Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas are Incomparable

It is unfair to compare Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas right now

The trade that brought Kyrie Irving to Boston split the Celtics fan base into a group of Isaiah Thomas loyalists and acolytes of the forward-thinking Irving. At the time, it was difficult to understand why Danny Ainge would trade an All-Star point guard who gets grilled on defense for another All-Star point guard who gets grilled on defense, while giving up three other pieces in the in deal including Brooklyn’s unprotected first round pick in 2018.

It was widely agreed upon that Thomas and Irving were essentially the same player, and I still see comparisons in regards to their fourth quarter stats. Thomas hasn’t played yet for the Cavaliers, but we know enough about Irving now to say that the two are incomparable.

The hip injury that Thomas is still recovering from has highlighted an important difference in their style of play. Irving finishes most plays on his feet while Thomas would end up sprawled across the sideline camera crew. One injury to Thomas’ hip doesn’t prove either player to be more or less durable than the other, but it was only a matter of time before there would be consequences to Thomas’ reckless play style.

The miraculous layups that Thomas would hit have simply been routine for Irving. The volume scoring of the former has been exchanged for the efficiency of the latter, as Irving scores just as much from the field on slightly fewer attempts.

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Recency bias makes it hard to compare the two objectively, given that Thomas hasn’t played at all this season while Irving has lead the Celtics to the league’s best record. Thomas’ reputation as a terrible defender was undeserved, as he often stayed in front of defenders. He stood his ground. Nothing more, nothing less.

Irving’s defense is still on an entirely different planet than Thomas’ was. You can look at steals, win shares, and defensive ratings if you want. Better yet, you can watch how active Irving is on defense. He gets up in dude’s faces as soon as they touch the ball and constantly try to swipe the ball away. Sometimes he’ll recover from getting blown past and pin a lay up on the backboard. It’s almost as if he heard everybody say that Boston “traded all their defense away” as part of the cost to bring him in.

I’ll submit that Irving benefits from having a stronger core of players around him than Thomas did. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have been as good as, if not better than, the players they replaced in the lineup while Marcus Smart and Al Horford have become elite playmakers. And don’t look now, but Gordon Hayward‘s boot is about to come off soon enough.

Think about how good we thought Thomas would be the day of the trade, and compare that to the day he was traded away. Now, consider the fact that Irving was already at that level before coming to Boston. Maybe this is peak Irving, but I think his ceiling is a lot higher than what we’re seeing.

Next: Tatum the Second Most Important Scorer in Boston

Either way, it’s dishonest at best to compare two players based on box score stats alone. It’s fun to argue, but sometimes I feel the need to draw a line in the sand.

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