Did Kyrie Irving Made the Correct Decision When Joining the Celtics?

kyrie irving

When Kyrie Irving left Cleveland Cavaliers there were lots of naysayers who said that moving to Boston was his biggest mistake of his career. The argument behind this was that if he stayed in Cleveland he would have enjoyed an easy road to the Final and a very high chance of winning it.

Furthermore, he left Cleveland not for any other team, but for the Boston Celtics, the only team which could rival the Cavs in the Eastern Conference, meaning that he made a direct rival for the NBA title much stronger by moving there.

It was almost as if he had some secret wager at NetBet Sport on him making a move to another club and he chose Boston as they were the team with the highest odds. After all, could anyone have predicted a scenario such as this one last year? Probably not.

But right now it actually seems like Kyrie Irving has made the right decision as he looks like a player who is making the most out of his new situation. Let’s look at some things which prove that Kyrie Irving has made the correct call career wise.

Has Become a Better Player Overall

Kyrie has been in the shadow of LeBron James while at Cleveland and his performances showed that. When James was injured everybody at Cleveland struggled and Kyrie was no different. Bad performances and poor results came one after another and it only reaffirmed the notion that everybody was too dependent on LeBron at Cleveland.

However, now that Kyrie is in Boston, he has responded in a completely different way to a similar situation and has not shied away to assume the role of the leader of the team. This is evident because the Celtics have been laboring with Gordon Hayward’s injury for the whole season now and ever since he got injured last October they were forced to make do without him.

But Kyrie has responded magnificently to this situation and has become a better defender, a better team player, and a much stronger influence on the team. This has meant that the overall performance of the Celtics has also improved as a result of his own betterment as a player.

Left the Shadow of LeBron

When Kyrie was scoring his career average of around 25 points per match while at Cleveland everyone was saying that it was because of LeBron. They said that LeBron made Kyrie look as a better player and that if he changed teams he would see his numbers drop significantly.

However, now that he has done that and actually changed teams, it is obvious that he is keeping pretty much the same average of points, rebounds and field goals percentages, while being all on his own and away from LeBron.

Furthermore, now that he is practically the best player of the team he is marked much more ferociously by opposition players which means that he must be on top of his game the whole time to get those numbers.