Irving fell to the 19th point guard of the league due to injury? ACL major injury may affect career. US media support the top three in health

On August 5, the American media HoopsHype selected the top 26 point guards in the 2025-2026 season, which means there are only 26 people on this list, the first is SGA, the second is Tyame Jones, and Kyrie Irving is only ranked 19th.

Top 15 lists: SGA, Doncic, Brunson, Cunningham, Curry, Trae Young, Harden, Morant, Fox, Maxi, White, Garland, Jamal Murray, Three Balls, Gidey. (I feel that many people shouldn't be ahead of Irving)

Irving is only ranked 19th. The reason HoopsHype is also very clear - ACL injury (torched anterior cruciate ligament), Irving believes that he can come back in January or February, but Dallas did not urge him to come back too early, hoping that Irving will return after fully recovering.

The article reads: If Irving returns next season, he will definitely rank higher in this list, because by his standards, the former champion point guard is playing at a high level and he just participated in the All-Star before his injury.

In late June, ESPN reported that Irving hopes to come back in January or February, but then Irving said in his personal podcast, "Don't have too much hope for my pre-playoff comeback. I don't know when I will come back, and I don't want to predict the time of my comeback, but that doesn't mean I won't come back next season, I just want to come back at 150,000%. I'm getting healthy and enjoying this recovery process."

So no one knows when Irving will come back. If Irving fully recovers, he will definitely become one of the best point guards in the league. If he can really come back next February, he will greatly improve his ranking on this list.

Irving was reimbursed for the season when he suffered a torn ACL ligament in his left knee in the match against the Kings on March 3 this year. He underwent ACL repair surgery on March 27. The recovery period for the injury is 9 months-12 months. According to this time, the end of January 2026-the end of March 2026.

US media Winigoat wrote that if the players are all completely healthy, the top five point guards should be: Doncic, Alexander, Irving, Curry, and Brunson.