To be an NBA all-star is a personal accomplishment for sure, but there’s always more to the story than being recognized for your individual skills, accomplishments and numbers.
Every player has a narrative and for even some of the best players in the league, their off-court behavior or how they or their teams develop are emphasized. We’re going to look at three NBA players’ prevailing narratives and whether they can change it with their play this season.
Can Kyrie Irving Actually Lead?
Even though Irving played just 20 games last season, he was on pace to have a career season. He averaged a career-best 27.4 points along with 6.4 assists, and shot over 92% from the free-throw line. While the Nets may have not produced as a team, Irving showed why teaming up with Kevin Durant last NBA offseason should scare the rest of the league.
Irving is arguably the league’s most-creative player with the best layup package in the entire NBA. He might not be known to be a Point God, but he’s been on the league’s best distributors in the league. In his career, Irving has assisted on 30.9% of all offensive plays, including a career-high 36.7% last season. What’s more impressive is that Irvin only turned the ball just 10.1% of the time. It might have been a small sample size considering he played very little of the Nets schedule, but his reputation on-the-court has spoken for itself.
The problem? Kyrie’s on-court work has never been in question. The narrative about Irving is that he’s a mercurial pre-Madonna that wants to be a team leader. Unfortunately, being a leader requires leadership that resonates with your teammates. That didn’t work toward the end of his tenure in Cleveland. His time in Boston highlighted (lowlighted?) his lack of leadership skills and even last season, Irving refused to articulate his beliefs in a way that didn’t disrespect his teammates.
I’ve always believed that athletes should speak out on politics and present themselves as respectable role models, but with Kyrie, maybe he should just shut up and dribble.
Can Karl-Anthony Towns Stay Healthy (and Win?)
If you listen to some NBA experts picks, Towns is considered the second-best center in the NBA. That’s arguable with the likes of Anthony Davis, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid occupying the same position on most nights.
At 7-foot-0 and 248 pounds, Towns’ ranking took a hit from last season due to playing in just 35 games, but when Towns was on the court, he showed that he is one of the league’s top players. Last season he averaged 26.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, and shot 50.8% from the field. He passes well for a big, averaging 4.4 assists.
On the defensive end, KAT showed great promise as a shot-blocker after averaging 1.2 blocks.
The problem with Towns has never been his production. It’s whether his production will actually translate into team success. Thus far, four of the five full seasons with the Timberwolves, they’ve won 29, 31, 36 and 19 games with one 47-win season right in the middle. The Timberwolves are hoping that the young “Big 3” – along with D’Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards — can keep up with the rest of the Western Conference.
That will only happen if Towns can change the narrative with his inability to stay healthy and lead Minnesota through their 2020-21 schedule to more wins than losses.
Can Jamal Murray Take the Next Step?
In last season’s NBA Playoffs, Murray showed that was ready to be top player in the league. Murray scored 50 points twice, as well as a game of 42 points, in the first round of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz. In the Western Conference Finals, Murray scored over 20 points in four of the five games. These were large strides from his regular-season numbers.
As one of the main centerpieces in the Nuggets offense, Murray was used 25.1% of the time and that translated into a respectable 18.5 points per game, 4.0 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in the 2019-20 regular season. And the Denver Nuggets were +5.5 when Murray was on the floor.
That’s all well and good, but the story with Murray this year is whether can he continue the momentum into this season. Murray is already one of the key players on the scouting report when the team schedule shows that an opponent is playing the Nuggets. So can Jamal Murray up his scoring average to 24-25 points per game and earn his first NBA All-Star game this year. More importantly, can he continue teaming up with Jokic to make the Nuggets a perennial Western Conference contender over the next 4-6 years?
