The Trick to the Trade: Why Kyle Korver Might Be the Key
The first major trade of the NBA season took place last week, when the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for shooting guard Kyle Korver. The Cavs sent the Atlanta Hawks Mo Williams, Mike Dunleavy, and a protected 2019 first round pick in exchange for the sharp shooter’s service. While Korver, who will turn 36 in March, isn’t the same player that he was in his hay-day, the man can still knock down an open jump shot. That alone, might be the key for the Cavaliers to repeat as champions.
The “Jirving” Effect
Don’t call the Cavs a “jump shooting” team. Yes, they are amongst the best in the league in three pointers attempted, made, and percentage. Yes, they have two ball handlers that create three
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The “Jirving” effect is the wide open shots that Cavs players are getting because of the drive-and-kick plays that both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving create for the team. That coupled with the ball movement that the players have bought into, players are getting wide open looks and are taking advantage of the increased air space.
Now the “Jirving” effect isn’t anything new to a LeBron James led team, with Heat used the same method, back when LeBron still had his talents in South Beach. However, this Cavs team is a little younger, and more athletic that those Heat teams, and now that most of the team has been together for three years, the chemistry and understanding of how to play together is really showcasing itself.
“The one thing that’s been a major difference now that we’re in year three is that everyone is just so comfortable in their role,” Irving said. “Guys are standing there ready to shoot. They just know that the ball can find them at any moment, so they’re ready to let it
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In his prime, it wouldn’t have mattered whether or not a hand was in his face or not, unless you blocked the shot, it was probably going in. But now that Korver is in his final stages of his career, he will greatly benefit from getting more wide open looks.
Filling in a Role and a Need
The Cavaliers are thin at the guard spot to say the least. As I wrote last time, the Cavs still need to find a quality backup point guard to spell Irving when he needs a rest. Now that the Korver trade has gone through, I expect another deal to be made before the trade deadline to get that point guard. Besides that, the second biggest need that the Cavs needed was help at the two-guard.
Now I know I just explained that the Cavs are shooting the lights out of the building, and that two-guard Iman Shumpert was having a career year beyond the arc. However, with J.R. Smith out for the remainder of the regular season with a broken thumb, a lot of the two-guard duties are being handled by youngsters DeAndre Liggins and Jordan
The defense side of Lebron is crucial to every players game because good defense leads to even better of offense. James has the defense side by the steals he gets or can get, and what he is known for being a chase down
Intentional fouling is when a player fouls another player with the intent of putting them on the free throw line. This is called, “The Hack a Shaq technique,” because Hall of Fame player, Shaquille O’Neal, was often targeted with intentional fouls. Players are targeted with the Hack a Shaq technique when they do not shoot free throws efficiently. When a player shoots a low enough percentage from the free throw line, statistically they will not score as many points as if they were to shoot from the field. As you can see in the Appendix, seven of the top ten games with the most foul shots by a single player have been in the last ten years. Hack a Shaq is hurting the game of basketball because teams are using the strategy more and more. Hack a Shaq creates slow and unentertaining games, due to the increased number of free throws. Fans of the NBA
It does not come as a surprise to see the Sixers pick up both players’ fourth-year options. They both played an integral role in helping the team win basketball games over the years and ultimately making the NBA playoffs this season.
If LaVine can knock down the three-point shot at a 38 percent clip or better, he will be just that more dangerous as a combo guard on the Timberwolves. He essentially provides what Ricky Rubio cannot and that is offense. Rubio is a pass first, score second point guard, which works in Minnesota's offense especially when you have guys like LaVine, Towns, and
“Keep moving the ball around and dump it inside to Hakeem.” – Rudy Tomjanovich Sounds pretty easy right. Wrong. While Hakeem Olajuwon was one the most dominating centers that the NBA has ever seen, the defense usually didn’t let him get easy buckets inside the paint. Or at least try not too. The offense that coach Tomjanovich used during the Houston Rockets back-to-back championships relied heavily on Hakeem’s post skills and the ability of their outside shooters to knock down wide open looks. This kind of offense is known as a 4-Out, 1-In Motion Offense and it is probably one of the easiest offenses that a team can use. The concept of the offense is to get the ball and defense moving and end up getting the easiest shot possible.
