Duke Basketball: Why Austin Rivers Is No Kyrie Irving

Austin Rivers came out of Winter Park High School as one of the most hyped guards in years.

But he has not lived up to the hype, and it's about time people started realizing this.

The natural comparison for Rivers is former Duke point guard Kyrie Irving, who was selected No. 1 overall in the 2011 NBA draft.

But Rivers is not Kyrie Irving. In fact, he's not even close.

People can use the excuse that he needs time to develop. But it took Irving only 11 games at Duke to make him the No. 1 overall pick. He averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals while shooting 52 percent from the field. He displayed a Chris Paul-esque ability to find his teammates.

Granted, Rivers has served as a shooting guard for the Blue Devils, but the fact of the matter is he's shooting 43 percent from the field in this role. He's also averaging 2.8 rebounds, despite being a bigger player than Irving, and averaging 0.9 steals.

Rivers is also a poor free-throw shooter, evidenced by his 68 percent free-throw conversion rate. He averages 2.0 free-throw attempts fewer than Irving did, and even when he gets to the line, he's a liability.

After the Blue Devils struggled against St. John's on Saturday, head coach Mike Krzyzewski was understandably frustrated.

Rivers reiterated, via the Fayetteville Observer:

"

Defense has always been a staple of Duke basketball, and this year there’s been times where we’ve been great and a lot of times we haven’t been great. It is frustrating because we have the capability of doing that.

"

That's another area where Rivers hasn't even lived up to Irving. Rivers has made some dazzling plays this season, but he's far from a finished product. He's much more of a project than people realize.

It's entirely possible that Rivers lives up to his hype down the line, but right now he's getting far too much credit.