Kyrie Irving vs Damian Lillard: Who's better? A statistical comparison

Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard have had vastly different career trajectories thus far. Despite both of them being All-Stars right from their sophomore years, their teams were in pretty different situations when they were drafted. Irving was playing for one of the worst rosters in the league, while Lillard was on a playoff team in the West and had an All-Star other than himself in the initial years of his career to carry the team when he couldn't.

All of that changed in the space of 1 year. LeBron's decision to return to Cleveland and Kevin Love's subsequent trade surrounded Kyrie with a championship-caliber roster, while the departure of LaMarcus Aldridge as a free agent in 2015 left Dame to pick up the pieces with CJ McCollum.

Since 2014, Irving has been to 3 Finals and could conceivably have been to a 4th if he hadn't been injured at the end of last season. Lillard continues to get the Blazers to punch above their weight, and has never not played in a playoff series since his rookie year.

What you'll read now is a short analysis of who the better player is right now:

#1 Playmaking

Lillard has a superior assists per game average

Lillard has been the de facto point guard for the Trail Blazers right from Day 1, when he was selected as the 6th overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft. This gives him the advantage over Kyrie - who played 3 seasons as the off-ball guard to LeBron's point forward with the Cavaliers - in their assists total.

Neither flies out as anything remotely close to being all-time great as playmakers in the more traditional sense, like Chris Paul, John Wall and Rajon Rondo do. But they are above average facilitators, and this isn't an aspect of their game that can be considered a weakness, since both of them have played in teams with multiple playmakers and ball movement and have blended seamlessly in with those offensive schemes as well.

Nevertheless, Lillard is a better half-court facilitator in a vacuum essentially because of his prowess in the pick-and-roll - he was quite a threat alongside LaMarcus Aldridge when the 5-time All-Star played with the Blazers, and has reemerged alongside Nurkic as a premier facilitator. It is important to note, however, that Irving has a superior assist percentage throughout his career.

Edge: Dame

#2 Scoring inside the paint

Lillard guards Kyrie at a Team USA showcase event

While Lillard is a player who relies on uncomplicated maneuvers, changes of speed, acceleration and bounce to carve through opposition defenses, Kyrie is a more stylish player who relies more on his instincts and can finish through traffic with the best of them.

Lillard has a career field goal percentage of 56.5% from 0-3 feet, but this drops to a below-average 33.5% from 3-10 feet. This happens because the Weber State graduate does not have a reliable floater, and relies too much on right-hand drives to the hoop, which makes him a lot more predictable.

On the other hand, Kyrie has perfected the art of inside scoring. He has, by a pretty handy margin, the best handles in the world today, and no defender is immune to ending up on his highlight reels once he dips into his bag of tricks. So good is he, aesthetically speaking, that his 1-game highlight reel is often comparable to many players' full-season reels - no exaggeration here.

His fundamental soundness, ability to use the English off the glass, ability to score with both hands effectively from 0-10 feet and unpredictability make him a better inside scorer than any point guard in the league, including Steph and Lillard.

Edge: Kyrie

#3 Scoring outside the paint

Lillard guards Kyrie in a regular season game, January 2015. Kyrie hit a career-high 11 3-pointers.

This is a bit of a toughie. Lillard has always relied on his 3-point shooting a lot more than Kyrie has, as evidenced by the fact that 41.4% of his career field goal attempts have been 3-pointers in contrast to Kyrie's rate of 29.9%. In fact, other than the last 2 seasons, Irving has attempted fewer 3-pointers per game than Lillard did in his rookie season.

But since we're talking about their games as of now, Kyrie should be regarded as the better 3-point shooter, since he's attempted a considerable volume of 6.4 3-pointers per game over the last two seasons while averaging 40.4% conversion from downtown. Lillard, by contrast, is averaging a little shy of 8.2 3-pointers taken at a conversion rate of 36.5%.

Kyrie has the advantage in both catch-and-shoot as well as pull-up jump shooting from range, scoring on 39.9% of his catch-and-shoot opportunities and 40.8% on pull-up shooting in comparison to 35.6% and 36.6% for Lillard in the same situations.

Kyrie has better career averages from the mid-range as well, shooting career averages of 45.2% and 45% from 10-16 feet and 16-23 feet in comparison to 41.9% and 43.3% for Lillard.

Edge: Kyrie

#4 Defense

Lillard and Irving go for the loose ball at the USA Basketball Showcase, 2013

Neither Lillard nor Kyrie has ever been anything better than an average defender through their time in the league. Kyrie, in particular, is prone to periods of lackadaisical attention on help defense and is guilty of making the wrong reads, though he improved a lot on his defensive instincts during his past season with the Celtics.

Their defensive numbers don't present much of a contrast as well. According to Basketball Reference, Kyrie's career Defensive Box Plus Minus (DBPM) average is -1.4 while Lillard's average is -1.5. Their counting stats are pretty similar too - Kyrie averages 1.3 steals and 0.3 blocks per game while Lillard's averages are 0.9 steals and 0.3 blocks respectively.

Both of them are prime pick-and-roll fodder, as they get killed by screening actions and leave defenses to the mercy of the ballhandler.

Edge: It's a wash

Verdict

Irving posting up Lillard

While both guards have a lot of similar strengths and weaknesses, and are around the same age (Lillard is 28 while Kyrie is 26), Lillard is more of a volume scorer than Irving and has to carry a larger offensive load than Kyrie for the majority of their careers, and this manifests itself in their shooting percentages. He runs more miles in a game on average, at a higher speed and is a bigger transition threat than Kyrie.

Both of them are absolutely clutch performers with iconic game winners in the playoffs - Lillard's shot to send the Rockets out of the first round of the 2014 playoffs is comparable to Kyrie's game-winning step-back jumper over Steph in the 2016 NBA Finals. Both are borderline unguardable on their day and have won tons of games for their teams on their own.

But I'm going to have to go with Kyrie Irving here. Even in a vacuum, he has virtually the same impact on games in lesser time on court, has the most complete offensive skillset in the game today - yes, better even than Curry, LeBron, Harden and Durant - and is a threat in a wider variety of situations on the floor.

There's a reason why Irving is regarded so highly around the league. There's a streak of genius to his game that Lillard just doesn't possess (though he makes up for it with tons of heart and a superior motor) - perhaps it's the Mamba Mentality in play, or it's just his ability to beat entire defenses in one move. Either way, opposition defenders are more likely to contain Lillard than Irving.