The Mavericks Have the ‘Complete Package’ in Kyrie Irving

The Dallas Mavericks have the championship-proven Kyrie Irving to thank for his role in helping them defeat the L.A. Clippers in six games, and move on to the Western Conference semi-finals, where the No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder await.

But looking at the eight-time NBA All-Star’s game as a whole, league writer Mark Medina believes he has the ‘complete package’ on-court, being one of the Association’s best scorers, as well as being one of the most skilled playmaking point-guards.

Mavericks Hoping To Steal Home Court Advantage

Won only one of their four season meetings during the regular season

Dallas are seeking to hand the Thunder their first loss of the post-season, while also aiming to snatch home court advantage when they tip off in the first game of their Western Conference semi-final bout.

But the Mavericks, the fifth seed, had to get past a star-studded L.A. Clippers side – albeit Kawhi Leonard missed a large chunk of game time – in order to reach this stage, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Texan outfit either.

After some subpar performances by franchise star Luka Dončić early on, something which he both acknowledged and vied the need to be better, he would go on to erupt for a game-high 35 points, 10 assist double-double on 14-for-26 shooting in Los Angeles, before backing it up in the series closer with a 28 point, 13 assist, seven rebound night in Dallas.

Unquestionably, though, the star of the series was Irving, who has looked more at home in the Mavericks’ system than he ever did with the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics in years prior, and his tenacity to make the right basketball plays, and knowing precisely when to take over games is ultimately what got the first-round job done.

Thus, with the dynamic back-court duo who boast 13 All-Star selections between them, and the Mavs’ strength in depth across all positions on the court, they have shown themselves – like they did down the stretch of the regular season – to be one of the NBA’s dark horse contenders for a title.

Going into game one against the young Thunder, the Mavericks are 3.5-point underdogs, though internally, they will feel confident in being able to flip the script and steal a game on the road, even if they did lose three of the four regular season meetings between the two.

Irving Is a Great Scorer, but Has Many Other Skills

While Medina argues that Irving is one of the league’s most-skilled players and scorers, he finds it difficult to envision him as one of the most elite in history, with other names springing to mind ahead of Irving’s, and his well-rounded game has him labeled by the journalist as the ‘complete package’.

Playmaking and Silky Skills On Display in 2024 Playoffs

Totaled 159 points, 34 rebounds, 28 assists and 11 steals in the first-round

In his first full season with the Mavericks, Irving averaged 25.6 points, 5.2 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.3 steals, in which he shot at a rate of 49.7 percent from the field, and 41.1 percent from three-point range, the third-best mark of his career.

This form has carried over into the playoffs, with his scoring seeing slight improvements, in which he has averaged 26.5 points, including a 40-point outing on 56/50/100 splits in game four against the Clippers, 4.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.8 steals across the six-game series.

However, his post-season ball distribution numbers this season have suffered a slight dip from his regular season form, where his assists have created only 11.0 points per contest, down 2.1 points from his 13.1 points created throughout the 2023-24 campaign, though it is a very small sample size.

Irving made most of his passes to Dončić in the regular season, 12.8 passes per game to be exact, with which Dončić attempted 4.9 shots from the field with a 40.9 percent success rate, while from three, he attempted 2.2 shots from his back court partner’s passes, shooting with 38.6 percent efficiency.

Tim Hardaway Jr. was the only other player to attempt more than 1.5 shots from long distance from an Irving pass, in which he made 36.8 percent of his 1.5 attempts per night.

This is a trend that has carried over into the post-season, though Dončić is struggling to convert with similar consistency, averaging only 27.7 percent from the field from his 7.8 attempts, while the Slovenian is draining only 30.0 percent of his 3.3 attempts off of Irving’s passes from behind the line.

But, instead of Hardaway Jr., Irving has passed the ball more often to teammates, with both P.J. Washington and Dereck Lively II receiving more than five passes from Irving per contest, though Washington only attempts 2.2 shots from the field on these passes, for a 38.5 percent shot conversion rate, while Lively II averages 1.3 attempts, at a greater 75.0 percent.

While Irving’s passing distribution is more spread out among his teammates, the 33-year-old is also having to contend with creating his own shots more often, which may explain his dip in assist numbers in the post-season so far.

As it stands, 71.4 percent of Irving’s made field goals have come off unassisted shots, up from 62.5 percent in the regular season, while 45.5 percent of his made threes have come unassisted, again up from 34.7 percent.

Fortunately for Irving, he is known for having one of the best handles in the league, with Stephen Curry one of the others, and is able to create separation, at times, with relative ease.

Nonetheless, Irving has been a pivotal part of Dallas’ offense so far throughout the post-season, and if they are to threaten the Thunder, then he will need to come alive once again.

Though, he will be hoping his teammates can support him more, and ease some of the workload off of his shoulders.

All statistics courtesy of Statmuse, ESPN, NBA.com and Basketball Reference.

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