The beginning of Kyrie Irving’s career with the Brooklyn Nets didn’t go exactly as planned to say the least.
In the very first minute of the Nets’ inaugural China preseason contest taking on the Los Angeles Lakers, Irving would suffer a facial fracture, actually re-aggravating a previous injury. Literally just 66 seconds into the game, Kyrie would take an elbow to the face from Rajon Rondo while on defense.
1 minute into the game, Kyrie Irving leaves the game after getting hit in the face by Rondo. (Via @gifdsports) pic.twitter.com/LLjRdAXY3n — Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 10, 2019
1 minute into the game, Kyrie Irving leaves the game after getting hit in the face by Rondo.
(Via @gifdsports) pic.twitter.com/LLjRdAXY3n
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 10, 2019
Irving would eventually get healed up and was back in action in the final game of the preseason against the defending champion Toronto Raptors, and it was our first real opportunity to see Kyrie play with his new team. It honestly couldn’t have gone any better: In just 24 minutes of action, he would rack up 19 points and four assists.
It’s going to be an extraordinarily interesting season in the NBA, and Kyrie Irving with the Brooklyn Nets is just one of those flashy headlines to pay attention to — and this is a big one. To add even more entertainment value to the “Kyrie x NYC” connection, online sportsbook BetOnline has set up a series of prop bets where you can bet on Kyrie’s performance this season with the Nets.
The two prop bets come in the form of OVER/UNDER wagers, and deals with his statistics in both the points-per-game category and assists-per-game. In the scoring section, the O/U is placed at 24.0 PPG, while the assist market is set at 5.5 APG.
Let’s go over each prop in the Kyrie Irving OVER/UNDER series, review the betting odds, and for both breakdowns, I’ll be providing you my betting predictions for how I have Irving doing statistically this season. How do you think Kyrie will do in the 2019-20 campaign? After you read and get your advice from me, you can then place your bets over at one of the top NBA betting sites for what kind of numbers you think Kyrie Irving will produce this season.
Also, in case you may have missed them, you can also catch my NBA season previews for the Eastern Conference, Western Conference and the entire NBA league. You can also see my picks for who I have as the 2019-20 NBA MVP, and another series of player prop bets that involves LeBron James and his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
In the past three campaigns, Kyrie Irving has hit over the 24.0 points-per-game average in two of them. With that being said, last season wasn’t one of those. Though he would get close putting up a tally of 23.8 PPG, he fell just short of the current milestone — a bit disappointing for someone who was the only superstar on a team full of talent, and even more disappointing considering the Boston Celtics performed below expectations mainly due to Kyrie Irving’s team-chemistry killing antics.
During his time in Boston, the Celtics had no other significant potency to assist Irving with points production, so it’s interesting that Kyrie wasn’t able to take advantage of this. I mean, after all, this is why he left the Cleveland Cavaliers to begin with — he wanted his own team and to be the star. Speaking of Cleveland, that’s where his career high is with a figure of 25.2 PPG, and this would take place while being teammates with LeBron James.
Irving isn’t going to have that kind of skill set around him with the Nets either, at least this season. His teammate Durant isn’t coming back from his torn Achilles tendon injury until the 2020-21 campaign.
With this being the case, Kyrie is pretty much in the exact same situation this season as he was back in Boston, so it’ll be very fascinating to see if he can thrive under these circumstances — especially in the Big Apple — or it’ll be another tough year for Irving without any major support.
In Kyrie’s defense though, the style of the Brooklyn Nets fits Irving’s perfectly with their pick-and-roll strategy. You also have to remember too: Spencer Dinwiddie once was a player who nobody wanted to touch, and this offense from Brooklyn has made him a contender for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year. Under this offense, Dinwiddie would record a flashy 16.7 PPG, so if Dinwiddie can pull that, Irving should be able to hit the OVER on the 24.0 PPG mark.
BETTING PREDICTION: OVER 24.0 PPG (-120)
Kyrie Irving has been looking for a situation where he can be “the guy” for years now. With the Cleveland Cavaliers, that was obviously never going to happen as long as LeBron James was at the helm. With the Boston Celtics, he had his opportunity, but he just never seemed to gel with the team. And not just that, but he didn’t like a few of his teammates and was never really a fan of the city of Boston.
Now with the Brooklyn Nets, Irving looks like he’s in a situation where he could potentially achieve some glory as “the guy”, or at least one of them when Kevin Durant returns. But the thing with Durant, he won’t outshine Irving like LeBron did. They’ll both get their fair share of appreciation. On top of that, Kyrie has also said multiple times in the past that he wanted to play in the New York City area, so it’s obvious that he’s in a city that he enjoys.
Irving also has plenty of talent to work with in Brooklyn as well. Last season, they were pretty impressive with what limited resources they had securing a winning finish of 42-40, and now they’re one of the teams that has changed the entire landscape of the Eastern Conference as one of the top teams. This is Irving’s perfect opportunity and team to shine, and to finally achieve his goal as “the guy”.
The main reason why Irving is going to be able to make the most of this opportunity is because of how well he fits in with the team. All of Kyrie’s strengths works perfectly with the Nets’ offense.
As far as his assist game is concerned, Irving has hit over the 5.5 APG milestone two times in the last three seasons. Not just that either, but over the past seven, he has hit over that mark four times. His most recent season in 2018-19 with the Boston Celtics, Irving was elite placing himself in the top 10 in the league with an average of 6.9 APG. So as you see, he’s on top of his game right now.
With that being the case, and Kyrie being in a situation now where he’s actually happy and fits in, I could see him having a big season in the assist market, possibly hitting over the 7.0 APG mark if things go really well. Go ahead and give me the OVER in this bet. He should hit the 5.5 milestone pretty easily.
BETTING PREDICTION: OVER 5.5 APG (-120)
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