Kyle Korver was so good at his role of spacing the floor and hitting three-pointers during the regular season that he made the All-Star team despite not fitting any traditional definitions of stardom.
Why Kyle Korver has gone ice cold in the playoffs
Korver is in a slump, and it’s killing the Hawks’ offense. Here’s how teams have shut him down.
Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
His critics pointed out he was just a shooter, but he was far from a typical one. Only three other players have connected on at least 45 percent of their three-pointers while taking at least 400 in a season in the history of the league: Dana Barros, Glen Rice and Stephen Curry. Korver did it twice. This season, he shot a ridiculous 49 percent while he was at it, the highest on the list. Korver arguably had the best regular season ever for a shooter.
The problem for the Hawks is that it's all falling apart in the playoffs.
Korver is taking eight three-pointers a game during the postseason, but hitting only 35.6 percent of them. His true shooting percentage is still decent because he takes so many outside shots worth an extra point, but the Hawks need more than “decent” from Korver. He was a key part of their attack, someone who would either bend the defense toward leaving someone else open or punish it by rarely missing. Now, he’s just another shooter.
The problem is teams are not leaving him open as often. During the regular season, only 24 percent of Korver’s three-pointers came with a player closer than four feet away from him and 21 percent with no defender within six feet. Those percentages are now 37.7 and 14.8, respectively. A lack of wide-open shots means he can’t get in a rhythm and hit the tough ones he used to make in the regular season.
It's not that Korver is moving less or his teammates are not passing him the ball as much. The average speed and distance traveled per 48 minutes is almost identical in the regular season and in the playoffs, and the same applies to his touches. Defenses are just doing a better job of staying with him, with Bradley Beal in the conference semifinals and Iman Shumpert on Game 1 of the East finals navigating screens well and closing out on time. That forces Korver to put the ball on the floor, a setting in which he is not comfortable.
That type of overreaction to Korver is something the Hawks have been able to leverage to their advantage most of the season. If someone panics and leaves their assignment, the ball will move and get to the now-open man. The problem is teams have been disciplined in the postseason and are not blindly helping. In this play, Korver assumes Timofey Mozgov will jump out to contest, but he goes back to Horford. The result is a turnover.
So, Korver isn’t killing defenses with his shot, nor is he opening up space for his teammates. That’s having a direct effect on the Hawks’ offense. During the regular season, Atlanta scored 110 points per 100 possessions with Korver on the court, more than four points better than their average. In the playoffs, that number has fallen to 103, only slightly above their average. That’s enough to explain why the Hawks struggled scoring in the two previous rounds and why they lost Game 1 of the East finals.
Korver can still break out of his funk. The Hawks have a lot of clever ways to get him free and he’s fantastic at moving without the ball. If a couple of shots go in, he can catch fire in a hurry. Guarding him well also takes a lot of effort and focus, and the Nets’ defense couldn’t handle it for seven games. It remains to be seen if the Cavaliers can. It’s possible he still makes a positive impact for Atlanta in this series.
But with DeMarre Carroll -- the Hawks’ best shooter in the postseason -- possibly missing some games due to injury, the pressure is on Korver to get hot. The Hawks lack elite isolation options and post threats to draw constant double teams. Their bench, a strength during the year, is a weakness now. Thus, they depend on execution and spacing to put points on the board.
Korver’s outside shooting plays a huge part in making the system work. If he doesn’t improve soon, this could be a quick series.
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