Kyrie Irving’s Play Making Potential for the Boston Celtics

We know what Kyrie Irving can do as a scorer, but his play making potential could unlock the offense

At just 25 years of age, Kyrie Irving has separated himself as one of the elite individual scorers in the NBA. He has the best handles in the league, is unmatched when it comes finishing to the rim, and he can hit any shot on all three levels that you would ask of him, and a player in his face usually does not seem to bother him.

That alone will make Irving an offensive juggernaut for the Boston Celtics, but that is not where Brad Stevens is going to stop. If you look at Irving’s reasons for wanting out of Cleveland, there is a good chance he will be on the same page.

Clearly, Irving wanted something different. He did some of the most amazing things in the NBA with his role on the Cavaliers, but he was clearly unsatisfied with being a second option in every phase of the game, because LeBron James will always be the primary option for anything.

In Boston, we already know that Irving will be the primary scoring option. That being said, that means something different than it means in Cleveland. Remember, Irving still has another offensive star beside him in Gordon Hayward, and a big that opens everything up on offense in Al Horford but they will not overwhelm every phase of the game like James does.

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For Irving, the days of over dribbling and isolation should be over, and the best thing for everyone would be if Irving is fully on board with that change.

The Celtics are one of the best passing teams in the league, without having any one player get a lot of assists. The Celtics always need to have five willing passers on the court at a time and that allows everyone to generate open looks for anyone.

That right there will open everything up for Irving. He will have more space to move around, and because of what players are doing off the ball, the space he creates as an offensive threat will make play making a lot easier for him, with a lot more options to dish out to.

One of the focal points of Boston’s offense last season was having floor spacing to over extend the defense, driving Isaiah Thomas into the paint, which forces the defenders to crash, resulting in a flurry of wide open shooting options.

With Irving, he can draw that kind of defensive attention in more ways, and that will not only expand what the offense can do, but it could potentially unlock some unknown play making and distribution ability that we did not see in Cleveland.

Again, the Celtics do not need anyone to be striving for double digit assists. In fact, Irving is not as far off from Thomas when it comes to distribution as you would think. Obviously, Thomas was more responsible for running his offense in Boston than Irving in Cleveland, but it is not as if Irving is incapable of being a distributor, the Cavaliers just never designed their offense around that ability.

In Boston, Stevens will certainly make it a part of their offensive design, because the space that can be created by an offensive threat like Irving can be used in so many different ways.

Thomas ran one of the best passing offenses in the league last season, so there is no reason to think Irving would have to be more of a distributor than him. Last season, Irving had just 0.1 less assists per game than Thomas. The real difference is how they are getting those assists.

You have to look at how they get the assists to understand the difference between the two. Thomas’ distribution was always about maintaining a fluid offensive system where the ball is never stopping.

Irving’s distribution was about making a play by himself, and finding that one player who may be open. In Boston, he is not going to be focusing on finding that one open man. Instead, he will be running more in depth sets, focusing much less on one on one matchups.

The difference for Irving is not about the volume of play making, it is about the kind of play making within his offense.

We saw how effective Thomas was in that role, where he was the primary instigator of ball movement, while being the primary scoring option. Putting Irving into that position will be putting even more pressure on defenses, allowing Stevens to do even more with the offense around him.

When you take into consideration that this offense will be generating looks for talent like Hayward, with the help of the best passing big in the NBA, and both Irving’s play making options, as well as the offense created by them should expand in a great way next season.

Of course, this still does require a change of style for Irving, but it sounds like that is what he is looking for. The best part is that Stevens will look at Irving’s play making potential, and then from that figure out how to create the best offense around him.

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Stevens is not the kind of coach to try and pick and plug players into predetermined roles. Instead, he adapts the roles according to the talent at his disposal. It may take time for Stevens to figure out the best way to use Irving, as he did with Horford last season. That being said, there is too much talent there for Stevens to not find a way to have Irving scoring and distributing in one of the best offenses in the NBA.