On January 28th Bleacher Report posted an article titled Is Kyrie Irving the Most Overrated Superstar? The article detailed the shortcomings of Irving's game and used very specific statistics to highlight why Irving isn't a superstar.
Last season Kyrie Irving was turning heads; he put up insane numbers and starred in a Footlocker commercial series. Consequently everyone had huge, almost unrealistic, hopes for Irving this season. As it almost always is, Irving could not live up to the immense hype and then came the scathing articles like bleacher report's article. In middle of the article they plastered the following tweet:
Last season Kyrie Irving was turning heads; he put up insane numbers and starred in a Footlocker commercial series. Consequently everyone had huge, almost unrealistic, hopes for Irving this season. As it almost always is, Irving could not live up to the immense hype and then came the scathing articles like bleacher report's article. In middle of the article they plastered the following tweet:
#Cavs 61-131 since Kyrie Irving was drafted. Not all on him at all, but that’s a damning record. Do ‘franchise changing-stars’ allow that?
— Ethan Norof (@Mr_Norof) January 27, 2014
So who is Ethan Norof? Apparently he is another writer for Bleacher Report - oddly convenient. Regardless of who Norof is, the article cites the Cav's record as a principle reason why Kyrie Irving failed.
The reason advanced stats and complicated metrics are making a push in sports are because they help us separate each player on an individual basis from their team. Well, citing the team's record as a metric for player success is the exact opposite of that.
Next, they cite how Kyrie Irving has barely improved his statistics since coming into the league. They specifically use the following table
The reason advanced stats and complicated metrics are making a push in sports are because they help us separate each player on an individual basis from their team. Well, citing the team's record as a metric for player success is the exact opposite of that.
Next, they cite how Kyrie Irving has barely improved his statistics since coming into the league. They specifically use the following table
In particular they look at how his player efficiency rating (PER) has not improved over the past three years, & consequently Irving does not necessarily deserve to be an All-Star starer. (I discussed the shortcomings of PER in my previous post). Here is where Bleacher Report needs to do their due diligence and look at the full picture.
1. The difference between All-Star Starter and All-Star reserve has nothing to do with talent level. All-Star starters are voted on by the general public, so are at their very core a popularity contest.
3. The term superstar is a buzzword that doesn't mean much; its an arbitrary definition. Does a superstar mean a top 3 player? Then Irving certainly isn't a superstar. Does it mean a top 15 player? Well he could be. So lets the five best players in each conference are superstars (something that Bleacher Report seemed to insinuate when they criticized Irving's selection as an All-Star starter). On the right is a graph comparing Irving's PER to the PER of everything other Eastern All-Star Guard. Irving comes in second - certainly good enough to be a starter. |
Clearly, the Bleacher Report analysis is flawed. Blaecher Report is by no means a bad website; I browse Bleacher Report quite often and enjoy reading the majority of the articles I do read. This post isn't meant to dissuade you for Bleacher Report, but rather make sports fans question the empirical data that some articles present. In order for basketball sabermetrics to truly grow as a field the statistics need to be used correctly.
References:
1. "Cleveland Cavaliers." Bleacher Report. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1939155-is-kyrie-irving-the-most-overrated-superstar-in-the-nba (accessed March 16, 2014).
2. "NBA & ABA Basketball Statistics & History | Basketball-Reference.com." Basketball-Reference.com. http://www.basketball-reference.com/ (accessed March 13, 2014).
3. "infogr.am." infogr.am. https://infogr.am/app/ (accessed March 16, 2014).
1. "Cleveland Cavaliers." Bleacher Report. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1939155-is-kyrie-irving-the-most-overrated-superstar-in-the-nba (accessed March 16, 2014).
2. "NBA & ABA Basketball Statistics & History | Basketball-Reference.com." Basketball-Reference.com. http://www.basketball-reference.com/ (accessed March 13, 2014).
3. "infogr.am." infogr.am. https://infogr.am/app/ (accessed March 16, 2014).