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Boston Celtics: Is this Kyrie Irving’s best season yet?

By Andrew Neururer

NEW YORK, NY FEBRUARY 1: Kyrie Irving #11 of the Boston Celtics defends his position during the game against the New York Knicks on February 1, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY FEBRUARY 1: Kyrie Irving #11 of the Boston Celtics defends his position during the game against the New York Knicks on February 1, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Kyrie Irving is having a great season for the Boston Celtics, but is this his best season yet?

Kyrie Irving has played eight seasons in the NBA — six with the Cleveland Cavaliers and two with the Boston Celtics. In that time, he’s always been a star, but is the 2018-19 season his best yet?

With all the drama and rumors surrounding Irving, it’s become more difficult to remember how great he’s been in 2018-19.

Taking a look at what he’s done and the improvements he’s made on the court, however, it’s easy to assess that this is his best season yet. The only downside to this question is that it hasn’t translated into a better record. The team is currently 33-19, which is good for fourth in the Eastern Conference – recently surpassing a Victor Oladipo-less Indiana Pacers team.

That underwhelming record is not all on Irving. Basketball is a team sport, but more importantly, the Celtics roster has been disappointing overall. This season, Irving is averaging 23.6 points, 6.9 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 0.5 blocks per game.

Those are all career highs besides his scoring, but 23.6 points per game is still an impressive number. He’s shooting 49.7 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from 3. They both would be career highs, but he’s just a little off of his 41.5 percent career high set back in 2014-15.

He’s never once averaged over four rebounds a game in his career, yet he’s almost giving the team five this year. The biggest change has been his improvement in facilitating the ball and playing defense. Everyone knows how great Irving is when it comes to scoring the ball, but his defense and passing numbers have been lacking.

This year Irving is getting his teammates involved like never before, at just a tick under seven assists per game. He currently has 13 double-doubles — the most he’s had in a single season — and the calendar just flipped to February. Eleven of those 13 are double-digit assist numbers.

Irving has always been something of a liability on the defensive end, but that hasn’t been the case this season.

His defensive rating is a solid 103.9, and a lot of that is because of the team’s success on that end of the floor. Furthermore, when looking at his defensive win shares, Irving ranks among the best in the league.

He’s currently 19th in the NBA and second on the Celtics with 0.137 defensive win shares. Last year he was considered to be a candidate for MVP, but hasn’t received that same amount of recognition because of the team’s disappointing season.

Behind all the free agency rumors and Boston’s slow start, Irving is having the best season of his career. This will need to continue if the Celtics would like to make a run for one of the top spots in the East or better yet, a fighting chance to be holding the Larry O’Brien trophy.

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There’s still plenty of time for them to make some ground, but the end of the season is going to be pivotal because it will directly have an impact on Kyrie Irving’s free agency decision.

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