Are Celtics squandering some of Kyrie Irving's best basketball?

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Patience. 

It might just be the most word most commonly used by Kyrie Irving since he arrived in Boston. He extolled the virtue of patience when describing the long wait for the Celtics and Cavaliers to complete his jaw-dropping trade in the summer of 2017, then reaffirmed the need for it again this past summer while working his way back from the knee surgeries that cost him his first playoffs in green.

And no matter what kind of adversity this team has encountered the past two seasons — and there’s been a surprising amount of it — Irving has routinely noted he’ll remain the most patient person in the organization.

It’s not lip service. Irving might genuinely lead the league in equanimity. For Irving, the best ability in imperturbability. Saints have the patience of a Kyrie.

How else do you explain how Irving has maintained his composure amid Boston’s uneven start to the 2018-19 season. Irving is playing some of the best basketball of his career, or at least his most complete, and yet the Celtics near the end of the calendar year with an underwhelming 20-14 record and sit fifth in an Eastern Conference they were supposed to steamroll.

It feels a bit like the Celtics are squandering some of Irving’s finest play. Consider this: The Celtics own a net rating of plus-9.7 points per 100 possessions in Irving’s 1,036 minutes of floor time this season. They’ve outscored opponents by 237 points in that span.

In the 616 minutes that Irving has been on the bench, the Celtics own a net rating of minus-3.8 and he’s the only player on the roster in the negative (next closest is Jayson Tatum at plus-0.9 off-court net rating). Boston has been outscored by 34 points without Irving.

It’s not unusual for teams to experience notable dropoffs without their stars. But it simply feels more pronounced with Irving, whose team different between on/off ranks high compared to some of the league’s elite players:

Player          Net Rating On   Net Rating Off     Diff
Paul George       +10.6            -9.6                        +20.2
Kyrie Irving          +9.7             -3.8                        +13.5
Steph Curry         +9.6             -2.4                        +12.0
Anthony Davis     +4.5            -7.2                         +11.7
Kawhi Leonard    +8.4            +3.4                        +5.0
Giannis                 +10.7          +5.1                        +5.6
LeBron James      +3.2            -1.9                          +5.1
James Harden      +1.5            +2.5                        -1.0

Boston’s struggles in non-Kyrie minutes were hammered home a bit Thursday night in a loss to the Rockets when the Celtics were plus-6 in Irving’s 36 minutes but lost the game by 14. For as spectacular as James Harden was while hitting nine 3-pointers and scoring 45 points, he was plus-3 in his 39 minutes on floor time. The Celtics’ did little to capitalize in non-Harden minutes against a team thin on depth. 

In fact, according to the NBA’s data, the Rockets were minus-6 in the floor time that Harden and Irving shared the court. If the Celtics are going to suggest their depth is an advantage over the rest of the league, then Boston desperately needs more impact from a reserve group that currently includes playoff stars Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown, along with Gordon Hayward.

In typical Irving fashion, he didn’t lash out after the loss, Boston’s fourth defeat in its past six games. He simply repeated how Boston has to get better at little things.

He’s not wrong. But as Irving seems to singlehandedly will the Celtics at times — see his efforts on Christmas Day, when he put up an uncharacteristic 33 shots as if he almost recognized the need to lift his team to a big-stage win — he so clearly needs others to bring the sort of consistency that he’s displayed this season.

Irving hasn’t been perfect but he’s been damn good by all metrics. Among the 22 high-volume players in the league with more than 700 possessions finished, Irving ranks fourth in the NBA at 1.052 points per play, behind only Kevin Durant, Davis and Damian Lillard. The four players directly behind Irving are Antetokounmpo, James, George, and Harden. 

All this while Irving tries to mask his natural defensive deficiencies with increased effort on the other end of the floor. The Celtics do a good job hiding Irving and allowing him to float off shooters a bit but Irving’s increased desire to not be a liability is obvious. He finds himself in the 59th percentile among all defenders, per Synergy data, a notable uptick for a player that lived deep in the back half of the league for most of his career.

If the Celtics were 24-10 instead of 20-14, Irving would find himself smack dab in the middle of MVP chatter. It’s telling that, on a Celtics team that was supposed to be overflowing with talent, he is the only obvious choice for an All-Star on a team that might only deserve a single spot (though Marcus Morris deserves strong consideration as a reserve).

Little has gone to plan for the Celtics this season. Gordon Hayward has struggled more than most expected to regain his form; Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier haven’t been able to harness their playoff successes in smaller roles; Al Horford, perhaps hindered by a sore knee, hasn’t been his usual self on both ends; and even Jayson Tatum hasn’t made quite the leap that maybe was expected after such a tantalizing rookie season. 

All of which contributed to the season-opening starting five fizzling. Morris and Marcus Smart, rare overachievers early in the year, elevated to starting roles and gave the team a spark on an eight-game win streak. But the Celtics have rarely put together the sort of 48-minute effort that suggests they are the East favorite they were so routinely dubbed.

Now, the Celtics have dug themselves a considerable hole in the race for premium seeding and it’s easy to fixate on all that has gone wrong. While Boston clearly hasn’t hidden from those issues, especially with a very public team meeting last week, it’s also telling that Irving has yet to overreact the lackluster start.

A more inviting home-heavy scheduled awaits in January. It’d be easier to suggest the team could make some hay if it hadn’t lost to the Magic, Knicks, and Suns on their home turf so far this season.

Through it all, Irving remains patient. He truly believes the Celtics will figure this all out. Heck, there are times when he almost seems to enjoy the bump-filled journey and you can’t help but wonder if the low points might only make the potential success that much sweeter for Irving.

Still, he so clearly needs help to get there. And as patient as Irving might be, his teammates should be in a hurry to figure out how to better maximize what he is giving the team this season.

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