Kyrie Irving

I don't think people are paying proper attention to what Kyrie Irving is doing this season. Let's take a look at some of his numbers:

29.8 minutes per game

49.2% FG %

41.3% 3-pt FG %

83% FT Shooting

18 ppg

5.1 apg

3.5 rpg

0.8 spg

3.2 turnovers per game

PER 21.62 (Top 25 in the league)

The kid is 19 years old and putting up these numbers. He is doing it on a TERRIBLE Cavs team with limited talent surrounding him and has them hovering around the 8 seed (albeit in the awful eastern conference). Also you have to remember he largely didn't play basketball last year at Duke, as he was injured nearly the entire year. He isn't an all-star yet, but he's well on his way to being one. Those numbers aren't yet on par with a Chris Paul or a Derek Rose but he's certainly around the Tony Parker/Deron Williams zone. Again, I repeat, at 19 years old. To compare that to someone like Deron Williams in his rookie year, Kyrie is MILES ahead of him. In Williams rookie year ('05-'06) he finished 205th in PER. Kyrie is currently 25th. Deron had more talent around him on that team and has the same minutes per game that Kyrie is getting this year. He averaged:

10.8 ppg

4.5 apg

2.4 rpg

42% fg %

41% 3 pt fg %

1.8 turnovers per game

PER: 12.42

Kyrie out performs him in nearly every category, except turnovers per game. That's largely because Kyrie is asked to do far more for his team than Deron was asked to do for his. That also effects the PPG and APG difference between the two, but the PER tells the story.

Kyrie is doing something special this year and it's worth taking notice. He's actually made me tune into Cavs games to watch what he's doing.