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#2 Does Irving fit Brooklyn Nets' style of play?
The Brooklyn Nets head coach may have to change somethings with Kyrie Irving as his lead point guard now. Brooklyn had an outstanding 2018/19 NBA season at least by their standards.
First, they made the playoffs and it seems a victory over eventual 2019 NBA champions, Toronto Raptors, sparked an 8-18 Nets team into winning nine of their next 10 games.
The Nets were a playoff team sixth in the East. If you spent any time watching them play, you saw a young team that played hard.
Even when they made too many mistakes they kept playing and if you didn’t know the score they never seemed to be out of any game. They were fun to watch.
The Nets also used the pick and roll to free up D’Angelo Russell's mid-range game and decision making.
Kyrie Irving is a different type of point guard. Irving is a score first, break his man down off of the dribble type of guard in the half-court.
Like Russell, who was signed and traded to Golden State, Irving is highly productive but is more of a player who works well in isolation type plays.
It’s a concern in a league that has gone more to ball movement and seeking out good quick shots. Irving has the kind of ball handles and crossover moves that should be most effective at the back end of the shot clock (seven seconds or less) to bail his team out of offensive sets that are not executed to plan.
Interestingly enough, Russell and Irving had similar stats in 2018/19 Russell averaged 21.1ppg to Irvings 23.8 ppg and 7apg to Irvings 6.9apg.
However, Boston was the better team averaging 26apg (14th in the NBA) as a team while Brooklyn averaged 23.6apg (15th in the NBA).
What Kyrie Irving may also bring to the Brooklyn Nets as their new point guard is a dedication to pushing the ball up court in the fast break as Boston with Irving averaged 16.2 fast break points per game in 2018/19 for seventh in the NBA while Brooklyn was 22nd averaging just 11.6 per game.
