Brooklyn Nets: 3 Goals for Kyrie Irving in the 2019-2020 Season
After agreeing to a max contract with the Brooklyn Nets before free agency officially began, Kyrie Irving is going to be the team’s leader in 2019-2020.
There should be little pressure on Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets to win a championship this year, as Kevin Durant won’t step foot on the court in 2019-20, due to a ruptured Achilles suffered in the NBA Finals. Even if the former MVP is somewhat healthy by next April, it would be wise to keep him off the court to rest up for the 2020-21 NBA year. Still, it’s going to be interesting to see how Kyrie handles his first year in the Big Apple.
Here are three goals he should reach this upcoming season.
Average over seven assists per game
Throughout his career, Irving has been known more for his scoring skills as a point guard rather than dishing the ball. It would be encouraging to see the former Duke product fully embrace the Nets’ team-first culture in his first season with the organization. While he has yet to average higher than seven assists per game (APG) in a single season, this can also be attributed to a large portion of his playing career spent with Lebron James. James usually ran the offense and dished out assists, while Irving spent his time with the ball creating his own shots.
Irving has been much more adept at racking up assists as of late, putting up a career-high average of 6.9 APG last season with the Celtics and averaging 7.0 APG in the playoffs. Getting the other Brooklyn Nets players involved and providing balance to the offense can only help.
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Even though it may be a high ask of Irving to put up a new career-high in one of the three major statistical categories with Brooklyn, it has been done before. Former Nets point guard D’Angelo Russell hadn’t put up more than 5.2 assists before his breakout season in 2018, finishing with an even 7.0 assists per game. The team should expect no less from the new man running their offense.