"A motivated Kyrie Irving": ESPN's Kendrick Perkins believes respect for Jason Kidd should spur Mavericks star to his best
Kendrick Perkins believes that Kyrie Irving is about to have the best season of his career. In the last few years, we've seen Irving's stock take a tumble, but some of his performances have been brilliant, albeit few and far between.
This season, however, Perkins thinks there will be two Phoenixes in the NBA, one with Kevin Durant, the other playing alongside a "skinny Luka Doncic."
On "NBA Today," Perkins claimed that we are about to see a new Irving:
"All NBA. All NBA type season. That's what I'm expecting. ... A motivated Kyrie Irving that's gonna get a fresh start in training camp with a coach that he respects?
"That's the thing that people miss! When you look at when he was at Cleveland, who he was under, Ty Lue, guy that played the game of basketball, guy that played with Hall of Famers, a guy that won NBA championships as a player, a guy that was able to hold Kyrie Irving accountable.
"Irving walked into that situation in Brooklyn and from the things that happened and transpired, he didn't respect Steven Nash like that, but he respect the hell out of Jason Kidd, and Jason Kidd is gonna able to hold him accountable when need be.
"A motivated Kyrie Irving that's ready to prove the world wrong with a skinny Luka, I'm looking at Kyrie Irving to be an All-NBA caliber player this season."
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How will Kyrie Irving fare in the new season?
Kyrie Irving's scoring numbers have always stayed relatively constant, with the penultimate season on the Cavs being the only exception. Since 2016, he's always had stellar points averages, and improved year-on-year in the other departments as well.
Realistically, we should expect nothing less than a 24 ppg average for Irving this season.
However, one number that has steadily come down is his number of games per season. If Irving does stay injury and controversy-free, he can start afresh under Jason Kidd.
Last season was the initial bedding phase, and we saw flashes of brilliance from the backcourt duo. It did not translate to many wins, but the combination was there.
Also read: "This is what I'll be doing": Kyrie Irving ponders post-playing career with a hilarious Instagram story.