FanPost

Elite Playoff Scoring

It is very exciting that Danny Ainge acquired Kyrie Irving an elite scorer that has shined in the playoffs.

Here is the list of all active players that have averaged more than 30 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs (min 1000 min), thank you BBR.

Criteria

Totals

Per 100 Possessions

Shooting

Player

From

To

MP

WS/48

PTS

WS

G

GS

FG

FGA

2P

2PA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

ORB

DRB

TRB

AST

STL

BLK

TOV

PF

FG%

2P%

3P%

eFG%

FT%

TS%

LeBron James

2006

2017

9127

0.241

36.7

45.8

217

217

13.0

26.7

11.0

20.8

2.0

6.0

8.7

11.8

2.0

9.4

11.4

8.9

2.3

1.2

4.6

3.1

0.485

0.530

0.330

0.522

0.742

0.574

Kevin Durant

2010

2017

4349

0.190

36.1

17.2

106

106

12.2

26.0

9.5

18.4

2.6

7.6

9.2

10.7

1.2

8.9

10.1

4.8

1.3

1.5

4.1

3.1

0.468

0.519

0.344

0.518

0.853

0.588

Russell Westbrook

2010

2017

3288

0.150

34.7

10.2

87

87

12.0

28.8

10.2

22.7

1.8

6.1

9.0

10.7

2.6

6.4

9.0

10.7

2.7

0.4

5.3

3.9

0.415

0.447

0.294

0.446

0.841

0.518

Carmelo Anthony

2004

2013

2579

0.106

34.7

5.7

66

66

12.1

29.0

10.6

24.3

1.5

4.7

9.1

11.0

3.0

6.8

9.8

3.7

1.7

0.5

3.9

5.1

0.417

0.435

0.320

0.442

0.826

0.513

Stephen Curry

2013

2017

2834

0.199

34.6

11.7

75

74

11.5

25.4

6.0

11.9

5.5

13.5

6.1

6.9

1.1

5.6

6.7

8.8

2.3

0.3

4.9

3.1

0.453

0.501

0.410

0.562

0.885

0.609

Kyrie Irving

2015

2017

1891

0.188

34.0

7.4

52

52

12.5

26.8

9.1

18.7

3.3

8.0

5.8

6.6

1.0

3.3

4.4

6.7

2.1

0.9

3.2

3.1

0.465

0.487

0.415

0.528

0.876

0.573

Dirk Nowitzki

2001

2016

5895

0.188

32.8

23.1

145

145

10.9

23.7

9.6

20.0

1.3

3.7

9.6

10.8

1.9

11.1

12.9

3.2

1.3

1.2

2.9

3.6

0.462

0.479

0.365

0.490

0.892

0.577

Dwyane Wade

2004

2017

6570

0.157

32.1

21.5

172

172

11.8

24.8

10.9

22.3

0.9

2.5

7.7

9.9

1.9

5.6

7.5

7.1

2.2

1.4

4.7

3.8

0.474

0.489

0.342

0.491

0.779

0.550

Derrick Rose

2009

2015

1665

0.095

31.3

3.3

41

41

11.8

28.3

10.1

22.4

1.7

5.9

6.0

7.1

1.7

4.7

6.3

9.4

1.4

0.7

4.8

2.9

0.418

0.451

0.290

0.448

0.838

0.498

Damian Lillard

2014

2017

1255

0.101

30.5

2.6

31

31

10.0

24.7

6.7

15.1

3.3

9.6

7.2

8.0

1.2

4.4

5.6

7.1

1.3

0.4

3.5

3.1

0.405

0.443

0.346

0.472

0.891

0.540

James Harden

2010

2017

3029

0.168

30.4

10.6

88

45

8.8

20.8

5.8

11.9

3.0

8.9

9.9

11.4

1.0

6.7

7.7

7.7

2.4

0.6

4.7

4.6

0.423

0.489

0.335

0.494

0.869

0.590

Blake Griffin

2012

2017

1812

0.133

30.2

5.0

51

50

11.7

23.8

11.5

23.1

0.2

0.6

6.6

9.2

3.1

9.2

12.3

5.7

1.5

1.3

3.6

4.9

0.492

0.497

0.304

0.496

0.724

0.543

DeMar DeRozan

2014

2017

1560

0.043

30.2

1.4

41

41

10.5

26.1

10.0

23.8

0.5

2.3

8.7

10.1

0.8

5.5

6.3

4.6

1.7

0.2

3.3

3.8

0.403

0.421

0.209

0.412

0.856

0.494

Kyrie is sixth with 34 points, right behind Steph Curry's 34.6. Irving has the best 3P% .415 edging out Curry's .410. The next best 3P% among this elite group of playoff scorers is Dirk with .365. It is safe to say the Curry is 1A for 3PT shooting for high volume playoff scorers but Kyrie is a clear second with a significant drop off to whoever is third.

