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Isaiah Thomas is Better than Kyrie Irving, and Should Start Over him in the All Star Game

By Michael James

Mar 5, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) dribbles past Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the third quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavs won 120-103. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 5, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) dribbles past Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the third quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavs won 120-103. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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Isaiah Thomas has proven that he deserves to start the All Star game over Kyrie Irving

Isaiah Thomas has had the best season of his career for the Boston Celtics in 2016-17. Averaging almost 29 point per game, and 10 points per game in just the fourth quarter, Thomas has proven to be one of the league’s elite scorers.

However, the King in the fourth still has yet to garner league wide respect. He sits far behind Kyrie Irving in All Star votes, and many “experts” around the league consider Irving a superstar, but not Thomas. To me, it’s not even close. Thomas is better than Irving, and I’ll show you why.

Let’s start with the most obvious statistical evidence.

Thomas: 28.7ppg/6.1apg/2.7rpg

Irving: 23.6ppg/5.6apg/3.5rpg

Simply put, Thomas has been better. He has more points, assists, and is close enough in rebounds for it to be pretty amusing since Irving has about six inches on Thomas. What cannot be ignored here is that Irving has LeBron James and Kevin Love on his team. Those two players give Irving a ton of space out on the floor, but he still doesn’t score at the same rate Thomas does with far less talent by his side.

For those who say, “Irving doesn’t take as many shots as Isaiah,” you’re right. But not by much. Irving takes 19 shots a game while Thomas takes 19.5. Thomas and Irving both shoot 46%, so Thomas has the edge when looking at the basic stat line. Next, we’ll use more advanced stats to show how much better Thomas is over Irving.

Apr 23, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) works for the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the second quarter in game three of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 23, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) works for the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the second quarter in game three of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports /

Among eastern conference point guards, Thomas has the highest player efficiency rating(PER) at 27.13. Irving falls in at the fifth spot with a PER of 21.35. This statistic shows that when on the floor, Thomas is a much more efficient player. So even though Thomas is the featured option on his team that Irving is not, it’s “The Little Guy” that more efficient on the floor. But wait, there’s more.

There’s a stat called Value Added(VA), which is basically the number of points a player to a team’s season total above what a replacement player would produce. In our case Thomas’ VA is 310.9, the best mark for east point guards. Irving’s VA is 188.2, which ranks fifth. In a stat that measures production, Thomas leads Irving by 122.7 points. This is the same gap between Irving and Pacers forward Thaddeus Young. Is Young better than Irving?Absolutely not.

Thomas also has a lower turnover rate, even though his usage rate is higher than Irving. Irving’s true shooting percentage(56.7%) is not as good as Thomas'(61.7%) as well. Both players struggle on the defensive end, but Thomas’ struggles are attributed to his size. Irving simply does not give enougg effort on that end of the floor. So I won’t make defense a main reason for why Thomas is better, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Next: Is Horford Taking Too Many 3s?

Thomas should start in this year’s All Star game, and be considered the better player over Irving. The numbers support Thomas’ claim, and just by watching you can see that Irving is not as effective on the floor. I don’t think it will happen over night, but eventually, the popular opinion will be in favor of Thomas. Both are one dimensional players, but Thomas is far better at what he does than Irving.

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