Kyrie Irving would be having an MVP-worthy season - if his team would only win


With last night's loss to the Knicks, Boston has dropped to 8th place in the Eastern Conference. There is something gravely wrong with this team as it is currently constructed and employed. One thing that is right would be the overall play of Kyrie Irving. He started the season sluggishly, but has really raised his game lately.



Over the last 10 games, Kyrie ranks 3rd among NBA guards in scoring (26.4 PPG), 11th in rebounding (5.2 RPG), 11th in assists (7.0 APG), 4th in steals (2.6 SPG) and 1st in Fantasy Points. Among the Celtics many negative issued, don't include Kyrie.


Irving is not in the basketball-reference's top-10 MVP rankings, and the main block is the Celtics 9-9 record. The 8-8 Hornets' Kemba Walker is at #10 in the rankings but all nine of the other candidates's teams have winning records.

If it is true that Irving came to the Celtics to be The Man, I have to say right now he has succeeded. Think of the team without him. On offense, he draws so much attention with the ball in his hands, any fan would think his teammates would have multiple open opportunities to score. Very often those open chances are there, but this crew can't seem to score the ball.


Last night, Boston was 39% from the field, 30% on treys and 72% from the charity stripe. Kyrie for the last 10 games is shooting 52% from the field but was only hitting at 36% last night. The Celtics scoring woes just continue.

As Rob Welch's recap of the Knicks-trouncing-Boston recap indicated, the Celtics hit rock-bottom in that game. Sometimes an individual or organization needs to bottom out in order to rebound. I have seen it repeatedly. Let's hope we see that rebound soon. Irving might tell us that MVP for him is meaningless, but if I heard that from him, I wouldn't believe him. If the team starts winning games, and Kyrie keeps his play at this high level, look for better times for the Celtics and their leader.

Follow Tom at @TomLaneHC, @CelticsSentinel and Facebook

Photo via Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images






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