Steph has been the highest volume 3pt shooter making 5.5 threes a game, with some significant drop off to runner up Kyrie with 3.3. (Note: Both Love and Klay made more 3P per 100 possessions 4.2 and 4.0 respectively, but they feel short of 30 pts per 100) Love per 25.9 per 100 and Thompson with 25.7 more on Thompson later).

It is safe to say the Curry is 1A for 3PT shooting for high volume playoff scorers but Kyrie is a clear second with a significant drop off to whoever is third.

Using TS%. Curry is #1 with .609, Kyrie ranks at number six with .573 and significantly better than high volume shooters Westbrook, Anthony, Rose, and DeRozan.

Irving is able to hold his own from two pointers shooting a respectable .489% as might be expected has a high FT% .885. Kyrie does not get fouled a lot only 6.6 FGA/100, last but right behind Curry's 6.9.

Kyrie is last on the list for rebounding (how many rebounds are available to a guard when playing with Love, Thompson, and James?). Kyrie's assist are only middle of the pack 6.7/100, but his TOV are very low 3.2 second best among elite scorers and much better than Curry's 4.9.

It is interesting to note that everyone on the list elite playoff scorers has played some significant time with another elite scorer except Nowitzki and Mello.

Kyrie is no exception having played his entire playoff career with LeBron and Love (except when he has been injured).

LeBron casts a long shadow that engulfs Kyrie in such a way that didn't happen to Wade. Of course Wade had won championship before joining with LeBron when Wade was only 24, however it is interesting that Kyrie won his first championship at 23, the youngest on the list and of course Kyrie is the youngest player on the list three years younger than list Blake Griffin the next youngest on the active list.

Of course the real question is how well will Kyrie play on the Celtics without LeBron? I have compared Kyrie to Curry repeatedly and I think that is fair especially given the high percentage of unassisted shots they both make Kyrie (%ast'd 2 pt. .249, %ast'd 3 pt. .545) and Curry (.263, .513) compare them to Love (.563, .945) and Klay (.641, .890).

The ability to carry a high percentage shooting off the dribble is an elite skill. ESPN cited that attribute of Kyrie's game;

Close your eyes and imagine Irving dancing with the rock and then scoring on a step back or dazzling finish at the rim. He does it all the time and the stats would agree with the eye test that there might not be a better scorer off the bounce. During the regular season, Irving had the highest effective field goal percentage on shots following seven or more dribbles among the players to take five such attempts per game. During the NBA finals last season, Irving attempted 10 such shots per game, nearly twice as many as any other player, and converted at a more than respectable clip of 49 percent on 2-pointers and 39 percent on 3s.

I am looking forward to see how Kyrie will work with Horford and Hayward in Brad Steven's offense.

All this lead me to ... It is very exciting that Danny Ainge acquired Kyrie Irving an elite scorer that has shined in the playoffs.

Your comments are much apprecaited, TNB.

FanPosts are fan-created content and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CelticsBlog. Be respectful and keep it clean. Thanks.