Why can't Kyle Korver elevate his level of play?

[bird_dirt]

I think if the dude was able to "step up his game" to be a 1 or 2 option and carry a team on his back, then he already would have shown that in his career by now and he would not coincidentally be paid like a 1 or 2 option. Players who have been in the league for a decade and shown an ability to be a 1 or 2 option don't get paid $6 mil. To say he isn't stepping up and not doing what he is fully capable of is to say that up until now he has been slacking off. Korver does not seem like a player who is lax, simply going through the motions and doing enough to coast. He works out there. He knows his limitations and plays the best to his strengths. He's been in the league long enough to know what he can get away with and his ceiling as a player has been reached. Meeks and Jimmer are both young players who still have room to grow and they are showing it as they get more experience playing in the league. They are on the upside swing of their career arches while Korver is on the backside. There's a big difference there. I get what you're saying in a way, in that every player says they need to step up their game when a key player goes down. But there is only so much you can expect from players. All should step up, and not just one singled out. And I would question any player who all of a sudden significantly raises their level of play out of nowhere and wonder why they hadn't been playing like that all along.

[bird_dirt]

Why can't Lou step up his game?Why can't Ayón step up his game?Why can't Teague step up his game?Why can't Schröder step up his game?Why can't Scott step up his game?Why can't DMC step up his game?They all need to, and some have to a degree. And these are all the guys young enough you'd expect to still have potential room for growth.

[AHF]

I think Korver has done 90% of the elevating of his level of play that he is ever going to do. He is an elite sniper with solid shot selection, doesn't embarrass himself on defense, and puts up eh rebounding and passing contributions. He is doing to be shut down if the defense pays close attention to him but will always open up your spacing on the floor regardless. He is an elite niche player which is why he is on the olympic list - because while he can't do much, what he does he does exceptionally well and it is a niche that every team in the league can use.

For this season, I think Northcyde is right that there is some additional 'stepping up' that Korver can do as far as being more aggressive. This season is his career low in usage rate (last season was the previous career low) and so that begs the question of why not put it up a bit more and I do wonder a bit if it is him or the coaching for the reason he is down on usage. These last two seasons are also his career highs for ts%.

That said, his 'elevation' of getting a bit more aggressive is going to be just a minor shift for the team and not anything transformational. He is giving you about what you expect from him in these circumstances with some room for tweaking.

The contrast to Jeff Teague is that you want a transformational shift out of him. He has the elite athleticism to do a lot of different things and he is not at all giving you about what you expect from him in these circumstances lately if you have visions of him ever making a run at the All-Star game or being one of the 3 best players on a Conference Finals level team.

The contrast with Lou Williams is that Williams has been hot garbage this season - posting arguably the worst numbers of his career after several good to very good seasons. His eventual return to form will not be transformational but will be a big boost to the team. Of course, injuries appear to be the culprit in holding him back.

[AHF]

There is a separate question about his contract length and amount. I thought it was a bit too much for too long at the time and have more concerns about the back end of the contract than him not earning his money this year.

[Guest]

There is a separate question about his contract length and amount. I thought it was a bit too much for too long at the time and have more concerns about the back end of the contract than him not earning his money this year.

His contract declines each year. Are you saying you believe Korver will decline faster than his contract or did you not recognize his contract declines in value?

[AHF]

His contract declines each year. Are you saying you believe Korver will decline faster than his contract or did you not recognize his contract declines in value?

It may not be a function of value to $$ ratio if we need another $5.7M to have the space to sign a max contract player or something along those lines. I also think he may decline faster than his contract. Korver may go from defensively subpar today to a disaster at 35. I expect his shooting will sustain well enough to avoid him being worthless. 4 years was more risk than I was excited about but I didn't totally hate the deal since Korver is an elite shooter and shooting tends to age well. The Millsap deal in contrast was a home run if you wanted to take the path Ferry took of going for a middle of the pack playoff seed.

The declining value of the contract was my favorite part of how Ferry did the signing. Once Ferry struck out on a transformative FA this summer, pushing dollars into the 2013-14 year and reducing dollars in later years was smart.