in his hand than ever before — even with LeBron on the team — and he has never been shooting better in his life.
Irving’s consistency is what makes him a constant threat each and every night. How many times has Irving scored less than 10 points this season? Just once, back in early November.
Irving has scored 20 or more points in a staggering 53 games this season, including 11 games with at least 30 points. He has also scored 40 or more on three occasions this season, counting his 49-point game against the New Orleans Pelicans back in January.
Currently, Irving has scored 20 or more points in 19 straight games after he scored 33 points in the Cavs most recent loss to the Denver Nuggets.
The Cavaliers as a team have been playing some questionably lazy basketball as of late, however Kyrie Irving has been far from the problem. If anything, Irving is the reason the Cavs haven’t already sunk fallen out of the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
But can Irving elevate his game to an even higher level to the point where he can average 30 points per game?
There isn’t any reason to believe he can’t.
As mentioned (on multiple occasions) before, Irving is freshly 25 and still a couple of years away from his prime.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Irving may be the only person, place, or thing that will benefit from LeBron James’ aging. This season has seen LeBron turn into an on-court maestro. He has preferred to setup his teammates more so than in years past and his number one option is Kyrie Irving.
The Cavs have three of the most confident shooters in the entire NBA with Irving, J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver and LeBron loves to utilize that ability until it becomes borderline abuse to the opposition.
LeBron has become much more comfortable and confident when Irving has the ball and he’ll even willingly defer to Irving when dealing with decisive moments of close games.
Not because LeBron doesn’t want to try and get it done himself, he just understands what he has with a teammate such as Irving, who can knock down last-second shots like they’re giant bowling pins.
Instead of LeBron choosing to drive and initiate the offense, he prefers to create the offense by letting it come to him and involving the teammates that surround him, and that especially includes Irving.
As LeBron continues to age, his athleticism will slowly decline (eventually) and his need for rest will continually increase, opening the door for even more scoring opportunities for Irving.
Irving has proven this season that can he can handle the pressure of having the ball in his hands more and more without sacrificing efficiency.
No matter what happens to the Cavaliers at the conclusion of this season, Irving will still be heading into the prime of his career with plenty of accomplishments he can hang under his belt.
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When comparing Irving to previous scoring leaders, it shows some promise that he could follow suit.
At 25, Stephen Curry averaged 24.0 points per game. He would lead the league in scoring two years later.
At 25, Russell Westbrook averaged 21.8 points per game. He would lead the league in scoring the following season, as well as this season.
At 25, Kobe Bryant averaged 24.0 points per game. He would lead the league in scoring for consecutive seasons just two years later.
Irving doesn’t have to lead the league in scoring next season, and with the amount of high-profile scorers the NBA has, the odds are somewhat against him.
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However, if Irving can continue to increase his scoring output at the rate he currently is, there is no reason to believe that he couldn’t average close to 30 points per game in the next few seasons, especially playing alongside the basketball mind of LeBron James.