Are LeBron James and Kyrie Irving the NBA's Best 1-2 Punch on Paper?
The Cleveland Cavaliers not only picked up the best player on the planet this summer, they also may have assembled the NBA's top two-man tandem.
LeBron James plus "insert sidekick here" deserve mention as a great dynamic duo. That's a simple testament to the transcendent talent of the four-time MVP.
Replace that anonymous running mate with Kyrie Irving, though, and the discussion really gets interesting. During three NBA seasons, the 22-year-old has made two All-Star trips, captured Rookie of the Year honors and been selected as All-Star Game MVP.
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Irving owns a career 20.7 points-per-game scoring average—and he's the weak link of this pairing.
Is that enough for Cleveland's one-two punch to stand as the best in the business? Or might there be another talented twosome that outshines James and Irving?
The Fit
Before stacking the James-Irving dyad against the competition, one first must assess how strong it can be on its own.
Individually, both have found success as their respective team's primary offensive weapon. James had the league's fourth-highest usage percentage this past season (31.0), while Irving ranked not far behind at 11th (28.2), via Basketball-Reference.com.
Not only were they responsible for finishing offensive chances, they had to create them, too.
Irving either ran pick-and-rolls or isolations on more than 52 percent of the offensive plays he finished—with either a field-goal attempt, turnover or free throws—this past season, via Synergy Sports (subscription required). Isolations accounted for nearly 21 percent of James' plays, while another 16 percent came as a pick-and-roll ball-handler.
Fitting a pair of high-volume contributors together won't be easy, not even for the sharpened offensive mind of head coach David Blatt. It will take some time finding the right balance of touches, but the potential reward is massive for players of this caliber.
"That will be a great, great duo ... LeBron is a brilliant player and Kyrie is really smart, two players with great knowledge of the game and understanding of the game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN.com's Andy Katz.
That understanding will help the pair see sooner than later how much easier one can make the game for the other. James, having mastered similar dynamics the past four seasons with the Miami Heat, is already eager to bring the best out of his new teammate.
"I think I can help Kyrie Irving become one of the best point guards in our league," James said in the announcement essay co-written with Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins.
James simplifies the game for his teammates. He did that before he left in 2010, but now he returns as a complete offensive weapon, as Grantland's Zach Lowe explained:
"He might be the league’s most vicious post-up player, too strong for wing defenders and unguardable when his big-man teammates aren’t mucking up the paint. He attacks from all angles now. He learned to be an off-ball cutter in Miami, and he remains one of the greatest passers ever.
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Irving has never had a teammate like James in Cleveland. The top scorer he previously played with was Antawn Jamison in 2011-12. That season, James put up 17.2 points on 40.3 percent shooting. James averaged 27.1 and shot 56.7 percent from the field this past season.
James will help pull away the defensive heat that has dragged down Irving's shooting numbers the past few seasons (.469/.399/.872 shooting slash as a rookie, .430/.358/.861 in 2013-14). Irving, a career 37.8 percent three-point shooter, will give James a drive-and-kick outlet or keep defenders from crowding him on the low post.
Both explosive scorers and willing, capable passers, they can play off one another or attack the defense in tandem.
The number of two-player combinations that will strike similar fear in the heart of a defense can be counted on one hand.
The Competition
It's impossible to talk one-two punches without hitting on the devastating combo hoop heads love to hate: Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
That has nothing to do with the players individually.
Both are immensely skilled and appropriately decorated. Durant has made five All-Star trips in seven NBA seasons and just took home his first MVP award. Westbrook's streaks of three straight All-Star selections and three consecutive All-NBA second-team honors were snapped only by the knee problems that plagued his 2013-14 campaign.
These are two of the best in the business, yet some wonder whether they'd be better apart than they are together.
"Durant and Westbrook are not, in the best sense, complementary," Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard wrote. "Everyone knows that."
Regardless of what they aren't, here's what they are: successful and wildly productive.
The Thunder are 119-45 over the past two seasons, a stretch that began with James Harden's trade and featured a failed experiment with Kevin Martin as OKC's sixth man. Westbrook and Durant joined LeBron as the only three players to average at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists last season.
OKC's high-volume players may find better complements for their games, but they'd have a hard time unearthing a more talented teammate to have at their side.
Two players that do fit like peas in a pod—or heroes in the same comic—are Lob City's finest, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
"Paul is the Ying to Griffin's Yang," Clippers.com's Colin Liotta wrote. "They complement each other like Batman and Superman. The weakness of one is the strength of the other."
Griffin is 6'10", 251 pounds of world-class athleticism and brute force. He can run past defenders, bully his way through them or finish over the top.
Paul isn't the fastest or strongest at his position, but he's kept a stranglehold on his claim as the league's best point guard for his unrivaled blend of skill and smarts. He is the ideal floor general for the Los Angeles Clippers, knowing when to press their athletic edge and when to methodically attack.
There's a similar inside-out combo brewing in the Pacific Northwest.
All-Stars LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard keep constant pressure on a defense from anywhere on the floor.
Aldridge is comfortable operating away from the basket (he hit 44.2 percent of his shots from 16 feet out to the three-point line, via Basketball-Reference). Lillard is fine attacking the trees patrolling the paint. The point guard scored 461 points on drives last season, via NBA.com's SportVU player tracking, the fifth-highest total in the league.
The Houston Rockets missed out on finding their third star, but they still pack a heavy two-pronged punch in Harden and Dwight Howard.
The pair helped Houston to 54 wins last season, despite having some obvious disconnect between them. When Harden and Howard are on the same page, they have a lethal pick-and-roll game that forces defenses into pick-your-poison positions.
In other words, James and Irving have competition. This hasn't even touched on the up-and-coming twosomes like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, John Wall and Bradley Beal or Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe.
For a league that has focused on superstar trios of late, there are no shortage of prolific pairs. So, which one looks best on paper?
The Verdict
It's tempting to go with the Cavs' pairing here, simply for the presence of James alone. He makes that much of an impact by himself.
Throw a rising star like Irving into the mix, and Cleveland certainly has a two-man force that deserves mentioning among the league's best.
For now, though, it's hard to put James and Irving any higher than third on this list. There's too much talent between Durant and Westbrook to ignore, too strong of chemistry between Griffin and Paul to look past.
| James-Irving | 47.9 | 10.5 | 12.4 | .392 |
| Durant-Westbrook | 53.8 | 13.1 | 12.4 | .473 |
| Paul-Griffin | 43.2 | 13.8 | 14.6 | .475 |
| Lillard-Aldridge | 43.9 | 14.6 | 8.2 | .301 |
| Harden-Howard | 43.7 | 16.9 | 7.9 | .382 |
It's important to remember this position is fluid.
James and Irving could find their rhythm over the offseason and emerge as the top tandem right out of the gate. Harden and Howard could make a similar ascent should they experience a meeting of the minds.
Still, Durant and Westbrook are today's top tandem. They're also living proof of the fact that it takes more than two elite talents to win a championship race. Notice, last season's champion San Antonio Spurs are not represented here, and neither are last year's Eastern Conference finalist Indiana Pacers.
Quality means a lot in the NBA, but not without some quantity to support it.
The Cavs need James and Irving to lead them on a lengthy playoff run, but the development of players like Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson, Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins will ultimately determine how far Cleveland can go.
Having James and Irving on board gives the Cavaliers a head start in this race. This might not be the league's best one-two punch (yet), but it still packs tremendous knockout power.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.
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