Kyrie Irving: we already named a city after him!

[mvossman]

Uh, we barely beat the Suns and that's when our defense was top 10 in the league as opposed to a bottom 6 defense. This is a bit of a homer spin job. Phoenix will be worse defensively, but not near as much worse defensively as we are. We need to rather hope they can't stay healthy, which is actually pretty likely.

Also EVERYONE said he wanted to go the Lakers, now that KD goes to the Suns, he actually always wanted to go to the Suns? Sounds like bullshit. If Im to believe anything, his media comments made it more clear the Lakers were his choice, not the Suns. At least if either of them want him in FA, and Kyrie wants to go there, we will get something for him.

Last years team was 14th in defense since the all star break, which is a better indication of who they were after the trade.  This years team currently has a terrible defensive rating, but that is primarily due to their top three defenders being out.  Once we are healthy, I would expect this defense to be roughly the same as last year (bad defender (din) out, bad defender in (Wood), good defender out (Dorian) good defender in (Green)).  This team should be better.  Din and Wood is a wash.  Dorian and Green is a wash.  Kyrie is a different level than Brunson.  We will likely be middle of the pack defensively and one of best offenses in the league.

The Suns got better too, but the question is how much.  Durant is a huge addition, even more so that Kyrie.  But Phonex lost more than Brunson.  From last year they lost Bridges, Johnson and Crowder.  They are no longer a team full off high level defensive wings.  They were top 3 defense last year, but I don't think they will be close to that now.  And Paul is not getting any younger.  I actually think we have closed the gap with them some talent wise.