UrinalCake
12-06-2014, 09:45 PM
Kyrie's career at Duke has taken on almost legendary status, based on how quickly he came in and dominated, and then just as quickly was gone. I remember him going up against an All-American point guard from Kansas State (Pullen?) and blowing him out of the water. He also destroyed a top point guard from Michigan State. His season is the ultimate "What if?" story for us as fans, and everything he's done in the NBA has caused his mystique to grow even further.
With Tyus showing an other-worldy maturity, I got to thinking whether an argument could be made that his early season has been just as impactful as Kyrie's. Obviously they are very different players, Tyus cannot match Kyrie's physical talents nor did Kyrie have Tyus's ability to manage a game and create for his teammates. Neither is great at defense. Both had the benefit of an incumbent senior point guard who was willing to not only step aside but mentor the incoming freshman. Both had a dominant big man to help his stats, though Mason was not nearly the offensive force that Jahlil has been.
Just for fun, I pulled up Kyrie's stats for his first eight games, up to and including the Butler game when Toe-gate happened, and compared them to Tyus's eight games so far:
Min PPG FG% 3-FG% FT% Assists TO Rebounds Steals
Irving 28.9 17.4 53.2 45.2% 90.0% 5.1 2.8 3.8 1.5
Jones 28.2 10.5 46.2 36.0% 84.4% 5.8 1.0 3.2 1.5
So Irving was a much better scorer, put up almost as many assists but a lot more turnovers, and played a tougher schedule based on my eye test. Yet I feel like as far as total impact on his team, Tyus is right there with him. Thoughts?
With Tyus showing an other-worldy maturity, I got to thinking whether an argument could be made that his early season has been just as impactful as Kyrie's. Obviously they are very different players, Tyus cannot match Kyrie's physical talents nor did Kyrie have Tyus's ability to manage a game and create for his teammates. Neither is great at defense. Both had the benefit of an incumbent senior point guard who was willing to not only step aside but mentor the incoming freshman. Both had a dominant big man to help his stats, though Mason was not nearly the offensive force that Jahlil has been.
Just for fun, I pulled up Kyrie's stats for his first eight games, up to and including the Butler game when Toe-gate happened, and compared them to Tyus's eight games so far:
Min PPG FG% 3-FG% FT% Assists TO Rebounds Steals
Irving 28.9 17.4 53.2 45.2% 90.0% 5.1 2.8 3.8 1.5
Jones 28.2 10.5 46.2 36.0% 84.4% 5.8 1.0 3.2 1.5
So Irving was a much better scorer, put up almost as many assists but a lot more turnovers, and played a tougher schedule based on my eye test. Yet I feel like as far as total impact on his team, Tyus is right there with him. Thoughts?