What Kyrie Irving Can Take from FIBA World Cup for Cleveland Cavs' Season
Kyrie Irving is getting a head start on playing with an All-Star cast.
Representing the United States in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, Irving has joined the likes of Derrick Rose, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Stephen Curry and others in their quest to bring America back gold.
After three years playing alongside a young, developing core with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Irving now finds himself with a championship-caliber roster led by LeBron James, Kevin Love, Dion Waiters, Shawn Marion, Anderson Varejao and others.
While Irving's participation has helped Team USA off to its 7-0 start, his experiences and knowledge gained will hopefully carry over to the Cavs as well.
Here's what Irving has learned this summer and should utilize in Cleveland this fall.
Playing with Upgraded Talent
It's easy to point at Irving and say that his job is, well, easy now that he'll be playing alongside James and Love.
This simply isn't the case.
Adjustments, sacrifices and alterations must be made. Irving was handed the keys to the car immediately and was free to drive wherever and however fast he wanted. How will he fit in now as a passenger, letting someone else take control?
To be fair, Irving does have two All-Star Games under his belt where he performed quite well.
Lest we forget, Irving was the best player at the 2014 contest, even with guys like James and Love participating. While the All-Star Game is essentially a defense-less scoring exhibition, Irving did collect a game-high 14 assists in helping lead the East team to victory.
Irving's certainly not going to be asked to rack up 14 dimes a game, but he should hopefully see a bump from his career average of 5.8.
So far with the U.S. national team, so good.
Irving's play at the FIBA games points towards his willingness to share the ball over scoring it.
Through seven games, Irving is just seventh on the team in scoring (9.3 points) yet ranks third overall in assists (3.4 a game, via fiba.com). This is a huge reversal in priorities from his most recent NBA season, where Irving finished second among all point guards in scoring (20.8 points), but tied for 13th in assists (6.1).
"Obviously, we all have our own talents and abilities, but at the end of the day we all have one common goal," Irving told The Associated Press back in July, via USA Today. "Obviously, I have to sacrifice my goal for the greater good of the team. It may look like I'm in a comfort zone, or I'm not doing too much, but honestly it's just me figuring which way I best fit on this team."
Irving is arguably the most talented scorer on the roster yet knows his value with that group comes primarily as a distributor. He's sacrificed his own gaudy scoring numbers in exchange for assists.
Hopefully, this carries over to the Cavaliers as well.
Style of Play
For all of Irving's outstanding qualities, being a willing and successful off-the-ball player isn't one of them.
The Cavaliers literally had two ball-dominant players last season and still had to bring one off the bench.
After two years, Irving and Waiters still haven't successfully proven that they can play off of each other. Irving will now have to relinquish some ball-handling duties to James as well, with Love commanding his share of shots.
Because of this, Irving needs to become better without the ball.
This includes moving around the court, coming off screens and knocking down catch-and-shoot jumpers.
While some of this is simply effort and commitment, that last request may be a little tricky.
Last season, Irving averaged just 3.1 catch-and-shoot points per game, ranking 138th in the league (per NBA.com/Stats). Normally a very good three-point shooter (37.8 percent for his career), Irving failed to convert on deep shots without taking a few dribbles first. His catch-and-shoot three-point percentage (32.3 percent) was even worse than teammates Alonzo Gee (36.2 percent) and Earl Clark (35.5 percent).
This summer with other talented guards like Harden, Curry and Rose, Irving is playing off the ball more and more. Early results have been positive, as Irving is knocking down 50 percent of this three-point shots.
This experience should help prepare him for open looks caused by double-teams to James and Love, looks that he's never gotten before.
Leadership and Expectations
Last season was really the first time the Cavaliers carried any real playoff hope under Irving.
Let's just say it didn't go so well.
Cleveland finished the year 33-49 despite playing in a watered-down Eastern Conference and trading for guys like Luol Deng and Spencer Hawes. Even with all of his individual talent, Irving failed to lead the Cavs to the postseason.
Now playing for a USA team with bigger expectations than simply just contending for a title, the pressure on Irving has been raised.
Sekou Smith of NBA.com tells us more:
"There’s never been any question about Irving’s talent. When healthy, he’s proven himself to be among the NBA’s truly elite point guards. A two-time All-Star before he’s ever tasted the intensity of playoff competition, this is his first time competing and running a team on a stage like this. And he admitted that it’s been an eye-opener in many ways.
"
This is a far cry from Irving's 2013-14 season with Cleveland, where fans wouldn't even get to see a good effort some nights, much less a win.
Irving's USA team is heavily favored to win it all at the FIBA games. His Cavaliers team is the current favorite to win the NBA title, according to Odds Shark.
The pressure from the former will definitely help with the latter.
Irving appears ready to accept the challenge, per Smith:
"I’m all about winning, winning gold here and winning at the highest level in everything I do. That’s the ultimate challenge for any of us, to find out if you have what it takes inside to win like that.
"
Although the U.S. national team is hopefully far from done, Irving should have already learned a great deal.
Playing next to star teammates, being a willing passer, playing off the ball and becoming more of a leader while handling giant expectations have all been key.
So will they be this season with the Cavaliers.
Greg Swartz has covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for Bleacher Report since 2010. Connect with him on Twitter for more basketball news and conversation.
All stats provided by Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
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