Can Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash unlock Kyrie Irving?

Kyrie Irving’s playmaking: Kevin Durant

The second question with Kyrie Irving is how he’ll play with Kevin Durant. We’ve seen them play together in All-Star games but the real film was from 2016 Team USA where they may or may not have formed this 2019-2020 team (DeAndre Jordan was on the roster in 2016 as well)

In a game against the Australian Boomers, Team USA used Carmelo Anthony as a screener (let’s say that’s Prince next season) in this particular play. It stood out as something that can be replicated with coach Nash and extended to the 3-point line.

Additionally, this pick and roll with Irving and Jordan ended with an open Paul George three, but Durant was on the weak side wing providing spacing. You could easily swap George for Durant and Durant for Prince next season and these sorts of sets when combining Irving and Durants shooting is the kind of thing that Nash could use to make Kyrie an unstoppable player.

If you are to try analysis Durant as a scorer next to Irving the closest thing (huge difference by the way) Irving has had to tall shooting scorer in the NBA regular season was 2018-2019 Jayson Tatum (not an All-Star yet, averaging just 15.7 points per game). You could compare LeBron James in this scenario but Tatum is an overall better shooter than James (with a similar playstyle).

Last season Irving was the lead playmaker for the Celtics averaging 6.9 assists per game, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum received a healthy amount of the passes from Irving. Tatum was the second leading recipient behind Horford with 15 percent of Kyrie’s passes going to him.

You could put Brown in the Caris LeVert role but the focus is on Durant here, Tatum made 40.3 percent of his threes when he received the ball from Irving but only attempts 0.9 attempts per game (Tatum averaged 3.9 attempts with making 37 percent overall in 18-19)

This clip like before includes Irving making a nonsensical shot but peep at both the corners with a lonely Tatum and Gordon Hayward, who next season for the Brooklyn Nets could be a 6’11” Durant with an open three.

In this team Irving and Durant will share the court a majority of the time, the biggest factor in their success, especially come playoff time, will be the chemistry on the court. The direct play between them will likely be the most efficient scoring method. An example of this is with Durant’s past team the Warriors, Durant may be slim but he is tall, and with the Warriors, head coach Steve Kerr unleashed the Stephen Curry/Durant pick and roll which more or less is un-guardable.

If Steve Nash can steal from Steve Kerr’s playbook and substitute Irving with Curry, the Irving/Durant pick and roll could be a cheat code for years to come.