[mouchy18Participant]

 The kid pumped in another great 4Q and game winner. He is a great closer for his team this season. Based on this season alone, where would you rank him as a closer. List your top closer at the moment!

[mouchy18Participant]

 Who are the top 4Q scorer by average this yr as well?

[Future_Scout]

 he’s top 3 in scoring in "the clutch". just found out earlier

[Krypt14Participant]

 No.

 

He is a fantastic player, much better than I gave him credit for from watching him in college but there are a lot of players I would rather have with the ball to close a game out. Durant, Rose, Wade, Dirk, Kobe to name a few.

[Future_Scout]

 ^

[akhan786Participant]

It’s pretty amazing what he did tonight. 10 of the last 12 points and assisting on the other two. Then drives the length of the court to get the game winning layup with 4 seconds left and the Cavs up one.

The weird thing is he’s taken over the 4th quarter like this A LOT this season and that’s without counting his other two game winners.

3 game winners in 33 games as a teenager in the NBA? This kid is going to be special.

[river09Participant]

No. No. He’s good, but a couple clutch shots at the end of regular season games does not even bring him close to being a closer in the NBA for me. Rose, Wade, Lebron (yes, Lebron), KOBE (my all time favorite closer, will to win is unrivaled in my mind), Durant, Westbrook, Dirk, Chris Paul, Chauncey (honorable mention), Pierce (even though I hate him).. 

[Future_Scout]

true dat khan… he’s a baller. very tough to guard as he can do it all. top 10 pg right now

i see him being a legit go-to guy at pg, with his shot off the dribble and first step

[NYCrealdealParticipant]

top 5 closers would be (and this means last seccond shot)

1)Kobe

2)Durant

3)Pierce

4)Melo

5)Rose

[akhan786Participant]

@River09 I too would take all of the players you listed…but only because each one of them have been in almost every type of scenario in the clutch and well…they’re not 19.

However, I disagree with you that Kyrie is not a "closer" (at least by my definition). He hasn’t JUST hit a couple of shots in the clutch. He’s actually made it almost routine that he goes off in the 4th quarter. I can think of about 10-15 games off the top of my head where he actually dominated and took over the game in the 4th quarter.

I just wish sometimes that he’d dominate at this level in every quarter not just the last…

LOL I can’t believe I’m bashing a Cavs player for only turning it on in the 4th quarter…

[Future_Scout]

5 players i want on iso during the last second (in order)

durant

rose

westbrook

melo

kobe

honarable mention: wade, pierce

in the regular season

[ShekiruBoomParticipant]

honestly i think the term closer is just by reputation and what people remember you for doing. Kobe has missed a shiitlod of shots over doubles and triples with teamates wide open for a score but he is called the best closer because he has made the most memorable game winning images in people’s minds. same with dwade, he fuccks up on the clutch so many times as well but hes done some memorable things. AND of course Lebron, for lebron its just that peoples hate cloud their judgment. he is so unliked so people only hype up his fails instead of the success. No one brings up how he single handedly destroyed the pistons team a while back and carried a possibly the worst roster in the history of NBA finals. No one brings up his clutch shots against the celtics and the bulls but only remember his fails in the finals.

On the other hand though i would take a skilled player like kobe over lebron since so many times NBA teams just go dumb and play their star against the entire team and you aren’t gonna get it done if you are unrefined which I think Lebron is compared to Kobe. but then ofc i hate kobe for jacking up retarded shots and be bailed out as a closer for making like 3 game winners out of 10 tries

[Johnny Chill]

Lebron…he will end the game on a pass

[McDunkin]

 

[nick5354Participant]

 He is crazy. No first yeat player should hit game winners, go ahead buckets and take over the 4th quarter that he has. Of course there are better closers in the game, but the question should be how many first year players have been this clutch in the 4th? 

[DondiJohnParticipant]

He’s been playing as a rookie. Teams arent able to adjust and scout him properly since he played only 11 games in college. He’s definitely a up and coming talent. His strengths, tendencies and weaknesses arent noticed yet by other teams. I wanna see him do it next year with people knowing his talents and tendencies and against the "Sophomore Slump".

[Mr. 19134Participant]

 He’s not the best but he’s getting up there.

The 2 players right now who’ve made the highest % of clutch shots is Melo and Durant.  The only problem with Melo is while he’ll hit the shots down the stretch he won’t prevent the other players shots.

They just said during the Sixers game who leads the league in 4th quarter scoring and this year so far it’s Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Kobe, and believe it or not Lou Williams is 4th in 4th quarter scoring.

If I had to take one player to have the ball for me at the end of the game tho it would be Chris Paul.  

[DondiJohnParticipant]

I also agree with Chris Paul, with him you have 2 options. He can take the shot or penetrate and make a play for him teammates. We all know that Durant, Kobe, Melo and Wade would take the final shot but with Chris Paul he can do more damage

[Future_Scout]

 my opinion with paul is that he is extremely clutch during the last 5 mins of the 4th but i take others on that last-second isolation play. he let billups take those last second shots, then we saw butler doing it… paul’s explosiveness is limited and so is his size, on last second shot you most times have to shoot over the D…. mind you i think he’s the best pg

[DondiJohnParticipant]

Paul’s very crafty. Last time in Minnesota, he almost single handedly tied the game to force overtime. He fished for a foul while shooting a 3 pointer. (They lost due to a missed free throw by him). He uses his high bball IQ to make plays for his team. 

[PulseGlazerParticipant]

Just for the record: the closer in the NBA is a stupid concept.  Thank you.

[Mr. 19134Participant]

 @PuleGlazer, What do you mean?  Is a great closer not what separates great teams from just very good ones?  Have you ever saw the Sixers try to win a game when they’re not blowing somebody out?

[PulseGlazerParticipant]

Check most team’s records in games 4 points or less. Very rarely, year to year, even with the same personell, is it much above or below .500.  There are exceptions, but they are far less common than assumed (Mavs come to mind).

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Ha. I love these threads because I remember all the discussions about how Brandon Knight and Kemba Walker were going to be better in the NBA than Kyrie Irving. Anybody out there still want to argue for Brandon or Kemba?

[BA30Participant]

Irving is very good and looks to be the type of player that almost any team would want to have the ball in his hands towards the end of games. There are certainly other players that are big time closers in the league (Kobe, Wade, Rose etc.) and I could see Irving getting to that point in the next few years. Right now his 4th quarters have been phenominal. Does anyone know where you can find the top scorers in the 4th quarter this season? 

The bottom line is, if the Cavs had another guy that could actually hit a game winning shot, Irving would be that much better. I am sure it has happened, but when is the last time Jamison or Parker have hit a game winner?

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