Nuggets: Why Denver should pursue a trade for Kyrie Irving
By Tom West
Elite isolation scoring and ball handling
Most love it, some hate it, but Kyrie Irving is primarily known and respected for his elite isolation scoring. And when that’s not all a team has to hang their hat on (Denver wouldn’t with Jokic around), it’s hugely valuable.
Rather than just scoring isolation buckets in bunches, Irving does so with unmatched efficiency for his level of volume. He ranked in the 94th percentile in isolation plays last season with 1.12 points per possession, the same as Isaiah Thomas, who only scored 2.6 such points per game compared to Irving’s 5.7, per NBA.com. Only James Harden and Russell Westbrook scored more isolation points per game than Irving last season, but neither came close in terms of efficiency, both scoring no more than 0.97 points per possession.
You can say that Irving’s love of controlling the ball and creating his own offense would mess with the Nuggets’ already stellar system based on frequent ball movement, cutting and Jokic’s passing. That’s fine. There’d be some obvious adjustment. But you can’t think that Jokic can do everything and make this team a legitimate contender, even if Denver had the league’s best offense last season from December 15 onwards.
An offense can’t always rely so heavily on one player, particularly when the playoffs roll around and teams game plan to stop Jokic; someone else needs to handle the ball and create. Paul Millsap is a perfect offensive fit next to Jokic, but he isn’t a high-duty ball handler and can’t create constantly. Jamal Murray is talented, he’s developing and has terrific potential, but he’s not ready for that kind of heavy burden yet. And even when he hits his offensive ceiling, he won’t necessarily become more deadly than Irving as a creator. Quite frankly, it’s incredibly hard to surpass that level, unless you’re a 7-foot shooting/mismatch phenom like Kevin Durant.
More so than just the scoring diversity Irving would provide, his simple presence as a top ball handler is something the Nuggets would benefit from. The team needs a better option to initiate offense after Jokic than 35-year-old Jameer Nelson at point guard, and Irving is one of the best ball handlers in the NBA altogether, even though his talents lie in scoring rather than playmaking.
The next perk of adding Irving is one that would make the Nuggets’ offense absurdly tough to stop.