"If Kobe doesn't miss, he's going to be hard for Kyrie to beat," says Byron Scott on the proposed matchup. "But if he misses his shot and Kyrie gets the ball, it's going to be interesting."
View full sizeBeating the Lakers' Matt Barnes to the basket during a game last season in Los Angeles isn't the same as beating Kobe Bryant 1-on-1, but Byron Scott thinks his young point guard would have a chance.LAS VEGAS -- Byron Scott won't pick a winner in the proposed $50,000 one-on-one match between Kyrie Irving and Kobe Bryant. The trash-talking wager during recent workouts here between Irving's U.S. Select team and Bryant's Olympic team was all over the Internet last week.
"Somehow my viral status has grown over the last week and a half," said Irving, who admitted he was not sure the event actually would happen. He spoke before the announcement was made that he had broken a bone in his right hand and would miss the summer-league schedule.
If it does, Scott's staying out of it. The Cavaliers coach mentored Bryant as a player and has done the same with Irving.
"That's new school against old school," Scott said, laughing. "You guys know how I feel about Kobe and I know what Kobe is going to try to do to him, too. He's going to take him to the post and physically beat him up and beat him up and beat him up, but if he misses and he has to guard Kyrie, he's in trouble.
"If Kobe doesn't miss, he's going to be hard for Kyrie to beat. But if he misses his shot and Kyrie gets the ball, it's going to be interesting. I don't think Kobe can stay in front of this young man. Not now, especially at Kobe's age now. If Kobe was five or six years younger, I'd pick Kobe right away. But I don't think he can stay in front of his guy."
Growth spurt: Scott thinks practicing against the Olympic team will only help Irving grow.
"After the first couple of days I saw him get more comfortable out there knowing he's going against the best players in the world," Scott said. "I thought the first day, not that he didn't look comfortable, he just didn't look like Kyrie to me. I think he weighed everything out and thought, 'I'm on the floor with these guys. I can do this.'
"Then the third day, he played like he was the best player on the floor. I thought that gave him great confidence of knowing he can play with these guys. It's going to help him going into our season because he knows he can be one of the best point guards in this league."
Defensive help: Scott doesn't think rookie Dion Waiters will have a tough time adjusting to man-to-man defense after playing a 2-3 zone at Syracuse. He just needs to be more focused.
"He's tough, he's strong and he moves his feet extremely well," Scott said. "But at times, when his man gives up the ball is when he starts to relax. That's what I want to get him out of, because when his man gives up the ball is really when the play is about to start.
"I want him to be involved with him on that end of the floor as much as possible."
It's a problem for almost all young players, Irving and Tristan Thompson included.
"All these guys are so young," Scott said. "They get in that habit of playing AAU basketball, and when it's not in their hands, they stand around and on the defensive end when [their] man doesn't have it, they kind of stand around.
"Kyrie got so much better toward the end of the season of moving without the ball and on the defensive end of being a better help defender. Those are still some of the things he's going to have to continue to get better at, but Dion is in that same category."
On Twitter: @pdcavsinsider
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2012/07/byron_scott_wouldnt_be_surpris.html
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