Have you ever watched basketball? Well if you have then you obviously know of Kyle Korver. Korver is one of the most dominant three-point shooters ever.The reasons he is one of the best is that he is Dominant,
The Cavaliers, a basketball team, plagued with injuries and losing two big superstar players. The injuries damaged the Cavaliers like broken bones. Observing one man, LeBron, hoist his injury-plagued team to victory, would have been astonishing, posting stats such as 45.7 minutes per game, 35.8 points per game, 13.3 points per game, 8.8
The Cleveland Cavaliers entered Thursday night’s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks with the best record in the Eastern Conference and the third-best record in the NBA, all while missing their starting backcourt for every game so far this season. However, according to LeBron James, the Cavs needed to “play better ball”.
I may smile a little bit more, but the way we play the game of basketball was exactly the same because we would do anything to win. We didn't care about scoring points. We cared about winning the game and making our teammates better. That's why we were able to change not only basketball but able to change the NBA too.”
"Teams are paying a little bit more attention to my offensive rebounding. Another reason is that the level is higher just because teams are competing more," Porzingis told the New York Post's Marc Berman. "There are more guys going for offensive rebounds, so I'm worrying more about boxing my guy out and not just grabbing the rebound. The first part of the season I would rebound, I was wide open. Nobody was there. I'd just take it."
The Hack-A-Shaq is a basketball strategy used in the NBA, which is now drawing attention. Players that can not shoot free throws are struggling from this problem. Since certain players can not shoot free throws, the opponent decides to foul the bad free throw shooter on purpose hoping that they will miss at least one shot and then get the ball back. Now there are many problems that come with the issue. The players that can’t shoot get jumped on all the time. To show the referee, the opponent jumps on top of the poor free throw shooter. They could get hurt and players want that to change. Also, the pace of the games become really slow when the strategy is being used. It gets boring for the viewers to watch the same guy miss more free throws. The strategy has been used for a
The upcoming NBA season is what the teams are looking forward to specially the Cleveland Cavaliers who took home the championship title and probably planning to aim for a back-to-back championship. In relation to this matter, Cleveland Cavaliers is on their run in improving their lineup which will possibly push them in “trading” players assumed to be involving Memphis Grizzlies’ Vince Carter.
Don’t look now but JV is on a role, averaging 12.3 points and 12.0 boards over his last seven games, including a quasi-dud performance against Drummond and the Pistons. He should have no such problems on Monday night against the revolving door of a porous Denver frontcourt.
SHOOTING IS IMPORTANT “You can never have enough shooters.” Jeff Van Gundy – Former NBA Coach and Television Analyst Ray Allen learned from his seventh-grade coach that shooting was necessary and that he needed to practice this skill. Becoming a great shooter transformed Allen into a ten-time NBA All-Star, the all-time leader in three-point career makes during the regular season and the playoffs, and accurate shooting will ultimately punch his ticket to Springfield, Massachusetts and the Basketball Hall of Fame. For Allen, the shooting was a twenty-five-year science project that he meticulously worked on daily. He sought to improve his shooting skills constantly throughout his playing career.
The dead eye veteran has been a deadly weapon for Atlanta for years now. Korver had a down year in 2016. He did find his shot in the second round of the playoffs, however it was a line up change that helped him. Korver came off the bench for the first time in a while, and immediately shot light out. Could coach Bud have been foreshadowing on whats to come for Korver? It’s simple Korver hurts the team really bad when he can’t get open shots, and it’s almost like having four players out on the court when Korver is off or getting shutdown. The line up change helped Korver greatly, and we have likely seen the last days of Korver starting here in Atlanta. Coach Bud will most likely use him off the bench as a sixth man type of role next year, as the Hawks cannot afford for him to struggle in a starting role. When he struggles It seems like Hawks do as well. He’s better off coming off the bench for coach Bud as a sniper in the back court. It’ll be interesting to see who could get te starting role over