The Wood Shop: Irving’s Growth and Scoring off Scouting Reports

I’m guilty of piling on Kyrie Irving. I’ve said he can’t play team ball, doesn’t know how to run a pick and roll, and that his hand waving “why didn’t you get my guy, I had to tell the refs I was fouled” defense is among the worst in the league. I still believe all those things, but he showed me there is still hope for him during the Cavs’ game three win.

In game three, Irving had 30 points on 12-25 shooting to go with eight assists and some focused defense. The assists amazed me. He showed that he understands how to run the pick and roll much better these days. Half of his dimes came off a screen.

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Early in the first quarter, Kyrie gets a screen from Tristan Thompson way above the 3-point line (See above). Kyrie sees TT coming early on, so he wisely starts to sprint to the hoop. Stephen Curry can’t match his speed while backpedaling, so he turns his body to run. Right at that moment, TT stops him dead in his tracks. Nice planning, Uncle Drew. Andrew Bogut has to come up to slow Ky. Ky then does a weird hesitation dribble shot move to get Bogut off balance. At that point, Draymond Green has to sag into the paint to contain Irving, leaving Jefferson alone in the corner for a wide open 3-pointer.

Please note that Irving cut in front of TT (snaked him) on the play. This killed TT’s ability to roll to the hoop; however, Irving did it to bait Green into helping off of his man in the corner. I have a hunch Uncle Drew thought he could blow by Bogut 20 feet from the hoop.

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On the pick and roll above, Kyrie gets a nice screen from TT above the 3-point line. TT doesn’t pop out of nowhere to set it. Klay Thompson knows it’s coming. However, J.R. Smith artfully comes across the floor from the right corner to make the play work. Smith’s movement does two things. First off, it takes Curry out of the play and gives Irving the right side for a drive. Curry has greasy little thieve hands, and he’s always poking for the ball. Secondly, it makes Klay think about more than just the TT screen. He takes his time getting through the screen, and Bogut has to come up to help. Canadian TnT rolls to the hoop, gets a slick bounce pass, and finishes in traffic.

Notice how Draymond sagged down to help, again, leaving RJ open in the corner. That’s been happening a lot lately, and TT should consider throwing that corner pass sometimes.

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In the play below, Kyrie gets a screen from James after the Cavs recover an offensive board. Irving hesitates to use James’ first screen, so Steph easily slides with him, and Green clues into what is about to go down. Irving reverses course and tries to take a second screen from LeBron. The King and Irving see that Green is going to try and trap. James wisely slips the screen. Irving then uses his handles to keep the trap focusing on him while James rolls to the hoop and gets in position to catch a pass.

Irving botched the initial pick and roll, but he used his dribbling to wait for something to develop. Normally, he would keep his dribble alive, but ignore LeBron and try to dribble his way into a long 3-pointer.

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Irving also showed some defensive intensity in game three. In the above play, Curry is trying to get free to catch the ball. At first, he uses an Anderson Varejao screen right below the 3-line. Irving anticipates where Curry wants to go and moves to cut his path off. Curry then reverse cuts back for a backdoor layup. TT helps a fellow Cav out though and negates that plan. Irving recovers and gets back to Curry as he moves towards the 3-line. Andy, again, sets a screen. Irving anticipates where Curry is going to come off of it at, cuts diagonally to get there, and meets Curry to contest his shot. Irving forces the air ball, #allthefocus. Where was that effort all season?

Hacking the Scouting Report

https://vine.co/v/i3w9AWlavPJ

LeBron has been known to ISO, so when TT gets the ball down low it’s a fairly safe bet that James’ wants to get the ball back for some one-on-one play. Andre Igoudola bets on this, and the King makes him feel even better about his proposition by acting like he’s going to run out to the 3-line for the pass with a nice fake that direction. Once Iggy leans, James cuts to the hoop for the ritual throwing down of the hammer.

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If Irving can repeat his performance from game three, the Cavs will be in a much better position to win tonight. Usually, his good offensive nights are a wash because it takes the team out of their game plan and because he just gives it back on the defensive end. His plus-minus of +24 was well earned and could be a sign of good things to come.