2011 NBA Draft: Harrison Barnes or Kyrie Irving, Who Will Be the Better Pro?
This year's college basketball season has been a showcase for fabulous freshman.
Harrison Barnes of North Carolina and Kyrie Irving of Duke were probably the two highest rated youngsters at the start of the year.
Irving started out strong but was curtailed by an early injury. Barnes seemed to be a bust early on, but half way through the year proved to everyone he could live up to the hype.
Both young stars have shown they have what it takes, as everyone suspected, to be impact players in the NBA.
But who will be better?
If we compare their respective games, we could get an idea of who will be the better pro.
Scoring Ability
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Both Irving and Barnes score very well, but they do it in different ways.
Barnes is a shooter with fantastic range but what makes him so hard to stop is a stellar mid-range game.
Barnes is, already, a master at the pull-up jump shot, an art form that is seen more in polished pros than potential prospects.
Irving is also a very good shooter but what he does even better is get to the rim.
The best young point guards, including Derrick Rose and John Wall, have had to learn how to attack the basket all over again when they reach the pros, where defenders are bigger and stronger.
Advantage: Barnes.
Talking about NBA scoring ability, Barnes has it. He also has a 6'8" and 210 pound frame. Barnes' mixture of size and a more polished approach to the game will give him a scoring advantage in the pros.
Pure Shooting
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Kyrie Irving shot 46 percent from three this season.
Harrison Barnes shot 34 percent from three this season.
Both are very good shooters, but when one thinks of pure shooting, maybe I'm wrong, but the emphasis is on mechanics.
If so...
Advantage: Barnes.
Harrison Barnes has fantastic form. The release is high. His elbow is in. He keeps his feet balanced. And he does the same thing on every single jump shot, whether it's off the catch or off the dribble.
It's understood on draft day that teams will choose a fantastic player, confident that he can be taught how to shoot. That was done with Derrick Rose and even LeBron James.
Barnes already has a pure jump shot and it will only get better.
Barnes could be the next great NBA jump shooter.
Ball Handling
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This is an obvious one.
Kyrie Irving is a point guard.
Harrison Barnes rarely makes dribble drives to the hoop.
The thing to look at however, is how many dribble moves does each player make?
Advantage: Irving.
One of Kyrie Irving's many strengths is his ability to get to the hoop.
And he gets there with such ease because he has the ball on a string.
Irving can make the initial dribble move to get around his defender and then two or three more dribble moves to get past the help.
Passing
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Harrison Barnes makes moves with the intention to score, which is why he only averaged one assist this year.
Kyrie Irving is a point guard, with scoring ability, but a point guard nonetheless. Irving averaged just over four assists this year.
Advantage: Irving.
There is no question which position Kyrie Irving will play in the NBA.
With his ability to get to the hoop, Irving can create shots for his teammates.
Playing in the NBA with more athletic and skilled players than he played with at Duke, Irving will easily make the transition into a pass first point guard.
Rebounding
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For a 6'2" 180 pound guard, Kyrie Irving did solid on the boards for Duke, averaging just over three rebounds per game.
But in the NBA, when the competition is bigger and more athletic, Irving will not contribute that much on the boards.
Harrison Barnes though has that size and athleticism and will be better on the glass than Irving.
Advantage: Barnes.
Barnes is 6'8" with great leaping ability. He averaged almost six rebounds per game at UNC.
Barnes won't be the main focus of opposing defenses in the NBA.
With the way he gets off the floor he will be dangerous playing the weak side, gliding in for offensive rebounds.
Attacking the Rim
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Harrison Barnes can get up and dunk but he does not do it too much in the half court because he is not always looking to attack the basket.
Barnes is more likely to knock down a pull up jumper than dunk on somebody.
Kyrie Irving is a physical guard and as quick as they come.
Advantage: Irving.
Before hurting his toe, Irving was considered not only the best freshman in the country, but probably the best overall player in the country.
His reputation rested mostly on his ability to get to the basket.
Irving has the ball on a string, and he can get by most defenders.
What will serve him well in the NBA is his strength and his ability to use his body to get shots off close to the rim and finish.
Leadership
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There has been some talk recently, by Jalen Rose that is, about the types of players that Duke recruits. One thing most Duke players have in common, and it is rarely disputed, is they are all smart.
At the point guard position intelligence in invaluable.
In that regard Kyrie Irving is a tailor made leader for the NBA.
And if you saw the way he supported his teammates when he was injured, you can tell he is engaged in the game.
Advantage: Irving.
It is difficult, however, to tell which teenager will have better leadership skills in a league of grown men, and maybe Irving has the advantage because Harrison Barnes is so quiet.
A leader needs to be vocal.
Barnes seems to let his game do most of the talking.
Performance in the Clutch
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Kyrie Irving never had much of a chance to perform in clutch situations.
But even if he did, it's hard to top Harrison Barnes in that category.
Advantage: Barnes.
Barnes showed, in the last month of the season especially, that he had the tools to be a clutch player.
Barnes hit a game winner against Florida State and then scored 40 points in a victory over Clemson in the ACC tournament.
Even against Kentucky, Barnes almost single-handedly amassed a comeback for his team.
To be clutch, a player needs to be able to knock down jump shots, and Barnes does that with ease.
Durability
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Advantage: Barnes.
Kyrie Irving missed 26 games because of a toe injury.
Defense
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When considering what position a guy will play in the NBA, it's only partly about how he will fit into an offense.
Mostly it's a question of, who will he guard?
Advantage: Irving.
Irving has the advantage here because it's understood he is going to guard NBA point guards.
On top of that, it's also understood that he has quick feet and quick hands, and strength enough to not get bumped off of stronger guards.
Irving averaged about a steal and-a-half for Duke.
Harrison Barnes is a bit of a question mark.
Is he big enough to guard some of the NBA's bigger threes. Somebody long like a Rudy Gay, tall like a Danny Granger or even strong like a Ron Artest.
The next question is does Barnes have the quickness to guard NBA twos?
We'll have to see, but as of now, Irving seems to have what it takes to defend the pros, and that bodes well for his NBA future.
