Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 questions on Kyrie Irving’s stunning trade demand

Is He Worth All This Fuss?

Let’s review what exactly Kyrie Irving is at this point.

Primarily, he’s a guard who possesses the most important combination of skills you can have in the modern game: an uncanny ability to get to the rim and a three-point shot that will keep defenses more than honest.

Moreover, once he gets to the rim, he’s as good a finisher around the basket as any player in the league not currently on his own team.

So that’s all really swell.

Here’s the bad part: while Kyrie is certainly a better player than he was before LeBron walked back into town, he’s fundamentally the same guy: a devastating offensive force who doesn’t necessarily make his teammates better and is a massive liability on the other end of the court.

Sure, its tough to know for certain whether Irving would be more adept at making his teammates better now than he was then. Sharing the court with James as much as he has precludes us from knowing.

But Kyrie’s advanced metrics with vs without James are really, really bad, to the point of being difficult to chalk up to lack of time in the driver’s seat. Add in the fact that he is a turnstile on defense and, well…there’s a reason he’s made All-NBA just once; a 3rd Team selection in 2015.

So with that being said…