I don’t think I’m alone in having the impression that Kyle Korver was really good for the Jazz during his first stint with them. Where did this come from? Because he wasn’t. I mean, he was, percentage-wise (because he stopped shooting threes to get the record, I’m not going to let people forget about this), but he was barely scoring more back then, a whole decade ago, than he is now as an old man. His mid-season debut for them was worse than this mid-season debut, 11 versus 14.
Obviously, had his career started in this era rather than the middle 00’s midrange iso chuckfest era, he’d have been utilized more effectively and been more impressive in the points category. People didn’t know what to do with him back then, but Budenholzer in Atlanta really figured it out, and then LeBron got some good use out of him, and now he’s on the Jazz. Who really, really super badly need people who can hit threes right now.
Early returns are good. 14 points, 4 threes, it was almost like the Hornets didn’t realize that he was on the team yet and hadn’t planned on his quick trigger. Utah is now 1-0 in the Korver Era Part Two, and they’re not out of the playoff race yet. Not by a long shot. They just have to hope that Korver’s percentage doesn’t get too good, otherwise he’ll stop shooting them to chase personal glory over the success of the team.