Brooklyn Nets: How Kyrie Irving will affect Caris LeVert in 2019-20
By Zamir Bueno
Exploring how Kyrie Irving will impact Caris LeVert and the Brooklyn Nets during the 2019-20 NBA season
There is a growing sentiment around the league that Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson will start Caris LeVert at small forward next season. CBSSports and ESPN currently have LeVert listed as the starting small forward for the team on their respective depth chart.
However, one can argue that it would behoove Atkinson to make LeVert the 6th man due to the arrival of Kyrie Irving. Caris experienced the best statistical stretch of his career at the beginning of the 2018-19 season. This is because Kenny decided to give LeVert a greater on-ball presence as he touched the ball 59.4 times per game over the first 13 games of last season.
This was an increase of 18.6 touches per game from the first two seasons of his career. The increase in touches led to a significant uptick in his drives per game as he averaged 14.5. This was an increase of 6.5 drives per game from the first 2 seasons of his career (8).
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LeVert proceeded to average 10.4 points and 0.9 assists on these drives. This was an increase of 6.8 points and a decrease of 0.1 assists per game from the first two seasons of his career. The combination of these factors helped him average 19 points with 3.7 assists per game. This was an increase of 8.9 points and 0.65 assists from the first two seasons of his career.
Unfortunately, the best stretch of his career was temporarily put on pause because he suffered a dislocated right foot in the 14th game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The injury forced him to miss the team’s next 42 games.
When Caris LeVert returned from injury, He wasn’t given the same offensive responsibility as Atkinson wanted to ease him back into the rotation. Before his return against the Chicago Bulls, Atkinson told LeVert to enjoy being on the court:
"Coach Kenny Atkinson’s message to LeVert was to enjoy being back on the court, playing, working up a sweat."
Atkinson’s approach naturally led to a dramatic dip in touches as he averaged 41.8 per game during his final 27 regular-season games. LeVert touched the ball 17.6 fewer times a game than before the injury. The reduction in his touches led to a significant drop in his drives per game as he went from 14.5 to 10.7.
LeVert created 5.7 points, and 1 assist for the team on these drives. This was a decrease of 4.7 points and an increase of 0.1 assists per game. As a consequence of the lesser role, LeVert’s production declined in terms of points and increased in terms of assists as he averaged 11.1 points with 4 assists.
A week before the end of the regular season, Kenny Atkinson was finally ready to give LeVert a greater offensive role as he told reporters that LeVert was regaining his old form:
"“I thought, the confidence level, number-one, and the physical level – I thought that was the Caris from the beginning of the year,” Kenny Atkinson remarked after Monday’s game. “How athletic he looked, how fast he looked, and I loved how, just his confidence, you can see that. We stuck with him and that bodes well for him in the future.”"
Atkinson’s comments contributed to LeVert getting more touches in the playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers as he averaged 47.8 per game. This was an increase of six touches per game from the end of the regular season.
The increase in touches led to a significant uptick in his drives per game as he averaged 16.6. This was an increase of 5.9 drives per game from the end of the regular season. LeVert proceeded to average 11.4 points and 1.6 assists on these drives. This was an increase of 5.7 points and 0.6 assists per game from the end of the regular season.
The combination of these factors helped him average 21 points with three assists per game. This was an increase of 9.9 points and a decrease of 1 assist from the end of the regular season.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Caris LeVert will be able to build on his performance in the playoffs this upcoming season due to the arrival of Kyrie Irving. Kyrie is a player who often develops tunnel vision, where he tries to end the possessions by scoring on his defender.
A prime example of this can be found early in the third quarter of a Boston Celtics home game against the San Antonio Spurs. Kyrie dribbled the basketball up to the 3-point line and realized that the Spurs weren’t protecting the rim. Consequently, Irving did an in between the legs dribble move to momentarily freeze his defender, Derrick White, which allowed to go right for the easy layup.
Kyrie’s tunnel vision has limited the number of passes he makes per game as he averaged 51.6 passes per game over the last 2 seasons. The 51.6 passes caused him to rank 30th and 31st in passes made among starting guards over the last two seasons. His tunnel vision contributed to Boston only averaging 298.85 passes per game
However, the Celtics displayed more ball movement with Kyrie out of the lineup as they averaged 304.7 passes per game in the 35 regular season games Kyrie Irving missed because of injury over the last two seasons.
The diminished ball movement with Kyrie on the floor forces teammates to spend more time off the ball. Jayson Tatum spent the majority of his time in an off the ball role when he played with Kyrie during the 2017-18 season as he only averaged 40.6 touches per game. The limited amount of touches prevented Tatum from having a bigger impact during the early portion of his rookie year because he was known as an isolation player in amateur ranks:
According to Synergy Sports Technology, almost 25 percent of his plays at Duke came via the isolation sets:
"Tatum’s bread and butter remains his strong isolation game, where nearly a quarter of his possessions came from, according to Synergy Sports Technology. Tatum was either too big, too quick, or too skilled for virtually any defender opponents could throw his way, and Duke exploited that whenever they could, particularly as the season moved along."
Unfortunately, he would only average 1.4 isolation sets per game for the majority of his rookie season. Consequently, Tatum only averaged 13.3 points and 1.4 assists through the first 67 games of the 2017-18 season.
Kyrie’s season-ending injury allowed the Celtics to give Tatum more touches as he averaged 53.1 per game during his absence. The increased touches opened the door for Tatum to run more isolation sets in the playoffs as he averaged 3.7 per game.
The combination of these factors helped Tatum average 18.5 points and 2.1 assists during a 19 game playoff stretch in 2018. Caris LeVert is likely to suffer the same fate as Jayson Tatum because of Kyrie’s decision to sign with Brooklyn this past summer.
Unfortunately, LeVert isn’t going to thrive off the ball as he has a career shooting percentage of 32.9 percent from behind the arc. LeVert’s shooting percentage is 2.83 percent lower than the league average (35.83 percent) over the past three seasons. Consequently, defenders leave him open when he is off the ball as 91.16 percent of his 3’s have been uncontested over the past three seasons.
As a consequence, LeVert’s defender will leave him open when he is off the ball to become a help defender on Kyrie or other teammates. The best solution to this is to make Caris LeVert a 6th man as it will allow him to get more time as a ball handler. This move would also decrease the likelihood that Kyrie Irving faces a double team.
Those aren’t the only two benefits to making LeVert a 6th man as it would give the organization the best opportunity to improve his trade value; in case they want to pursue a third star via trade at some point.
The only time Kenny Atkinson should veer from this hypothetical plan is when Kyrie has to miss a game because of injury or a load management program (which the Nets should deploy next season due to Irving’s injury history).