Danny Ainge shuts down the Kyrie Irving haters
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When it comes to the sports world, radio callers tend to have a lot of interesting theories about teams. They come up with their own ideas and philosophies--and it's great that they are thinking. It's just that sometimes, the takes can be scorching hot. Oftentimes, this has been the case when it comes to the Boston Celtics this season.
The team is not doing what a lot of people thought they would--which has some people worried. Granted, they still have a good team and they are going to make the playoffs, they're just not 60-0 or something like that. One of the theories that has been passed around planet earth lately is that the team is better with Kyrie Irving off the court.
In fact, it has gained traction to the point where Danny Ainge, the Celtics legend turned front office man, was asked about it on 98.5 The Sports Hub this week. Here's what he had to say.
"It's completely illogical. It makes no sense," Ainge said. "If you just look at the data over the past two years our team has been so much better. It wasn't but a month ago that we were trying to figure out 'how in the world are we going to score without Kyrie on the court.' And everybody was struggling and going through their challenges. I mean now we're getting a lot of good play out of a lot of good guys."
"The last couple of nights Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward and Al Horford, they're playing great basketball," he added. "And Jaylen Brown has really stepped up his game over the past couple of months even and really bought into his role off the bench. So I feel like we just all need to all play well, but Kyrie is by far our most efficient offensive player, without question. And our team, when Kyrie is on the court over the past two years, is by far more efficient with Kyrie playing than when he's not. So no, I think it's ridiculous to think."
Yeah, we are going to have to take Ainge's side here. Kyrie Irving is a fantastic player (23.6 points per game), so what he said makes a lot of sense.