The first thing any opponent needs on their Atlanta Hawks scouting report is that they can never, ever, under any circumstances, leave Kyle Korver open. Unfortunately, that's much easier said than done.
Korver led the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage a season ago, is second in the league in 3-point field goal percentage this season and ranks sixth in career 3-point percentage. He's hitting at a 51.3 percent clip this year, a mark that seems wholly unsustainable until the realization sets in that he has been even better in the past, hitting 53.6 percent in 2009-10.
He's a key piece of the Hawks' offense and the 26-8 start that has them atop the Eastern Conference standings, surprising everyone. Korver is among the league's best handful of pure shooters, with a flawless form, great footwork and a quick release. Everyone knows this.
Still, the creative offense of head coach Mike Budenholzer, a Gregg Popovich disciple, manages to free Korver for enough free looks that he ranks second in the league in makes from outside with 99.
More striking than the total is that despite the attention Korver receives – he ranks second only to Steph Curry in Respect Rating, a new ESPN metric that measures the pull a player has on defenses – most of his 3-point looks are of the open variety. Remarkably, 3.7 of Korver's 5.7 attempts from outside each game don't have a defender within four feet of him, according to SportVu tracking data from NBA.com.
That's actually fewer open looks, proportionally, than Curry and other high-gravity players like Gordon Hayward and Mike Conley get. It's also a well-guarded shot mix relative to the league average, as 39.3 percent of all 3-point attempts don't have a defender within six feet of the shooter. But 3.7 nightly free looks for Korver remains substantial, even if teams appear to be guarding him far more closely than average.
Korver isn't going to shoot unless he's open, and he's an underrated passer and screen-setter when clean looks don't materialize. Still, 3.7 open looks from outside for the league's deadliest catch-and-shoot weapon – Korver shoots 52 percent on threes where he doesn't dribble, which account for nearly 90 percent of his 3-point attempts – speaks to the effectiveness of Budenholzer's system and Korver's other-worldly off-ball ability.
This isn't just Korver hiding in the corners and waiting for a kick out, though he does take more than a quarter of his 3-point attempts and spends a fair amount of time setting up shop there.
First, Here's Kyle Korver... As you can tell he loves camping out on the 3 point line corners. pic.twitter.com/httgIEhTyi
— Daren Willman (@darenw) January 5, 2015
The Hawks involve Korver in any number of ways, including as an early-clock option on the wing or as a trailer in transition. Such plays don't give the defense time to set and defenders can lose track of an open Korver while running to their assignment. Korver's deadliness in this regard is a large part of the reason the Hawks are among the league's highest-scoring teams off of turnovers.
(GIFs Courtesy: NBA.com)
If nothing materializes in transition or the Hawks are setting up following an opponent make, they have a number of pet plays to get Korver a look early in the shot clock. Korver takes 40 percent of his threes within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, and quick actions like these either produce clean looks or, worst-case scenario, get defenses scrambling early.
(GIFs Courtesy: Robby Kalland)
The greatest benefit to having Korver as a weapon may be in designed plays out of timeouts, when his gravitational pull causes havoc on defenses. The Hawks can get creative to free Korver or they can use him as a conduit to create an open look somewhere else.
(GIFs Courtesy: NBA.com)
The early success of the Hawks has shone a spotlight on Korver, though the subtlety of his performance keeps his value somewhat underrated.
His 12.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists don't necessarily speak to how important he is to one of only two Eastern Conference teams who rank in the top 10 on both ends of the floor, as the Hawks are an obscene 13 points better per-100 possessions when he's on the court.
Opposing teams know all of this intimately, of course. There's just nothing they can do about it.
