If you ask an NBA fan to name the very best guards in the league, there’d be some constants on everyone’s lips, like the reigning Finals MVP, Stephen Curry. James Harden, Damian Lillard, and Kyrie Irving would also have been constants, but there are some question marks regarding all of them at the moment.
Harden looked a shell of his former self this past season while Lillard was hampered by injuries, and we all know about everything that comes along with Kyrie Irving at this point. So, when Hoop Central posed the question of ‘Start, bench, and cut’ among these three, NBA Twitter was quite divided on the matter.
Start one
Bench one
Cut one pic.twitter.com/9cwDQfSFnf
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) August 1, 2022
“Start harden bench Kyrie cut dame is the only answer”
“Kyrie to start, harden on the bench, Dame get sent home”
“Bench Harden. Obv cut Kyrie”
“the hardest one I’ve seen but In 2022 I’m starting Dame benching Kyrie and cutting Harden”
“start Harden… he’s still a serviceable facilitator that gets his teammates going at the start. bench Dame.. imagine Dame with fresh legs torching the opponent’s bench unit and tired starters. cut Kyrie. he prolly not gonna play anw”
“Rn it’s got to be Start Dame, bench Kyrie, cut Harden”
“Start: Kyrie one of the most talented point Guards the league has ever seen Bench: Lillard, Kyrie is just better. Cut: harden inconsistent”
“all healthy and in love w basketball? dame getting cut, easy.”
“Harden Gap Another gap Kyrie Dame”
“Man …. Start Dame (he got more dog in him), bench Kyrie (he dgaf sometimes just be having fun that’d be savage off the bench ), cut Harden (he piss me off too much )”
“Yeah I’m not a fan of “Start Harden” It should actually be this: Start Kyrie Bench Lillard Cut Harden”
“assuming harden comes back healthy: start harden bench dame cut kyrie (reasoning for dame over kyrie is because kyrie is never available and dame has carried some teams with crazy series performances) “
“Starting James easy, he’s the only one that can really take teams to new heights and be a contender with him being the lone star”
“Dame is no doubt the starter here. If you think Harden will turn back into early Brooklyn Harden this year, bench him. If not, cut him”
“Start Dame Bench Harden Cut Kyrie This not based off talent but availability and cohesion”
“Start dame bench KYRIE cut harden the reason I say that is because harden ain’t putting up like 60 points or nothing since he been a sixer honestly he been mid KYRIE and dame been dropping 60s”
“Harden Kyrie Dame Dame been swept out the playoffs too much for me”
“Start Dame because he’s reliable Bench Harden because 6th man Harden was a problem back in the day Cut Kyrie because I’m not sure he wants to play basketball for real”
“Start dame he is playing the best out of all of them, bench harden because he’s not as good as he once was but he still is very good, cut kyrie he has attitude problems and is a big part of the dumpster fire that is the Brooklyn nets”
The question marks surrounding these guys just add more intrigue here as we aren’t quite sure what to expect from them. We can only hope for them and their respective team’s sake that we see them return to their very best next season.
Harden, for his part, believes he will be back to his best, and if that is the case, then the Sixers would be in contention for a title as well and winning it all would greatly enhance his standing in the league. Lillard, meanwhile, has stated he plans to stay with the Blazers, as a championship with another team won’t be as fulfilling for him. While it is great that he is showing such loyalty, team success is not going to follow him in Portland, and Dame’s failure to consistently make deep playoff runs is something that will always be held against him. Irving is the biggest question mark of them all in a way, and that is for reasons that we all know at this point. It will be very interesting to see how 2022-23 pans out for these three individuals.
