Is Kyrie Irving Now the Face of Team USA After FIBA World Cup MVP Performance?

So much of the talk during Team USA’s pre-FIBA training camp concerned how head coach Mike Krzyzewski would construct a team perfectly suited to stop Spain’s formidable frontcourt for when—not if—the two sides met in the final.

But with upstart Serbia crashing the final in Spain’s stead, it was Kyrie Irving who proved he's perfectly suited to become the face of Team USA's future.

Irving was electric in Sunday’s gold-medal game, tallying 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting (including a perfect 6-of-6 from distance) in a 129-92 blowout win, helping Team USA secure its fourth straight first-place finish in international competition. Basketball Insiders' Nate Duncan compared Irving's performance to one of Carmelo Anthony's:

The performance earned Irving honors as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, capping off a year in which the 22-year-old star captured the NBA All-Star Game’s MVP award and signed a five-year, $90 million extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After falling behind 15-7 in the early going, Irving and backcourt mate James Harden took control, scoring 13 of their team’s next 15 points en route to a 35-21 first-quarter lead from which Serbia would never recover.

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Harden was equally unguardable, registering 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor on a night when eight Team USA players finished in double figures.

Playing without Team USA staples LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, Krzyzewski was forced to rely instead on a kind of leadership-by-committee.

Irving's emergence might change that equation.

To be sure, there were plenty for whom FIBA will surely serve as a springboard to stardom, with Kenneth Faried and Anthony Davis—key to Krzyzewski’s strategy of employing disruptive, hyper-athletic defenders in the frontcourt—being the most notable examples.

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Irving, however, represents something even more crucial: a young, explosive floor general tailor-made for the international game.

For an NBA player who’s struggled at times with shot selection and decision-making, Irving was a paragon of poise during Team USA’s golden run, registering 50 percent or more from the floor over the course of the tournament and finishing with an astonishing 60.9 percent clip from three-point range.

That’s music to James, Kevin Love and the rest of the Cavaliers' ears, who are already seen by many as the undisputed favorites heading into the 2014-15 NBA season.

To Team USA, it’s merely the opening salvo to what could be a years-long masterpiece by its new backcourt maestro.

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Indeed, even in the wake of Paul George’s gruesome injury—a tragedy that sparked heated debate within NBA circles about the costs and benefits of players participating in international competition—Cavs general manager David Griffin was quick to acknowledge the bona fide boon of one of his best players testing his talents on a global stage.

"Kyrie Irving's getting the most important game action of his life right now," Griffin recently told the Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Chris Fedor. "He's getting better literally every day. He showed up trying to make that team and he appears to be at least the part-time starter now. He's earning his stripes when it matters. It's going to be enormously valuable to us."

Of course, given the NBA’s wealth of point guard talent, Irving’s place is by no means guaranteed. Just ask Derrick Rose, whose much-publicized FIBA return was beset by disappointing showings and growing concerns over the 25-year-old’s long-term effectiveness. The Chicago Sun-Times' Twitter account shared its contrasting perspectives on Rose and Irving after their experiences in Spain:

Meanwhile, Damian Lillard and John Wall—two of Krzyzewski’s final training camp cuts—are sure to have their voices heard in the years ahead.

Good thing, then, that Irving is about to receive a basketball education of a different sort: playing understudy to two of the game’s best basketball minds.

Between James and new head coach David Blatt—himself a veteran of the international circuit—Cleveland has a chance to rewrite the offensive record books. And while James is sure to remain in his role as five-tool playmaker, it’ll be Irving whose game stands to benefit the most.

That, in turn, only solidifies Irving’s hold on Team USA's reins—especially if James and Durant bowing out of FIBA portends an end to their respective gold-medal gambits.

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In a framework that prioritizes guard play, Irving’s skill set—a point guard’s handle with a shooting guard’s touch—is the kind of asset around which Team USA president Jerry Colangelo can comfortably build.

With the Brazil Olympics a mere two years away, Team USA is sure to keep one eye trained squarely on Irving, to gauge whether playing alongside James and Love helps or hinders his growth and development.

If his performance at FIBA is any kind of hardwood harbinger, however, Irving is fast figuring out the difference between being a team’s most statistically explosive player and its most steadily valuable.