After sitting out the first few months of the season, Kyrie Irving is back playing for the Cavs and producing at great rates. His PER is at 18.3, which is very high for a player who just returned from injury. Additionally, he is averaging almost 17 points per game in addition to 3.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds in the month of January. His minutes are closing in on 29 minutes per game, and for certain periods during the game, Irving is playing the two-spot while Matthew Dellavedova takes on the point guard responsibilities.
Under Tyrone Lue, Matthew Dellavedova and Kyrie Irving often overlap in playing time during the second quarter when Delly will begin the quarter at the point guard position, and a couple of minutes into the quarter, Irving will check in. The also begin the fourth quarter together while James rests to begin the quarter. During these times, Irving acts as the shooting guard on the offensive side of the basketball, while Dellavedova takes the tougher defensive assignment on the other end of the court. So far, this new technique has proven to be quite effective, and brings about the conversation of whether or not the two should play extended minutes together?
Dellavedova is averaging five assists, in addition to close to three rebounds and 7.4 points in 23 minutes of action per game in the past five games. This observation has two main takeaways. The first is that his assist numbers are up from both his season and career averages. This is first off attributed to the change in offensive philosophy between Blatt and Lue, but this also may be due to the slight changes in the rotation where Delly and Irving are now playing more minutes together.
The second takeaway from Dellavedova’s numbers is something that has not significantly decreased. With Irving coming back into the lineup, the minutes for Dellavedova were destined to go down. However, compared to the month of December, his minutes have only decreased by about six minutes2. This indicates that Lue, similar to Blatt, does not plan on reducing the minutes of Delly, but unlike Blatt, Lue will look to mix up the rotation which may include playing both Delly and Irving at the same time.
Working on an up-tempo offensive-minded game indicates that chemistry will be essential to the success of the team, especially when comparing that method to a possession-limiting offense where structure and sets play quite a bit of importance.
To get fans ready for more to come between this dynamic-duo, here are videos of Irving’s offensive skills and Delly’s great defense. Both cause headaches for opposing teams.
