Kyrie Irving has been subjected to a lot of criticism over the last couple of years, but hardly any of it had anything to do with what he does on the court. Irving is one of the more gifted ball handlers in the history of the game and his talent is off the charts. For all the failings of the Nets as a whole during the 2021-22 season, Kyrie did have one of his better seasons from an individual standpoint.
He played only 29 games due to the vaccine mandate but tied his career high as he averaged 27.4 points per game and he also shot 41.8% from beyond the arc, the best mark of his career. If it wasn’t for all the issues off the court and them getting swept by the Celtics, there would be more of an appreciation for Irving’s play from last season, but those things understandably overshadow it.
We can expect Kyrie to continue his good play in the seasons to come and Bryon Scott believes that if Irving plays the way he is capable of playing, then he will go down as one of the best point guards of all time.
Kyrie Irving could be a PG great says @official_bscott to @BovadaOfficial: “If he can play the way we know he’s capable of playing, he’s going to be one of the BEST point guards of all time. But the jury’s still out.” pic.twitter.com/PKGZ1BoqtV
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) August 30, 2022
That is very high praise indeed from Scott, who played alongside arguably the greatest point guard of all time in Magic Johnson. While Irving definitely is capable of doing amazing things on the court, we aren’t sure if he will ever be mentioned in the same breath as someone like Magic. He needs to achieve an awful lot in the rest of his career if he is to reach those heights and it would appear that Irving does have some high expectations of himself. Robinson had previously reported that those close to Kyrie told him that the guard is aiming to win MVP next season.
That would definitely be one way to get mentioned among the best point guards of all time! We doubt if he’d be able to pull off something like that, however, as he is playing on a stacked team. With Kevin Durant deciding to stay in Brooklyn, it is going to take an otherworldly season from Kyrie for him to win the award and it’s hard to see him being that good. The Nets don’t need him to do all that either, as they’d be more than happy if he just stays out of trouble and performs at the level that he has shown in recent years. If he does that, then they might finally break through and win it all next season.
