Kyrie's offense

[DERRENMATTS]

Kyrie Irving is one of the most dazzling offensive players, not only in the game today, but in the history of basketball. It is so hard to stay in front of him because of his superior ball handling, great footwork, his splendid body control and balance, and his ambidexterity.

As much as I enjoy watching him dance with the ball and making defenders look silly, I want to see less of that kind of offense.

Why?

Because I want him to preserve his legs for the postseason, when he is most needed. It takes a toll on his feet, knees, and legs, over the course of a long season, if he has to manufacturer a lot of his offense off of crossovers, breaking ankles and herky jerky movements. Rather, I want him to score in more conventional ways, less physically taxing ways.

Brad Stevens, I believe, said he wants Kyrie to take more three point shots, instead of electing to drive. I guess in watching film, Brad saw Kyrie pass up three's in favor of driving to the basket, and he wants to reverse that trend.

I don't know if Kyrie has ever played with a big man who screens as well as Al Horford does. I'm hoping they'll work beautifully and harmoniously together.

[jmost]

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, basketball is most enjoyable to me when the ball moves from player to player. As good as guys like IT and Kyrie are at breaking down a defense by themselves, it's not the most fun to watch, nor the most effective in the long run. It certainly doesn't help the other guys develop their games. Using his dribbling skills to beat his man and then passing off when the defense steps out to challenge him is what I'd like to see Kyrie do more of. Maybe it shouldn't be this way, but when guys are involved on offense they tend to play harder at the other end too.

[FLCeltsFan]

I also love to watch basketball when they move the ball more and have less ISO's. I've been watching some clips of Aron Baynes and he sets some bone jarring screens also. It will be very interesting to see how Brad uses all his new toys.

[DERRENMATTS]

Though we share the same sentiments about ball movement over hero ball, it is good to know we have several players on the roster who are capable of going isolation and creating their own offense.

With the shot clock winding down, we're going to be glad we have Kyrie, and Gordon, and Tatum, and even Marcus Morris (and maybe, hopefully sooner than later, Jalyen Brown).

[Roadrunner]

Kyrie is the NBA's best ISO specialist. Tatum is the NBA's best rookie ISO specialist. Should be interesting to watch.

[DERRENMATTS]

I guess Brad doesn't have to dump all of the plays he had scripted for Avery Bradley. We can run them for Kyrie too. Last night, Kyrie received a number of hand offs that we typically ran for Bradley, and Kyrie easily knocked down 2 of them (including a 3).

I believe I read that we were one of the top teams that utilizes the hand offs, while Cleveland ranked near the bottom. Well, it obviously worked for Bradley and IT, and now it'll work for Kyrie too. This will give Irving an easier time getting off his shots.