Kyle Korver Is Quietly Setting Fire to the NBA Record Books

It's time everybody stops and appreciates the historically great season Kyle Korver is having.

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Atlanta Hawks shooting guard Kyle Korver will never be a household name. If he retired tomorrow, a whole generation of fans would probably remember him this way: “Great shooter, solid career, played for a bunch of teams, looks like Ashton Kutcher.” And until this year, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to attach that simple narrative to his career.

But in 2014-15, Korver has changed the entire conversation.

Thanks to his absolutely incredible three-point shooting this season, Korver has a chance to be objectively regarded as one of the greatest shooters in the history of the NBA. While it’s been a season-long bonanza for the shooting guard who has played for four NBA franchises, his incredible streak beyond the arc really only garnered national attention a few weeks ago on a play that had nothing to do with his shooting ability.



Basically, he’s hitting the same percentage from 22-plus feet that some players do on lay-ups.


You see, Korver hadn't dunked during a game in two years. On January 21, he did just that against the Indiana Pacers. And this apparently made everyone collectively take a look at his stats, and realize what an insane year he was having shooting the ball. Now, all of a sudden, he’s one of the biggest snubs in this year’s All-Star game and getting national attention for his many incredible feats from deep; it’s been something of a renaissance for a guy who conventional wisdom would say should be past his prime at age 33.

If you look at the full scope of his career, however, Korver’s rise doesn’t seem so sudden. Indeed, he’s shot over 43 percent on three-pointers for his entire career, which currently places him at sixth on the all-time list. He’s moved around the league quite a bit during his 12 NBA seasons but has been productive at each stop, finishing under 40 percent beyond the arc just three times. While he’s never averaged over 14.4 points per game, since his rookie season he’s never finished under 7.2. Players like Ray Allen and Reggie Miller have shown that this type of consistency shooting the ball doesn’t necessarily vanish when a player ages, and that has certainly been the case this year with Korver.

At 33 years old, Korver is on pace to set a number of NBA records. The first (and perhaps least subtle) is three point field goal percentage. As of February 9 Korver was hitting on 53.1 percent of his three point attempts, a number over 7 percentage points better than second place Courtney Lee. Basically, he’s hitting the same percentage from 22-plus feet that some players do on lay-ups.

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No matter where he shoots on the floor, Korver is easily the best the NBA has to offer this season. He’s been particularly lethal from the corners, hitting on 62 percent of his threes from either spot on the floor. That’s not to say, however, that he’s a slouch from everywhere else; he’s still hitting 50 percent from all other spots on the floor, well ahead of Klay Thompson who is next at 45 percent. Both types of percentages are easily the highest of Korver’s career, as he set personal bests last season of 54 percent from the corner and 45 percent from everywhere else.

Historically, Korver has already accomplished and is on pace to do some things that no NBA player has ever done before. According to Basketball Reference, nobody has ever posted nearly as high a three point percentage through his team’s first 51 games—the closest was Dana Barros for the 1994-95 Philadelphia 76ers and even he was a full five percent below where Korver is now. If he can hold this pace, Korver will blow away Dale Ellis’ 1988-89 record of 47.8 percent for the season. In the record books, the difference between Korver and Ellis would be the same as the difference between Ellis and Aaron Afflalo, who is No. 83 on the list. Lastly, Korver could also potentially become only the second ever member of the 50-50-90 club, whose lone occupant right now is Golden State Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr.

But can Korver sustain this torrid pace? His career numbers after the All-Star break say that he certainly should. His field goal percentage, three point percentage, and free throw percentage all remain virtually the same both before and after the break. And with the larger amount of rest he’s going to get thanks to his snub (although he will be participating in the Three-Point Shootout), Korver’s legs should be very fresh for the second half of the year.

It’s time everybody stood up and took notice of what Korver is doing for the first place Hawks. Having already buried a number of clutch shots so far this season, Korver’s name is going to be uttered a lot between now and the playoffs, and if he keeps on his current path, it’s going to resound for much longer than just this year, too.

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