First seed last year, first seed this year. Media driving the Kyrie/Lebron storyline. Essentially the same team last year was a ONE SEED. Tatum and Brown are significantly better than what they had last year. Isaiah Thomas had a better case.
The Rockets won't win 1 game, let alone 2 without Harden. James Harden 2017: 31.6 pts 9.9 assist 4.8 reb 1.7 stl Chris Paul 2017: 10.7 pts 8.7 assist 4.7 reb Irving 2017: 22.5 pts 5.3 assist 3.2 rebs How is what Irving doing Hardenesque? Your post is the exact type of BS @YOLO isn't acknowledging, in his mind everyone hates Irving when the reality is lots of people are giving him credit he doesn't deserve. Irving is more like Chris Paul, he makes a good team better he isn't the one hard carrying the Celtics. His 22 pts come at the cost of lots of jacked up shots, he isn't spearheading the defense nor is he creating the offense, with only 5.3 assists per game the Boston players mostly get theirs on their own. Don't get me wrong Irving is definitely a star on his own right. But he isn't a Nash or an Iverson or even a Westbrick, he's a good player on a stacked team. Lol how is the 2nd best player Al Horford? Horford has 14 pts almost 9 rebs on 65% TS. If he was jacking up shots like Irving he would score more pts.
If the Celtics get past Cleveland this year's playoffs I bet they are all over him in the media. I think if they do it will be justified to an extent.
I think they will be justified only if Irving performs the best on his team when they win. Scoring more pts on a lower percentage doesn't equate to that. In their recent game Irving erupted for 47 pts, I think performances like that are what Irving needs to do live up to the hype. His 4-16 performance against GSW oth wasn't living up to the hype despite his X pts scored in the last X mins. I mean I can be selective too and say between 2:15 to 6:18 of the game Anderson scored 6 pts therefore he is a superstar wtf.
Kyrie Irving is laying out some of the most obnoxious BS I have ever heard here recently. I swear him and Arian Foster are the same person, they even look alike.
Hardene-esque may be an overstatement, but comparing one-seed to one-seed is like apples to oranges in this case. The Celtics are 16-2, and even though they've had an easy schedule, I don't see how you can discredit the best player on a team that is on pace to win 73 games. The starting five is great, meshes extremely well and the defense is incredible, but the Celts may have one of the worst benches in basketball. Kyrie could be the lone All-Star on his team.
Stacked? He could easily be the lone All-Star on this team. Some of the bench players getting heavy minutes are ridicolous. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are great, but I hate when teams gel and the star player is discredited for having too good of a supporting cast. Same BS Harden gets, in my opinion. And are you saying Al Horford is the best player? The true shooting percentage is great, but he can't just "jack up" more shots and maintain that efficiency. Horford scores within an offense, while a majority of Kyrie's points are created off of isolation. The degree of difficulty isn't comparable. Honestly, just look at this leaderboard to see how truly useless this stat is when comparing players in different roles (Kyrie's TS% is pretty damn good too, BTW) - https://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/sort/trueShootingPct
Sure - https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/2017.html Except, well nah it's not even a big deal. I won't even mention it. It's the smallest of small deals. Oh shoot, just for rounding-error's sake - 1) Celtics lost their top 3 minute/game players from what we've factually - no less - established as "Essentially" the same team 2) Celtics lost their top 3 high-volume 3pt fg % leaders off what is "Essentially" the same team 3) Celtics lost 5 of their top 7 rotation players (Olynk & A. Johnson + 3 above) off what is "Essentially" the same team 4) Celtics lost 4 of their top 6 points/game players off what is "Essentially" the same team 5) Celtics lost 4 of their top 5 rebounds/game players off what is "Essentially " the same team "Essentially" (if I may) the composition of the 2017 Celtics: - 2 of the top 7 players from the 2016 Celtics - An improved Jalen Brown - Jason Tatum - Kyrie Irving So, "Essentially" a whole different team. But, real talk, 2/7 is essentially 7/7 as long as we're rounding everything up to the nearest whole number. I mean having Chris Dudley shooting clutch 4qtr freethrows is "Essentially" the same the same as Calvin Murphy shooting them; ~30% is "Essentially" 100% as per the use of "Essentially" in your post. Give. Me. A. BREAK. You have more basis in fact if you were to try and convince me that it's an ENTIRELY different team; not ESSENTIALLY the same team. And yeah I was probably an overwhelming Ahole with this post but it's like you and Roslolian have thrown facts to the curb. Meh, whatever, I'm over it.
All star is decided by fan votes, they are not an indication of anyone's true ability but rather his popularity. A lot of Celts players get theirs via isolation, Kyrie and Smart are the team assist leaders with a whoppping 5.3 assists per game so its not like Irving is generating the team offense like what Thomas did before. Horford is a complete player, he can score on his own so why are you acting like he is De Andre Jordan? And what about his defense? Horford is the centerpiece of the defense, is Irving known for defense? Horford is a lot more critical to the team than Irving. When Irving was out Brown and Tatum were able to carry the slack offensively. But if Horford is out they are gonna struggle on the boards and defensively.
What facts have I thrown to the curb? If Irving was so important and hard carrying the team on his shoulders every night how come Celtics won every game he was out? Last year if Thomas was out would Celts win games? Thomas couldn't even sit out and aggravated his injury. If Irving is so amazing how come the Cavs got outscored every time Lebron sat on tge bench and he ran the offense? You are the one kicking facts to the curb and not me. Since when did 22 and 5 become an MVP level player?
