BOSTON -- Boston Celtics All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving raised eyebrows earlier this season when he admitted he had “coasted” at times defensively during his career and expressed a desire to be a more-engaged defender this season.
One quarter of the way through the 2018-19 campaign, Irving’s individual defensive numbers are still nothing to write home about. But the NBA’s advanced hustle stats do hint at a player that’s actively trying to impact the game with his skill set.
Irving entered Friday’s action against his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, ranked fifth in the NBA in loose balls recovered (2.1), seventh in deflections per game (3.1), and eighth in steals (1.9). As a means of comparison, Irving averaged only 1.3 loose balls recovered, 2 deflections, and 1.1 steals per game last season.
What’s more, Irving is tied for 18th in the NBA -- and second on the team -- in charges drawn at 4. That’s the same number of charges endured this year as defensive maven Marcus Smart. Irving drew six charges total last season.
"I think it’s just a true challenge that I came into the season with of wanting to put an emphasis on that end of the floor,” Irving said after Thursday’s offday practice. "That’s really what it comes down to. I think in my career I’ve really gotten away with just being an offensive talent, being a guy that has just been solid but never being a guy that I would say just consistently brings that effort every single time down the floor.
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"I know I have responsibilities of other things on the floor but I don’t think it should be an excuse for anybody, whether you’re the leading scorer or the 15th guy off the bench. I think that defensive pressure matters in any game. So just try to put an emphasis on it.”
Irving may never be even an average on-ball defender but effort goes a long way, if only to reaffirm to younger players that everybody on the team has to bring it, even an offensive wizard. Irving’s presence hasn’t hindered a Celtics defense that ranks second in the NBA in defensive rating this year, the same spot it finished in last season.
This year, the Celtics own a defensive rating of 103.7 with Irving on the court — a decent number when you consider Boston’s 103.1 mark overall (only the Thunder are better at 101.8). That’s further offset by an offensive rating of 107.8 when Irving is on the court (though that number should be further north than it is given Boston’s talent).
It’s hard to pin blame on one defensive player when you consider that Marcus Morris, one of the team’s best individual defenders, has the worst on-court defensive rating among regulars at 106.9. Still, it’s notable that Boston’s defensive rating plummets to 95.8 in the 373 minutes that Irving has been off the floor.
The NBA’s defensive tracking data has opponents shooting 50 percent against Irving this season, which is 5.2 percent above those players’ typical field goal percentage for the year. The defensive data logged by Synergy Sports offers a similar outlook, with Irving allowing 0.954 points per play, a mark that ranks him in the 37th percentile among all players.
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Irving’s best defensive numbers this season have typically come when he shares the floor with Terry Rozier as the defensive rating plummets to 93.6 in a tiny 127-minute sample size when they are together. But it does make you wonder if Irving is best positioned to thrive when there’s another guard on the court capable of handling the opponent’s primary ball-handler. That allows the Celtics to stash Irving on a shooter and allow him to play a bit of free safety where he can utilize his speed to generate deflections and steals.
With Smart currently in the starting lineup, it might allow Irving to further play that role. But even Irving acknowledged he doesn’t want to get too overly focused on steals and become undisciplined.
"I don’t want to psych myself out in terms of [steals], but I think just being in the right spots as well as being aggressive off the ball, as well as on the ball, the point of attack and just utilizing my quickness to my advantage,” said Irving. "You’re guarding some different positions sometimes, so you’re able to use some of your instinctual gifts to be in the right spot.”
As for the importance of deflection, Stevens said his focus with his players is on hand activity overall.
"Hand activity is really important,” said Stevens. "We do more of the visual of hands than we do necessarily charting deflections and all that stuff. You can find stats anywhere you want to nowadays. It’s more important that we’re playing with the right hand activity, where our hands are in pick and rolls, where our hands are in [dribble handoffs, etcetera.”
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