2011 NBA Draft Scouting Report: Kyrie Irving



Written by Paul Banks of the Washington Times, and David Kay of the The Sports Bank.
Send Paul an e-mail here: paulb05 AT hotmail DOT com.
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2011 NBA Draft Scouting Report: Kyrie Irving


Position: Point Guard

Size: 6-2, 175

School: Duke, Freshman


Strengths:
  • Unselfish and mature for a young point guard
  • Great passer
  • Outstanding handles
  • Quick change of direction dribble
  • Playmaking abilities
  • Has an extra gear when he drives to the hoop
  • Creative finisher
  • Excels in transition
  • Court vision
  • Solid outside shooter
  • Free throw shooting
  • Mid-range and pull-up jumper
  • Can be a pesky on-the-ball defender



    Weaknesses:
  • Good, but not great defender
  • Occasionally forces the issue
  • Will have to better handle contact at the next level

    Summary: Irving has been as good as advertised since arriving at Duke in a similar way to what John Wall brought to the floor at Kentucky last season. Offensively, he can do it all and shows a tremendous skill set for a young point guard. He should be a one-and-done as he will be one of the top picks in the 2011 NBA Draft.

    Player Comparison: Chris Paul. Irving really has a mixture of attributes of a lot of NBA point guards but can probably closely be compared to Chris Paul. Irving is further along as a scorer at this point of his career but is not the distributor that Paul has become. Either way, this high of a comparison backs up my thought that Irving can be an elite NBA point guard like CP3.





    RELATED LINKS:


    2011 NBA Mock Draft


    2012 NBA Mock Draft


    2011 NBA Draft Prospect Rankings


    2011 NBA Draft Scouting Reports








    Written by Paul Banks of the Washington Times, and David Kay of the The Sports Bank.
    Send Paul an e-mail here: paulb05 AT hotmail DOT com.
    All other e-mail, including advertising and link proposals, send to: [email protected]




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